What Does a Mission Outpost of the Kingdom of God Look Like?

Central Christian Church is “a mission outpost of the Kingdom of God.” We are not a religious club. We are a mission community in a mission environment. We have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation in a society full of alienated, isolated, fragmented people who need Christ’s healing grace. We are to be a community that is a microcosm or miniature preview of the Kingdom of God. We are an alternate society to the broken world that is passing away. This does not mean we are perfect or better than others, only that we are called by grace and faith to begin living now the Kingdom of God that has been promised at the culmination of human history. We are the advance guard of that Kingdom, a sign of the reality of its hope. We are an alternative for those who have been wounded by the broken world, a community in which they can find acceptance, love and healing.

• We are an urban ministry relating to the city, its institutions, its people, its energy, its needs, its opportunities.
• We are a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic ministry demonstrating the oneness of Christ in our life together with people of the cultural and ethnic spectrum of our neighbors.
• We are a multi-generational ministry, where people of different ages and different situations support and encourage, learn and benefit from each other. While we will not be the “family church” of the suburbs, we will need to develop strong ministries with parents and their children and youth as well as married couples and single adults. For families with children to join us will require an overtly welcoming atmosphere for children where they feel the adults are glad they are there with all their messiness and noise, where they go home telling their parents they had fun at church.
• All seekers: children, youth and adults are welcome at Central Christian Church.
• Central Christian Church features the arts as a way of expressing our worship, our discipleship, and which can and should be a feature of our evangelism. The Westside Players and the Central Academy are tools for this mission.
• As people build community and pursue spiritual formation, they need small group environments in which these relationships can flourish. Training and fostering self-replicating groups that nurture members make connecting places for new people will offer opportunities for unchurched and dechurched people to begin their journey toward Jesus.
• To mobilize the congregation for this mission means becoming a church in which all members know and use their spiritual gifts for a ministry for which they feel a passionate call from God which contributes to the vision and mission of the church. Structure should be as simple and flexible as possible to support, encourage and resource these ministries.
• We are a spiritual shelter offering refuge and respite for pilgrims, wanderers, wounded, dreamers, broken and bruised for gathering of Jesus Christ’s body, which experience the healing freedom, power, peace, and presence of God.
• People come to observe, find rest, and relationship in this dynamic Christian Community called Central Christian Church.
• Our church meets in many locations and through different venues.
• Many enjoy close participation in a Bible fellowship group, which may meet in homes, classrooms or restaurants.
• Some seek inner accountability and guidance through the spiritual director’s program or small groups.
• Worship opportunities incorporate ancient and new Christian forms of worship; which help us reflect on and express unchanging truths about God.
• God’s people are encouraged to offer and develop their talents to serve through the various art and media forms, like music and theatre painting, and writing.
• Some are learning to apply their creativity to new technologies and audiences found in developing multimedia.
• And still, many have found great reward, as they choose to make immediate improvements to this world, by being involved, first hand in ongoing ministries, such as restoring homes, helping cancer patients, providing food for the poor, working with refugees, mentoring new business owners and young people.