We Are
A Jesus Church
We exist to join God in the renewal of all things
by becoming a unified, Spirit-filled family that follows the way of Jesus.
Core values
PASSIONATE
WORSHIPERS
We are a family who worships together in genuine, wholehearted devotion to God.
(Ps. 95v1-6; Is. 12v5; Lk. 4v8; Jn. 4v24; Rom. 12v1; Heb. 12v28, 13v15)
IN PROCESS
DISCIPLES
We are disciples who are being transformed to be more like Jesus as we learn, live, and love God’s word.
(Dt. 8v3; Jsh. 1v8; Ps. 1, 119v11; Jn. 17v17; Rom. 12v2; 2 Tim. 3v16; Heb. 4v12; Jm. 1v21-22; 1 Pt. 1v23)
FAMILY
OF SERVANTS
We are a family committed to loving each other and expressing that love through sacrificial service to one another.
(Jn. 3v16, 13v34-35, 15v12 & v17; Rom. 12v10, & v16, 13v8; Gal. 5v13, 6v2; Eph. 4v2, v16, v32 and 5v21; Heb. 10v25)
PURPOSE
& MISSION
We are missionaries with a passion for the lost, on mission to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples everywhere.
(Mt. 9v37-38, 28v19-20; Mk. 16v15; Lk. 19v10; Jn. 20v21; Ac. 1v8; 2 Cor. 5v20; 2 Tim. 2v2)
PRAYER
& PRESENCE
We are disciples who pray, depending on the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
(Jr. 33v3; Mt. 7v7-8; Ac. 1:v8; Eph. 3v20; Jm. 5v16-18)
JUSTICE
& COMPASSION
We are disciples who share God’s concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men and women from every kind of oppression.
(Is. 58v6-12; Mc. 6v8; Mt. 5v1-7 & v28; Lk. 4v18; 21v1-4; Gal. 2v10; 1 Tim. 6v8; Jm. 1v22-27)
ASPIRATIONS & IMPERATIVES
THE WORD
Who we are and all that we do is rooted in the living word of God. Spirit-filled teaching and preaching of God’s word results in the fruit of confession, repentance, life transformation, spiritual growth, worship, disciple-making, and equipping each other for the work of the ministry.
WORSHIP
We believe that worship through music is one of the most engaging ways in which we commune with God. For worship to be authentic and wholehearted it must be a God-centered, truth-grounded, Spirit-led, surrendered response to who God is and what He is doing. As we worship together in our gatherings, we posture ourselves to engage with the Holy Spirit, hear the teaching of scripture, and align ourselves with God's heart.
BREAD & CUP
Our gatherings culminate in remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and rejoicing in His victory over death. We share the Lord’s Supper every week, coming to the tables to take the bread and the cup together as a family.
PRAYER
We believe that prayer is central to what God is doing in our church and in the world. God has invited us to partner in His restorative plan through prayer, to the Father through the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus. Practically, we create space in gatherings and ministries to seek and respond to Him through prayer.
SPIRIT-LED
We are disciples that aspire to be filled and led by the Holy Spirit, expecting to hear from the Him as we follow Jesus. We equip our people to know God's voice and respond to the Holy Spirit. This commitment to seeking and responding is integral at Westside.
DISCIPLESHIP
Our desire is that we will be a multi-generational, multi-cultural church that reaches all people, with an emphasis on raising up the next generation to faithfully follow and represent Jesus.
SIMPLICITY
We want to be a church focused on the few most important things, not on many things. Though we are a relatively large church, we purposely do not multiply ministries so that people have time and energy to reach out to their non-believing friends and neighbors.
GENEROSITY
In our giving, we want to reflect our generous God, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. We dream of becoming a church marked by radical generosity. A significant portion of every dollar goes directly to proclaiming the Gospel, church planting, and supporting justice work both globally and locally.
HOSPITALITY
We have a welcoming Savior who taught us to be a welcoming people who practice radical hospitality. Our goal is that everyone who walks through our doors will feel seen and known. We want to care for the people of our church spiritually, physically, emotionally, relationally and financially.
CHRISTIAN SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
Because God is both the Creator and the Judge of all people, we should share his concern for justice and reconciliation and for the liberation of men and women from oppression. Since both men and women are made in the image of God, every person has an intrinsic dignity that should be respected and served.
MISSIONAL LIVING
We aim to embody the life of Jesus to reach the lost by equipping and mobilizing our community to multiply the kingdom. We have a rich history and commitment to church planting and partnering with local churches and organizations in our community and throughout the world. We empower and equip our church to reach the lost through their lives as an extension of Christ's love for all people.
LIFE TOGETHER
The primary New Testament metaphor to describe the church is that of a body. We believe that the fullness of our connection with the Head of the church Jesus Christ can only be fully experienced and expressed as we live in relationship with one another loving, serving and sharing life together. We believe that every man, woman and child as Image Bearers of God bring a beautiful and unique expression of Jesus and His Kingdom to the life of the local church. Therefore, we seek to welcome and empower every believer in using their God given gifts and talents for the benefit and joy of God's people.
GOVERNANCE & LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE
We are an Elder led church with staff who carry out the work of day-to-day operations and ministries.
DOCTRINAL BELIEFS
A summary of our key beliefs is stated below, drawn largely from The Lausanne Covenant, which we feel strongly aligned with.
We believe in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and are committed to living out his teachings in the world.
THE PURPOSE
OF GOD
We affirm our belief in the one eternal God, Creator, and Lord of the world, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who governs all things according to the purpose of his will. He has been calling out from the world a people for himself, and sending his people back into the world to be his servants and his witnesses, for the extension of his kingdom, the building up of Christ’s body, and the glory of his name.
Mt. 28v19; Jn 10v30; Eph. 4v4-6
THE AUTHORITY & POWER OF THE
HOLY BIBLE
We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness, and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God, without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
1 Thes. 2v13; 2 Tim. 3v15-17
THE UNIQUENESS
& UNIVERSALITY OF
JESUS CHRIST
We affirm that there is only one Savior and only one gospel, although there is a wide diversity of evangelistic approaches. We recognize that everyone has some knowledge of God through his general revelation in nature. But we deny that this can save, for people suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. Jesus Christ, being himself the only God-man, who gave himself as the only ransom for sinners, is the only mediator between God and people. There is no other name by which we must be saved.
Mt. 1v23; Jn. 1v1-4 and 1v29; Ac. 1v11, 2v22-24; Rom. 8v34; 1 Cor. 15v3-4; 2 Cor. 5v21; Php. 2v5-11; Heb. 1v1-4, 4v15.
SALVATION
We believe that we are saved by grace on the basis of the redemption of Jesus, the sacrifice he made upon the cross and his resurrection; and not on the basis of human effort or merit.
Jn. 1v12; Eph. 1v7, 2v8-10; 1 Pt. 1v18-19
THE NATURE OF
EVANGELISM
To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures and that as the reigning Lord, he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gifts of the Spirit to all who repent and believe. Our Christian presence in the world is indispensable to evangelism, and it includes the kind of dialogue whose purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism itself is the proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ as Savior and Lord, with a view of persuading people to come to him personally and so be reconciled to God.
Mt. 28v18-20; Ac. 1v8; Rom. 10v9-15; 1 Pt. 3v15
CHRISTIAN SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
We affirm that God is both the Creator and the Judge of all people. We therefore should share his concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men and women from every kind of oppression. Because men and women are made in the image of God, every person, regardless of race, religion, color, culture, class, sex, or age, has an intrinsic dignity; therefore, he or she should be respected and served, not exploited.
Is. 58v6–12; 61v1; Mt. 5v1–7v28, 28v18–20; Lk. 4v18, 21v1–4; Gal. 2v10; 1 Tim. 6v8
SPIRITUAL
CONFLICT
We believe that we are engaged in constant spiritual warfare with the principalities and powers of evil, which are seeking to overthrow the Church and frustrate its task of world evangelization. We know our need to equip ourselves with God’s armor and to fight this battle with the spiritual weapons of truth and prayer. For we detect the activity of our enemy, not only in false ideologies outside the Church but also inside it in false gospels which twist Scripture and put people in the place of God. We need both watchfulness and discernment to safeguard the biblical gospel.
Eph. 6v10-18; Mt. 4v1-11; Ac. 19v13-16
THE POWER OF
THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father sent his Spirit to bear witness to his Son; without his witness ours is futile. Conviction of sin, faith in Christ, new birth, and Christian growth are all his work. Further, the Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit; thus evangelism should arise spontaneously from a Spirit-filled church.
Jn. 3v5-8; Ac. 1v8, 4v31; Rom. 8v9; 1 Cor. 2v14; Gal. 5v16-18; Eph. 6v12; Col. 2v6-10
THE RETURN OF
JESUS CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly, in power and glory, to consummate his salvation and his judgment. This promise of his coming is a further spur to our evangelism, for we remember his words that the gospel must first be preached to all nations.
Mt. 16v27; Ac. 1v11; Rev. 19v11-16, 20v11-15
THE SANCTITY OF
HUMAN LIFE
We believe that all human life is sacred and created by God in His image. Human life is of inestimable worth in all its dimensions, including pre-born babies, the aged, the physically or mentally challenged, and every other stage or condition from conception through natural death. We are therefore called to defend, protect, and value all human life.
Ps. 139; Ps. 139v13; Is. 49v1; Jr. 1v5; Mt. 22v37-39; Rom. 12v20-21; Gal. 6v10
GENDER,
SEXUALITY,
& MARRIAGE
We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female. These two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God. (Genesis 1v26-27) Rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person. We believe that the term “marriage” has only one meaning: the uniting of one natural-born man and one natural-born woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture (Genesis 2v18-25). We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman who are married to each other. (1 Corinthians 6v18; 7v2-5; Hebrews 13v4). We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.
Mt. 15v18-20; 1 Cor. 6v9-10
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