Vision and Values

Life

God wants to give us life—but we can only receive this life if we spend time with him, receiving from him. We believe that the best conduits of God’s life are the core practices of Christianity: spending time reading and meditating on his word to us, the Bible; confessing our sins and sharing our struggles with each other; and praying for people who don’t know Jesus to discover his life. We choose to practice these things often, on our own, and with others in our community.

John 10:10, John 15, James 5:16, Psalm 119:97, Matthew 9:37-38, Colossians 4:3-6

Kingdom

The kingdom of God is available now. We want to be able to recognize the kingdom as it breaks through into this world, and we want to participate with God in bringing his kingdom into all aspects of our life by learning to love God, pursuing personal wholeness, healing and transformation, loving each other, and serving our world. The signs of the kingdom (from the book of Isaiah) are: healing; return from exile; God’s presence as Spirit or light; joy; deliverance/salvation; peace; righteousness/justice.

Mark 1:14-15, Ephesians 4:1-6, Philippians 1:27

Story

Every day as we walk through the city we are being deeply formed by our world. Media, marketing, and many other forces have a significant impact in shaping our vision and values. When we gather for Christian worship, it gives us an opportunity to reframe our vision and reform our hearts into the kinds of people God would have us to be. We see our weekend worship gatherings as counter-vision and counter-formation to renew our minds and hearts for the kingdom of God.

Movement

Ephesians 3 says that the church is the manifold wisdom of God, on display to the principalities and powers. So something actually happens in the spiritual climate of our city when the Church gathers to worship.

Citywide worship nights are not just a time to come, sing and worship with Trinity Grace as a whole and other churches from New York. They are a provocative statement in the spiritual climate of the city about the unity of God’s people and the work of Jesus here in the world.

We encourage you to come and be a part of these nights.

Intimacy

We believe that God has clearly revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was God stepping into the human story to reveal God's heart, truth, and the ways he wants to interact with us. Because Jesus is God coming to us and pursuing us, our response to him is to seek to know him more and walk with him. As we respond to God, he makes his presence known to us, in the work, communion and power of the Holy Spirit.

John 1:14, John 17:20

Transformation

The gospel invites us into a process of growth and transformation that is holistic and comprehensive. As the Spirit works within us, renovating our hearts, we will seek to become like Jesus in all areas of life, including our finances, attitudes, speech, actions and relationships. We acknowledge this is a gradual process, and we anticipate an attitude of repentance and hope as we move in the direction the Spirit leads. We acknowledge this is not possible through legalism or human discipline, but only through partnership with the Spirit who is making us new by the grace of Jesus Christ.

Titus 3:5, Gal 5:13-24, Col 3:9-10

Community

The Trinity is at the core of Christian truth, namely that God himself has always been in community. The Father and Son and Spirit are all loving and giving and sharing with one another. Community is an invitation to participate in this Trinitarian relationship, and to continually invite others into it. We still believe that it is not good for us to be alone. We realize that the first thing damaged by the fall was relationships, and the first thing that should be repaired by the resurrection is the way we relate to God and others. We acknowledge that we need each other, and that the life Jesus offers works only in connection with others. We are committed to pursuing God together, in all of life. For us, love is the context for all community.

Genesis 1:26-27, John 17:20-26, 1 John 3:11-24, Ephesians 4:25-32

Servanthood

We believe that in our commodified culture, love is best expressed through service. Putting the needs of others above our own, thinking of others more highly than ourselves, and laying down our lives for one another is the standard Christian life. We seek to do this in the most practical of ways, and to create a culture that models to the world the new humanity, as Jesus first served us. As the Spirit works within us, we will see our selfish nature diminish and the nature of a servant take root within our hearts. We are committed to becoming servants, not simply doing acts of service.

Philippians 2:1-11, Mark 10:35-45

Mission

We believe that throughout history, God has been working through his people to bring the world back to himself, first through Israel, and now through the church. We are called to reflect the heart of the God who loves the world, by being the kind of people who are doing something about the way things are. We believe the gospel is holistic in nature, and that the mission of Jesus is the renewal of all things, as demonstrated through his rule and reign in the kingdom of God. We are not simply transporting a message from place to place, but working for the rule of God in all the social structures of our world. We believe the gospel is the power of God for salvation, and that salvation is God's offer to return to the original story, in this life and throughout eternity.

Isaiah 49:6, John 20:19-22, Matthew 28:18-20

Through the victory of Jesus we believe that the kingdom of God is available to us now. Though never fully realized until Jesus returns, we see small signs of it breaking out in meaningful and hopeful ways in our midst. We want to celebrate these signs of God’s joyful rule and reign by being a community of people who pause to reflect in wonder, joy and celebration at the work God has done and continues to do in, through and around us.

Romans 15:13, Acts 2:46, Luke 15:6,7,10,22-24