Our Vision Frame
Our Mission
Plant, Grow, Flourish
“To plant and grow expressions of the body of Christ that produce flourishing disciples of Jesus.”
You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,
offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1Peter 2:5 NIV
Our Vision Frame
Our Vision
Living Stones will be built upon a firm foundation of the love of God, the grace of Jesus Christ and the empowering of the Holy Spirit as expressed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. God is building us into a spiritual home which welcomes all people, designed to be both strong and alive, a mosaic filled with stones of different colours, shapes and sizes, fitting together to make one exquisite picture. We will expand this beautiful home through prayer, discipleship and training leaders who will serve in the church, the community and the world. Shaped by its relationship with the whole, each unique stone will take its place in God’s masterpiece. We will seek to reflect the joyous kingdom of God in our lives together while reaching out in mission to a hurting and broken world to bring the hope of Jesus Christ; a hope which transforms and heals lives.
As God begins to build us together, we will welcome individuals and existing congregations into this home while also planting and growing new communities of Christian faith. From coast to coast in Canada these unique stones will form regional bodies made up of diverse cultures, peoples, and ways of being the church, networks that will transform the world for Jesus Christ. In this way we are witnessing God create this growing mosaic home.
Our Values
Growing in the Reformed Tradition
We are deeply rooted in the theological and
ecclesiastical traditions of the historic Reformed faith and growing in our appreciation of the
sovereignty of God, the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in
our lives and the authority of the scripture.
Dynamic Creative Ministry
We are local expressions of the Body of Christ that reflect the
diversity of nations, tribes, and languages; are missional and focused on the kingdom of God.
Working from a unified confession of Reformed convictions, our ministries respond to their
unique contexts in new ways with the gospel, being prepared to cooperate with other ministries and churches in building God’s kingdom.
Dynamic Responsive Leadership
We are committed to developing and empowering leaders equipped to spur others on in their walk with Jesus ensuring that these leaders are serving in lean and efficient structures that serve and build up the local congregation. Growing disciples and flourishing churches need faith-filled, vibrant leadership, and we work together to be sure we are enabling all our members to shine with Christ’s light and hold forth His word of grace and new life.
Joy-filled Community
We are marked by celebration and joy in our structures and life together. We extend love and grace to all, seeking to reflect the joy-filled character of Jesus.
Transforming Discipleship
We emphasize growth into the likeness of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of all who are a part of our body. We believe a core part of building flourishing gatherings of the Body of Christ is growing mature disciples of Jesus.
Our Measures
- We will be able to passionately articulate our mission, values and vision.
- We will clearly and winsomely describe the central tenets of the Reformed faith.
- We will place scripture at the centre of our life together, in faithful obedience submitting to its authority, interpreting it in continuity with historic Reformed confessions.
- We will continually discover ways of creatively communicating our mission and vision to the local community.
- We will intentionally form our life together to bring to reality our mission and vision.
- We will champion diversity in a way which allows all people to find a home.
- We will establish prayer as foundational to all our ministry endeavours.
- We will build up our people to send them out as Christ-like servants into the community and world as agents of change.
- We will serve according to our God given spiritual gifts, talents and callings.
- We will embrace risk taking without fear and as a natural and necessary part of developing effective ministry.
- We will regularly assess the effectiveness of our ministries in the local church, engaging only in ministry which is fruitful for building Christ’s Kingdom.
- We will create corporate gatherings of celebration and joy as we share in community and grow in love for God and one another.
- We will treat one another and all we encounter in the spirit of our gracious and loving God.
- We will demonstrate that the gospel of Christ is incredibly good news.
- We will live in hope in the knowledge that God’s saving action is at work among us.
- We will create numerous opportunities for people to be transformed through a deeper knowledge of Scripture and life changing experiences of the Holy Spirit.
- We will form mentoring relationships so that people might grow into spiritual maturity.
- We will be a community in which people experience healing and wholeness in Jesus.
- We will be made new by the work of God’s Spirit enabling us to serve so that others might find new life in Jesus.
- We will cultivate a culture of shared leadership where all people are enabled to influence others for Christ.
- We will identify and train leaders within our local congregations.
- We will actively empower and support leaders as they serve.
- We will delegate leadership responsibilities and authority to trained lay leaders.
- We will align leaders to all areas of ministry to accomplish the mission, vision and strategy of each congregation.
- We will give priority to developing and empowering young leaders.
Our Strategies
- Discipleship
- Leadership training
- Prayer
