Every culture has values that define it. The kingdom of God is no different. It has a distinct culture that is shaped by the nature and character of God. Kingdom culture is diametrically opposed to the culture of our fallen world.
The church is a community of people redeemed by God to embody the values of His kingdom for the world to see. We are God’s redemptive agents in the earth.
Jesus commanded us to teach the same things that he commanded. What did Jesus say was the sum of all His commands? He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
So local churches are made up of people who have been redeemed by God to love God and love one another. We are forgiven and justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ who lived a sinless life and died a substitutionary death on the cross. God reconciled us to Himself through the death of His son. Our highest call is to love him.
He has graciously rescued us so that we would be devoted to, fulfilled in, satisfied by, and totally dependent upon Him and Him alone.
Through our reconciliation to God, we are reconciled to one another, to love and serve one another as Christ dwells in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. His design for us is to freely give the same love, grace, and mercy that has been freely given to us in Christ. This reconciliation breaks down every wall of race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status that once separated us so that we can live together in genuine community. Galatians 3:27-28 says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
His design for us is to freely give the same love, grace, and mercy that has been freely given to us in Christ.
The church at Antioch is a great example. Acts 13:1-3 says, “Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” If you take a close look at the names you’ll see that this church was very diverse.
Scripture gives us the end state in Revelation chapter seven. It says, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” Relevant Life Church is a local body that is to be a foretaste of John’s vision in Revelation in the here and now.
We are committed to being a multiethnic church that embraces and celebrates our ethnic and cultural distinctions.
We are not only multiethnic, we are multigenerational. That means that we are made up of people who are at different stages in life. We want to avoid being the cool hip church that is nothing more than an advanced youth group. We need older believers who have wisdom as well as younger believers. Our church is a home for people of all ages and stages of life. We are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. Relevant Life Church is a faith family not an institution.
By God’s grace we want to grow to be a Christ-centered kingdom-focused community who loves God and loves our neighbor.