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Vision and Values
The mission of The Porch is to become a group of people who live by faith, are known by love, and are a source of hope.
Mission is why the church exists. We believe that Christ’s death and resurrection are the ultimate act of love and blessing. We have been blessed, not just for ourselves, but for the good of the world, so that all can know God. We offer hope and redemption not just for the life to come, but in this life, to all we come in contact with. The church is a group of people sent out on mission.
Community is what the church is. For a long time the church has been seen as a building with many programs. The church is a community of people who desire to live their lives in the way of Christ. We worship in a large group as the church gathered and live our lives together in smaller groupings as the church dispersed. We value the heart change and growth that occurs when we rub shoulders, pray, celebrate, grieve, eat and serve together.
Fluid is our structure. We are creatures of habit. Change is plain difficult. While it may be true that God never changes we all know our world is constantly changing. We feel the need to learn to move fluidly with these changes. Our structure must always submit to the Spirit.
Creativity is a natural result of Spirituality. We believe the Spirit of God living in us causes us to be creative, and reflect the nature of God. We value and honor this process in all areas of our lives.
Relevance to culture is not an option. We work hard to contextualize the Gospel in an always changing culture. Many of us are tired of being sold anything: cars, phone plans, insurance, religion. . . We actively seek to remain faithful to God first, and to engage, befriend, and help people where they live, not to sell them a product. Jesus healed people, went to their parties, and befriended people that were not “acceptable”. We seek to do the same.
Reproduction is a natural life process. We train, equip, and release leaders to birth new small groups, ministries, and churches.
If you would like to see a formal "doctrinal statement," please visit the C&MA web site here.