- Dolce
We are an Orthodox Christian community ...
Posted by Fr. David in About Us
Tuesday, September 5. 2006
We are an Orthodox Christian community ...
Icon of Saint Mary Magdalene, one of the myrrhbearing women, and reckoned as "equal to the Apostles." Mary was the first to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We are Orthodox , but not Jewish. We are catholic, but not Roman. We are evangelical--rooted in the Scriptures and preaching the good news of Jesus Christ-- but are not Protestant. We do not consider ourselves simply another denomination of Christianity, nor are we a so-called "non-denominational" group. Rather, we are really PRE-denominational.* We are the ancient Christian Church, but fully alive and in fact living God's Future Kingdom right here and now. "Orthodox" means both true-Faith and true-worship. We don't separate them...because they cannot rightly be separated! As Jesus said, the future People of God worship "in Spirit and in Truth."
We want to know God : We are a community of Christians who want to know and share the love of God in Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our vision is to proclaim and live the Holy Orthodox Christian Faith. We live and serve in the growing area of Merced and Atwater, in the great Central Valley of California.
We experience God through worship: We have discovered the living presence of God by worshiping Him—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! We use the gifts of historic Christian worship to center our hearts and minds on God. We worship “in Spirit and in truth” through the structures of liturgy, just as a fire is kept bright and warm in the fireplace. In this worship we use all our senses: seeing, hearing, moving, touching, and tasting.
We want to grow: We want to be made new people by Jesus—a new creation—as He lives in and through us. Our life together is strongly committed to all the spiritual tools and disciplines of following Jesus, so that sin and our passions may be cast away and our minds and hearts transformed by the love of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We live our life together: There are no friendships like those that we have as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are a family that not only longs to grow closer, but also grow with new members of our family. Life together for us is not a fantasy or some utopian dream; our church fellowship is filled with both joy and all the special “one another” commandments in the Bible: loving…forgiving…teaching…bearing up the burdens “of one another.”
We want to serve people: God’s doing things in this world, and has invited us to work with him! We want to serve God and people as best we can, making use of God’s enabling power. And we want to reach out creatively with the message of Jesus to our family, our friends, and those around us—even to others around the world. *Our thanks to "Our Life in Christ," an Orthodox-Christian internet radio ministry, for the wonderful verbal packaging that we're borrowing here. See www.OurLifeinChrist.com. CommentsDisplay comments as (Linear | Threaded)Add Comment
