PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY

Ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality…

- Tim Chester and Steve Timis

The church is God’s strategic plan for the world and is a place of respite for the weary – those weary of the unrelenting sin and brokenness in ourselves and in the world, or the pressure to perform that can be present in the church. Grace comes first for all – the unbeliever and the believer.

We seek to never lose touch with the centrality of Jesus and his active work in the lives of his people. Jesus’ work in us does not end with our individual salvation – that is just the beginning. The church is to be a place of revival, healing, and growth.

Faithful to our Church

In the Bible, we see a clear summons to live in authentic community, responding to God’s love and grace towards us through loving and serving each other. Furthermore, our beliefs lead to life both individually and collectively as a church. We desire to be a people who are compassionate and generous to those in our own church family who are in need.

Faithful to our Families

We maintain certain programs that are driven by our members rather than by leadership. We do occasionally sponsor topical conferences that meet current needs. These are designed to encourage one another to recognize how the gospel speaks to every area of our lives—from our vocations to our relationships, from our children to our money.

Faithful in our City

We desire to respond to the gospel by loving our city in tangible ways. We want to live out the gospel as we follow a savior who is interested in renewing all things. In other words, loving the city is not a program. It is not something added on to other church activities. Loving our city is the natural outworking of being a people who are being loved by God.

Faithful in our Vocations

We want to encourage each other to love one another and our neighbors as we go about our daily lives. For us, that means building bridges to the city around us through hospitality, care, equipping our members to love their neighbors, and learning to see our vocations as means through which we can pursue the peace and flourishing of Pitt County.

The message of the gospel transforms the way we participate in our communities. We look forward to the day when Jesus returns and brings healing and restoration to our broken world. It is out of that hope that we desire to see our city and Pitt county thrive. We encourage our members to love our city through their work and their relationships. We also support local organizations that serve our community and encourage church planting networks in our region that expand the reach of the gospel in our communities.

When East Carolina University was established in 1907, it changed the future of Greenville, NC. Over the next century, Greenville transformed from a tobacco market into a regional educational, research, and medical hub. We want to see ECU continue to flourish because we want to see eastern North Carolina flourish. Many in our church work or study at ECU, and we are constantly looking for ways to serve the campus, students, and faculty/staff. We also support campus ministries that seek to serve and support students.

God’s plan for his people is the church. We want to see the gospel preached not only in eastern North Carolina, but throughout the world. Our missions are primarily devoted to church planting efforts in the U.S. and overseas that seek to connect believers everywhere to gospel-centered community. We also support short and long term missionaries participating in social and medical missions. Our hope is that we are a church that is outward facing, that we are a people seeking to love and serve others as we have been loved and served by Jesus.