The Church has an ultimate mission and vision given to us by Jesus: to bring glory to God as we seek to fulfill the great commission and live out the great commandment.
“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
“‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
We seek to be obedient to these realities in our city, Muncie, IN. And to do that we have developed the following vision, mission and values.
VISION:
City Hope Fellowship is a multicultural worshiping community in Muncie, IN. We are a diverse people passionate about the hope found in Jesus. And we seek to share that good news through relational evangelism, radical acts of justice and mercy, and the multiplying of Gospel-centered churches.
MISSION:
At City Hope Fellowship we seek to be a diverse people saved by Jesus, centered on Jesus, and sent by Jesus to extend the hope and fellowship of God to our city.
Here is a sermon series walking through our mission statement:
Values:
Jesus-Centered and Holy Spirit Dependent
We are a people formed by the work of the Triune God. This means we are a people who are focused on the person and work of Jesus Christ because we believe that God has definitively revealed himself in the person of His Son Jesus. Because of his life, death, and resurrection we can have a relationship with God through faith in Jesus and by the work of the Holy Spirit. Everything we do at City Hope Fellowship will seek to bring glory to God the Father as we center on Jesus and depend on the Holy Spirit. To be dependent on the Holy Spirit means to be firmly rooted in the Bible, the perfect Word of God, which the Holy Spirit himself inspired. We will focus our attention on understanding, knowing, and living the Bible because we believe that it is through these ancient words that God speaks to us today. City Hope Fellowship will be shaped by the Bible, not our favorite section of it, but the whole Bible. And we will seek earnestly to apply it in relevant ways to our lives today.
Reconciling People to God and To One Another
The whole mission of the church can be summarized as reconciling people to God and to one another. We are born into this world as rebels that oppose the King of the Universe. But God has made a way for us to be reconciled to himself through Jesus Christ. And when our relationship with God is restored, our relationship with others can be restored as well. We will seek to be a multicultural worshiping community, allowing the truth of the gospel to overcome all racial, ethnic, socio-economic, political, and generational barriers as we pursue the unity of the church in the diversity of our community.
Serving our City and Seeking the City that is to Come
We love Muncie and believe that God has called us to seek the good of this great city. We want to serve and love our community through radical acts of mercy and justice so that the lives of all the citizens of Muncie flourish. We will do this as we hold out the hope of the gospel seeking to extend the Kingdom of God through our proclamation of Jesus the King, and through the planting of more gospel-centered churches in our city, region and world. We serve knowing that this is not our home, but we are sojourners, waiting for the blessed return of King Jesus and the city that is to come.
Living in Authentic Community and Committed to Biblical Holiness
Life is messy. We are messy. And we want to be honest about our mess. City Hope Fellowship is a church where you come as you are but leave as God makes you. This means we want to be an authentic community sharing our joys, sorrows, concerns, and celebrations together. This is especially important as we pursue unity as a church in the diversity of our community. At City Hope Fellowship you can be authentically you as we are together conformed to the image of Jesus. This means that we are also committed to living lives of repentance and to the biblical standards for holiness in all areas of life. God has given us these standards in order to make us a community in which all life flourishes. We will be in relentless pursuit of transformation that we may become more and more like our savior, King Jesus.
Here is a sermon series unpacking what we mean in more detail with each of these values: