We are no longer meeting together for worship gatherings, and are bringing the Encounter Church ministry to a close. Click here to read more. |
For Encounter, our desire need to keep things simple. It is our intention to make a huge impact by staying focused on who God has called us to be and what He's called us to do. That is why we are a "burning bush, it is why we think "moving forward" is so important, and it is why everything we do is designed to help people Encounter, Experience, and Engage.
Read More:
About our MISSION – Our Ultimate Goal
About our STRATEGY — Our Relational Approach
Our VISION is to be something out of the ordinary that catches people's attention so they can encounter God.
Connected to the image of Moses' burning bush experience in Exodus 3, we want to be something that is different, something that is extraordinary, that catches the attention of a city and a people attention so they can hear the voice of God.We want to remove as many obstacles, distractions, and barriers as we can so that this generation and beyond can experience an authentic, life-changing encounter with Jesus.
More specifically, we have found that people tend to like Jesus but not the church. They have been turned off or wounded by traditional models of "doing church." Their view of what the Church and what following Jesus is supposed to be has been skewed by many things — but often by a lifeless, passionless, empty representation of faith that is judgmental, self-righteous, and downright boring.
In a broad sense, we envision a dangerous church, an assembly, a gathering, a faith community, a group of people, who are drawn together to pursue what it means to boldly follow Jesus beyond Sunday, and in the missional context of real life in our community.
Our MISSION is to see people moving forward toward a growing relationship with Jesus.
Our mission comes from Jesus' parting words from Matthew 28, "Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."Basically, as we live our lives, we are to relationally connect with people in such a way that it encourages an encounter with Jesus.
After that encounter, we want to see people moving forward in their spiritual journey. No matter where someone is spiritually - skeptic, new believer, returning to the faith, growing believer - we want them to be moving forward in their faith relationship with Jesus Christ.
That's because we see discipleship not as a goal to achieve, not as list of items to check off until we have reached a certain point — but discipleship is a process of becoming more and more intimate with Jesus Christ.
Our STRATEGY is to create opportunities where people are encouraged and equipped to encounter God, experience community, and engage culture.
Jesus said in Matthew 22, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."
It sounds simple, but Jesus is basically saying that loving God and loving your neighbor is what everything comes down to. Everything that has been written in the scriptures is summed up in relationships. "Loving God" and "loving others" is evidence of a moving forward in our faith relationship with Jesus.
We've defined "loving God" as developing an intimacy with Him. We see the inward focus of "loving our neighbor" as doing life together in discipleship and accountability with others connected with Encounter. We see the outward focus of "loving our neighbor" as engaging and transforming our culture by investing our lives into others— both individuals and organizations in our community.
In everything we do, we will intentionally pursue these three essential relationships.
 ENCOUNTER GOD (e1)Growing faith through intimacy with Jesus(Relationship with God) |
 EXPERIENCE COMMUNITY (e2)Developing authentic relationships by doing life together(Relationships with others of faith) |
 ENGAGE CULTURE (e3)Transforming culture by investing in trust relationships(Relationships with others in the community) |
Our core values form our unique DNA and culture - Check them out here.
