THIS IS US
This is an exciting new season for Mountain View Church! It took a long time to get here. Our vision to be “home for the wanderer, rest for the weary” was ironically realized for us as we ended our wandering and got to catch our breath this summer in our new home. Now we are inviting the community around us to experience our church during our grand opening series.
Starting Sunday, this five-week Grand Opening series will be a peak behind the scenes into who we are and why we do things the way we do at Mountain View. You will hear stories of life change and messages about the “why” and “how” behind “what” we do.
The WHAT is pretty standard.
All churches do the same kind of things. WHAT they do is in some way the great commandment (loving God and people) and the great commission (making disciples of all nations). HOW they do what they do differs greatly. The controlling narrative of the leaders shapes the WHY and forms the theological perspective. The culture is experienced in HOW things are done.
Our vision and values are the WHY and HOW of Mountain View.
This is WHY.
Home for the wanderer. Rest for the weary.
The tension of opposites in our vision and the story behind it is our heart and what people often feel. It’s WHY we do what we do and it informs how too.
“A Father had two sons” (Luke 15:11) One wandered far, the other was weary of “slaving” at home. Both missed the Father’s heart. The Father loved them both where they were at. He neither forced his love nor withheld it. He waited for one to come back and he went out after the other one. Both sons were loved and welcomed. The Father’s “way of being” with his sons informs our leadership and the kind of “home” that respects where people are at in the process and feels welcoming to wanderer and weary alike.
NOTE: A church with a different WHY would create a different culture: i.e. turning seekers into fully devoted followers or “saving the lost” or “teaching the Bible” or “confronting our culture with the truth” or “raising a generation of revivalists”. The stories we tell shape the culture of our churches.
This is HOW
The HOW is as important and it also holds opposites in tension. The individual and the world. God and people. Inner and societal transformation. It’s all process and not transaction.
Authenticity with self. Intimacy with God. Love for each person. The Restoration of all things.
Authenticity means we are comfortable with people being in process and we will take honest inquiry over perfect certainty any day.
Intimacy keeps the focus of our teaching, worship and leadership on connection to God and not “results” or “getting it right”.
Love for each person reminds us that people are images of God and not targets, demographics or labels.
The Restoration of all things keeps our vision bigger and broader than ourselves or our church or even our generation.
Transformation of people into the image of God they were designed to be is an inside out process. Real restoration in our world will not happen until we love the person in front of us. Only intimacy with God will cultivate true love in our hearts for the people God loves. You can’t develop intimacy with God unless you’re willing to start authentically where you are. Process matters. How matters.
This is US
Invite your friends and neighbors to come and experience our church. People have seen us building our building. They have heard about our church. Now invite them to experience us. We are the church. This building is our home. This is not just a new place in town. This is us.