Vision & Values

Our Story

Andrew, Celeste, Jake, and Ashley were given a hunger to see God move in their city through street-level teaching, heart-deep worship, family-like community, ministry simplicity, radical generosity, and spirit-empowered ministry. 

Since then God has raised up men and women who are passionate about reaching those who are far from Jesus to come together and give their lives for others. As each of us through the empowering of the Spirit of the risen Jesus chase after our redemptive potential, we see God changing lives all around us. 

In an unlikely place, with unqualified people God broke through and brought faith, love and hope to the people he loves. This is the story of the church. This is our story. 

Vision: His Presence Changes Everything

We believe that where the presence of God is, life change follows. When someone encounters Him they do not leave the same. so our vision is to see the manifest presence of God invade our city in a way that would be undeniable. That our house (zion city church) would become a house for the presence of God and that we would host His presence.

Pillars: The Essential Things Our Church Is Built On

  • Gospel - We only discover who we are, why we are here, and where we are going in the person and work of Jesus.

  • Presence - We were made for the presence of God, all we do is built around being with Him.

  • Power - We have been given the spirit of Jesus to live in our purpose and live out our calling.

  • Formation - We are all following Jesus. What we do shapes who we become therefore we live like Jesus did.

  • Community - We are a family, none of us follow Jesus alone we follow him together.

  • Mission - God’s heart is to reach those who are far from him. As we follow Him he sends us out to witness to who he is. As disciples we make disciples.

Discipleship Framework

Framework from practicingtheway.org

Values

  • Street Level Preaching - We are committed to teaching the Bible in a way that is rich in theology, rooted in context and in a way everyone can understand

  • Heart Deep Worship - We are committed to building a house of prayer and praise. For us this is not a buffer for the sermon but the place God meets his people. We bring our whole heart.

  • Family Like Community - We are committed to being a community that is marked by honesty. A community is only as strong as it is honest. A culture of grace is only possible when we are willing to show who we are and allow Jesus to change us.

  • Ministry Simplicity - We are committed to doing a few things as best we can. We have our Sunday Gatherings & Community Groups. The way we do what we are called to do best is putting our focus here.

  • Radical Generosity - We are committed to being a people who give. Our finances, our resources, our time, our love & our lives.

  • Spirit Filled Ministry - We are committed to abiding in Jesus by walking in the Spirit. Everything we do flows out of The Holy Spirit in us.

Convictions

  • Courageous: Fidelity To Orthodoxy

    Holding to the historic faith with joy, boldness and confidence in a time of widespread theological and ethical compromise in the areas of scripture, sex, money and power.

  • Charismatic: Moving In The Power Of The Spirit

    Embracing the gifts and ministry of the Spirit to equip the church for fruitful missional engagement. We seek to be a people of God’s manifest presence so that may may say “surely God is among them”

  • Contemplative: Practices of Counter Formation

    Practicing a slow-down spirituality in a hyper-connected, over-busy, and exhausted world. Recovering ancient practices of sabbath and contemplative prayer. Living by a rule of life and aiming to becoming desert fathers and mothers in the city.

  • Contextual: Thoughtful Engagement With Secular Culture

    Preaching the Gospel in a way that deconstructs cultural idols and proclaims the Gospel as the fulfillment of all personal and existential longings in our cultural moment.

  • Contending: Seeking Spiritual Awakening

    Praying for an outpouring of the Spirit, that brings revival to the church, and a spiritual awakening in the larger culture.

  • Compassionate: Remembering The Poor

    Living among and serving the poor, overlooked and marginalized in a way that embodies the way of Jesus and seeks to find God in the faces of those on the outside.

  • Communal: Category Defying Relationships

    Cultivating deep, loyal and united relationships across the boundaries of race, class, politics and sex in a world that seeks to polarize and divide based on categories of power and privilege.

  • Consonance: Harmony Between Genders

    Champion the beauty and brilliance of God’s design for men and women working together in the church. Though God created men and women differently they work harmoniously for the advancement of the kingdom. In a time where gender has become a line of hostility by both those who seek to use gender categories to oppress and those who seek to dissolve gender categories altogether, we seek to offer another way of complementary without hierarchy.