Mission:

Our purpose (The “Why” of our existence) and mission is based on the biblical references of Matthew 28:18-20 (The Great Commission) and Mark 12:30-31 (The Great Commandment) Matthew 28:19-20 19So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20Teach them to obey everything that I have taught you, and I will be with you always, even until the end of this age.” Mark 12:30-31 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31The second command is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ There are no commands more important than these.” To aid us in the fulfillment of this purpose (The Why) we have 7 core values/guiding principles to identify the “how”. These are the non-negotiable tenets that describe “how”.

Our 7 Guiding Principles/Core Values:

1. Prayer –This is a spiritual work, it seems ill conceived to try to do it without the help of the Holy Spirit, so our first guiding principle is prayer/communication with God. We believe that all we do should start, run, and end thoroughly saturated in prayer. Prayerlessness is powerlessness. 2. Faith, obedience, and accountability –We believe the true measure of faith is demonstrated by one's obedience and that we need to have healthy avenues of accountability in our walk with Jesus. 3. Every member serving in gift-based team ministry – We believe God has called every person (follower of Jesus) to be a minister/servant and has gifted them for the specific kind of service he wants to use them in. We also believe this is to be done in teams not solo. 4. People matter to God – We take seriously the value of each and every human being and therefore take very seriously the mission of reaching people for Jesus. 5. Intentional radical acts of kindness – We believe the best way to share the message of Jesus is with intentional and radical acts of kindness done in Jesus name to express his love. 6. Transformation through Cell Groups (A12 format) – We believe the best place to experience life change, entering into what God has for us, is in cell groups. We’ve adopted a model of Cell Groups we call A12. We mean for these groups to be more than just a Bible Study or just a Prayer Meeting. It will incorporate discussion of the scripture and prayer, but also accountability and a focus on sharing life together. 7. Culturally relevant – We believe people are so valuable to God we should do all we can to reach them and that includes communicating in word and action in a way they understand and relate to. To be "Culturally relevant" is not about compromising the message. The message stays the same, but the methods change. The message is sacred; the method is not. (1Corinthians 9)

C3:

This Purpose (Why) and 7 core values (How) can be summed up in 3 practical points, what we call the 3C’s. This is our vision … C1: Community through Cell Groups The Bible teaches that the kingdom of God is like a Body. We use this analogy to understand the structure and function of Open Arms. As a body is made up of many parts the most basic unit of the body is a cell. Cells live in community with other cells where they connect, communicate, assist others, and then together accomplish a larger work than any one cell could accomplish on it’s own. It is in the context of a cell group (a small group of people consisting of between 12 to 18 people) that we experience love, encouragement, accountability, and friendship. It’s in this Cell setting that we experience shared life together. Our Cell Groups are known as A12’s and have a unique approach to discipleship and community and are based on a Bible reading schedule that enables you to read the Bible in a year. Our Cell groups spend time discussing the scriptures they have been reading, the activities of God in their lives, pray together, hold one another accountable, and have fun. C2: Celebrate through Corporate Worship As in a body, cells gather together to form a larger part. This gathering of cells enables the cells to accomplish something together, on a larger scale, than they ever would have been able to accomplish on their own. It takes a gathering and a unifying purpose. At Open Arms our cell groups gather together corporately to celebrate what God is doing among us and to contribute to the larger work being done by the body as a whole. We train our young, we celebrate God, we have time to learn and be encouraged in the vision, and we honor the Lord with our wealth to support God’s Kingdom work here on earth. C3: Care through Compassion As individuals and as a body God has uniquely gifted us to make a difference in the world around us. We are called to love and serve God and we serve God by loving and serving others, meeting their needs, and reaching out into the world around us. Our goal is for this church to be a church of servants on every level...as a corporate body, as a Cell Group, and as individuals. Our desire is not to take people out of the world and create a little subculture that is disconnected and insignificant to society, but instead to keep people connected in the world and to see themselves as ambassadors of God to the world around them and to see their lives as a force for good. Our desire is not to take people and make them religious, churchy, legalistic, critical hypocrites, so the methods of evaluation are as follows:

Our Method of Evaluation:

The fruit / evidence of effectiveness are: 1. Salvation experiences and baptisms (Matthew 28:18-20) 2. Increase in the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) 3. Increase in the Gifts of the Spirit (1Cor. 12:7-11,31) 4. Increase in Knowledge of God (John 17:3) 5. Increase in service (Ephesians 4:12-16) 6. Increase in witness (Matthew 28:18-20; John 15:8) In a nutshell we are looking for transformed lives. Transformed into what? Nothing less than the likeness of Jesus.