Our Values
Vital Worship
We participate in God’s beautiful, good and true story as we ascribe ultimate value and allegiance to the triune God who captivates, animates and satisfies the thirsts of our hearts. We welcome both the mature and the unchurched or questioning, designing services that are intelligible to those near or far from God through our hospitable services.
Contrast community
As the Aspen represents a contrast tree in the south, we will be ambassadors of a distinctive, counter-cultural community of exiles on mission where honesty, honor and joy offer a foretaste of the inbreaking resurrection life of the kingdom of God and the hope of new creation.
Relational Wholeness
We emphasize life together marked by an atmosphere of grace, safety and time where truth, transparency and loving care invite outsiders into the life of the body of Christ. We are learning the relational arts of kindness, empathy, understanding, listening and navigating healthy conflict with forgiveness and peacemaking.
Virtue Formation
Formation describes the organic and intentional process of maturing into the image of Christ by the power of the Spirit of the living God. We believe the Spirit creates deep change that produces flourishing fruitfulness.
Cultural Renewal
We will help our congregation integrate faith, work and all of our daily lives. In the marketplace all our work matters to God and God matters to all our work. Likewise, our home lives emphasize an opportunity for God to nurture and bless. The gospel has implications on how we pursue our vocations and callings in all walks of life. We see these as wonderful, significant and strategic realms for discipleship and mission.
Outward Facing
We will display an apologetic sensitivity to not yet Christians as we engage in missionary encounters. We have an invested partnership with our city’s YMCA and plan to spread the gospel by our intention to be a church planting church. Being outward facing helps us realize that many skeptics and searchers need to be met where they are, rather than where we expect them to be as we make disciples in our city.