The call to be a Christian is a call to be a disciple of Jesus, which means being a follower of Jesus and entails a recognition of his Lordship over all areas of our lives.  There are no 1st person personal pronouns in the Kingdom of God.  Once you are a follower of Jesus, there is no "I, me or mine."  An awareness of the Lordship of Christ means that all of who we are comes under his authority and is at his call.  The new pronouns of the Kingdom of God are "we, us, and ours."  This being said, we are a community that is learning to conform our lives and find life in his mission, in his agenda not only for our lives but for this entire world.  This means that we seek to live out our faith with all our resources and to find joy in seeking to yield ourselves in an ever-increasing way to his mission.  His mission calls us to look at life with new eyes, to ask, "How may God be glorified in this place?"  

We seek to live out his mission with our work.  God made work as a good gift, but sin turns work into either a locus of personal idolatry or drudgery.  We seek to find ways to submit our work lives to Christ and learn new ways of working for his glory in all types of work.

We see to live out his mission with our money.  Americans radically misunderstand money.  We abuse money when we see everything for sale, we underestimate it when we think it has no hold on us.  Being a disciple means that money needs a radical re-working in our lives.  Jesus is our great treasure.  We see how God has called us to learn to think of Jesus in this way:  "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for yoursakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."  We call all followers to learn new patterns of giving, of saving, of investing in ways that honor Christ.  We make money an issue of personal discipleship and growth.

We seek to live out his mission in mercy and justice.  True Christian mercy is not charity: it is rooted in a compassion that makes us humble, as we serve not out of compulsion or duty, nor out of guilt. Our orientation is rooted in the fact that we are recipients of God’s liberating work in Jesus Christ, in spite of the fact that we’ve done nothing to deserve this.

We seek to live out his mission by calling others to find joy and life in Christ.  God has given us a ministry of reconciliation, calling others to find the deep freedom in Christ that we ourselves have discovered.  We therefore believe that evangelism is both deed and word--showing the reality of God and his power in our lives; speaking of the joy that we have discovered in him.

We love Philadelphia. We love this city and constantly ask ourselves — “What does it mean to live a life of love here and now as a community?” We promote opportunities to serve and help.

We dream. We don’t just love Philadelphia and Philadelphians for what they are now, but hope to be a part of what this city could become.