New Vision and Core Values

May 28, 2018
 / 
robert

I'm very excited to share our new vision and core values with you, for King's Cross Church. We felt the need to revamp and refocus our vision, after our initial first 5 years as a church plant, having now been established as a particular church in our Presbytery. 

My hope and prayer is that this vision statement and core values will serve our church in the specific and unique calling God has placed upon our growing church, here in Flushing. During our leaders' retreat, we mapped out some of how this would breath new life into how we think about discipleship ministry, community groups, membership classes and preaching. 

This Fall, I am setting aside a special period in our Sunday Sermon Series to focus on each of these values specifically. During the rest of this year, our elders and pastoral staff will be working hard with our leaders to integrate this into our leadership culture. 

I’d like to encourage you to read and understand the vision and values. Take a moment tonight to pray over our church with this vision--that this would unite our efforts to pursue kingdom life together. 

-Robert 


VISION STATEMENT

King’s Cross Church is
a community of broken people
following Jesus
in the story of how he is renewing
our neighborhood and our lives.

Broken people... following Jesus. 

We may rightly say that this is at the heart of what being a Christian is about. It's also at the heart of our vision statement. Our vision statement tells us not only who we are, but what we are striving together towards. Here's the breakdown of why every part of this matters to us:
 

A COMMUNITY. The concept of communal life of the church encompasses both our gathering to worship the Triune God both in formal [Sunday] worship and informal [community groups, praise and prayer nights, etc.] worship. It also encompasses our scattering, which takes our kingdom life outside the spaces we worship together in, and understands that the life of the church calls us to be faithfully present in all of life.

BROKEN PEOPLE. Jesus made it clear why he had come to live among us when he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). By extension, we understand the Church exists to continue that same inviting call to broken sinners who are desperately in need of God’s reconciling grace. This means that we are not about becoming “better” people, but rather, people who rely on and are filled with the only one who was good, the Lord Jesus Christ.

FOLLOWING JESUS. We believe that spiritual growth happens when people simultaneously grasp the depth of their own brokenness and the height of God’s love and grace for them in Jesus. This is the re-creative power of the gospel: to turn us from our false-gods, and receive and embrace the incredible adoption we have, as God’s children and heirs of his kingdom. (Romans 8:16-17)

We also understand that following Jesus means we are free to pursue others good and wellbeing. Our lives take on the contours of his life as we grow in our relationship with him, which means we will be growing in a deeper desire and capacity to dwell with others, for the sake of pursuing their good and flourishing.

THE STORY OF HOW HE IS RENEWING OUR NEIGHBORHOOD AND OUR LIVES. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is literally the most beautiful and good news we could imagine; and like all news there is a story of how this news comes to us. Scripture tells us that we are caught up in the grand story of Creation, The Fall, Redemption, and Restoration.

Because of the fall, sin brought all of God’s good creation under what Ecclesiastes puts so well, “...there is nothing new under the sun.” We live in a world crying out in “sackcloth and ashes,”--biblical imagery of decay and corruption. The gospel is such good news because it tells us, upon the finished work of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection--Jesus has begun to make “all things new,” in a world where sin has made all things old.

Therefore our role in the story is to live a missional life--It means we are seeking to see the kingdom of God changing and transforming our Flushing neighborhood, block by block, and our lives, day by day, as we dwell together.*


Core Values

Core values describe how we will embody our vision and help shape how we behave as a church.

REDISCOVERING THE GOSPEL | proclamation

The gospel message tells us that God so loved his fallen creation that he sent his one and only son, Jesus, to renew all things through his kingdom. We believe the gospel is not merely how we receive grace and pardon for our sins, but in fact, the gospel is at the heart of how we experience the love and person of Jesus. Through the gospel, we are drawn together as a family. It is in this life of the family that we most deeply experience the power of the gospel at work in our lives.

REDEFINING THE GOOD LIFE | transformation

As we experience the deep heart-work of being made more like Jesus, we are given new desires, new dreams, and a new heart. Our world is redefined by who God is and what he has done for us which gives a completely new way of seeing the things we get our deepest identity and meaning and purpose from.

REFLECTING OUR NEIGHBORS | incarnation

Jesus entered into our world and shared all of life with us. Therefore, we desire to live and dwell with others in the same way. This means we want to be so embedded in our neighborhood that it colors the way we worship and live. It also means that we worship and cultivate our faith in ways that are relevant and relatable to neighbors and non-christians.

REIMAGINING FLUSHING | restoration

We want to be able to reimagine Flushing in light of God’s story, understanding what peace and flourishing of God’s kingdom would look like, here on earth. This means we want to foster a genuine appreciation for the ways God is already at work in our neighborhood. It also means we are called to address the brokenness, injustice, and oppression through intercessory prayer, engaging in mercy, (meeting basic needs,) and doing justice, (generous sharing of our resources and voice for our others’ good.)

REPLICATING CHURCH | multiplication

Whether in discipleship relationships, community groups, or raising up leaders, we believe a sign of true growth and flourishing is through multiplying. This also applies to how we envision our church growing, as, we would rather grow outward, seeking to plant like-minded churches to further share the gospel with those yet unreached in our city.


*You might wonder how this could apply to those of us who live outside of Flushing? When we say, "the story of how he is renewing our neighborhood and our lives," we can embrace the fact that as a church, we have corporately been given a goal, a vision for the kingdom of God to further manifest itself in Flushing, and at the same time, recognize that God has given us individual callings--"our lives"--meaning, where we work, where we live, etc., we have individual callings to pursue the kingdom of God there, without denying our corporate calling, to love and serve Flushing's good, too. 

King’s Cross Church is a church of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)
For questions and information, please contact info@kingscrossnyc.org.