The Implications of Our Vision for Our Church

• To be a hospitable church is to go beyond being friendly or welcoming. It is to take initiative to invite and include new people and to make a point of creating an atmosphere and culture built around helping new people feel included, wanted, and comfortable, like they belong.
• To be the hands of Jesus is to be incarnational in ministry by direct involvement in personal relationships and participation in ministry, not just giving money or running programs. Our service is to meet the practical needs of people in the name of Jesus and as an expression of Jesus’ love and presence. This means developing an outward directed culture that sees our purpose in serving others rather than ourselves.
• Connecting with our neighbors near to the church’s campus is key to our future. As we build a solid base and are meeting the needs of people who live in neighborhoods for whom our campus could be called central (Park Cities, near North Dallas, Oak Lawn, Lemmon Avenue corridor, Inwood Road corridor, Lovers Lane corridor, Marsh Lane corridor), we will attract people from elsewhere in the Metroplex. In this regard we see ourselves as a missionary community in a mission field. Our mission is to the unchurched and dechurched people around us. As we are effective with them, we will get our share of church people who move into the area, etc. But we are not in the business of recruiting members from other congregations.
• To serve our near neighbors we intend to be a neighborhood community center where community events are held, where neighbors meet each other and work together, where neighbors would think to go first for help in improving the neighborhood, where neighbors get entertainment, recreation, education and enrichment activities and events and resources provided by or through the church.
• We also have a mission to our neighbors far as part of our involvement in the global mission of the Church. Some of these more distant neighbors will be here in the Dallas Metroplex; some may commute to become part of our community. Others will be those we serve through ministries and mission efforts we support here in the Metroplex (North Texas Area, North Dallas Shared Ministries, etc.) Our neighbors far also include those who are in Texas or the United States with whom we share a mission partnership. Our primary involvement there is Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries as well as some of the causes we support through the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Homeland Missions. Our neighbors far takes us around the world with the global mission of the Church which we express through the Global Mission of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). We have a specific focus on Thailand and Burma as the parts of the world God has called us to treat as our special neighbors through our relationship with the Eubank family.
• As we invite our neighbors to a life of faith in Jesus Christ we are an evangelizing congregation. This is not just a question of recruiting members for Central Christian Church but of introducing people to Jesus.
• We also invite our neighbors into our congregation. Yes, without embarrassment, we invite people to become part of this community. Some who meet Jesus through Central Christian Church may end up in other congregations, but we need to have such a level of confidence of Christ’s presence with us, that we can be sure their relationship with Jesus will grow in the life of our congregation. People are looking for authentic community and trustworthy relationships. This is not institutional recruitment but real evangelism essential to helping people grow in their faith relationships with Jesus.
• In our congregation, we are inviting people to a shared pursuit of Christian spirituality. People have a spiritual hunger. We are offering Christian spirituality as God’s way of satisfying that hunger. This is a distinctly Christian spirituality. Central Christian Church can become an urban Christian spirituality center. The prayer garden and chapel available for daily prayer. We offer the community seminars, workshops and retreats for Christians and seekers, training some lay spiritual companions and offering spiritual formation groups, both for our own members as well as for seekers. We desire Central Christian Church to be known as a community of people who know Jesus Christ intimately, who pray incessantly and are saturated with God’s Word.