We believe Jesus, the Son of God, entered our broken world and lived a life that reveals God to us and tells us who we are: beings created by God in God’s image who suffer in a broken world.
Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience to God and suffered and died on a cross to create the way for people to be reconnected to God, as we were created to be. God brought Jesus to life again defeating death and Jesus returned to his Father in heaven.
Because Jesus died and rose again, we can live in hope for a better life in this world and in eternity with God.
To connect with this new life and hope, we need to recognize that we have big issues that we can’t fix ourselves, accept Christ’s claim that he is the Son of God and the way to new life, and allow God to lead us into a new relationship with him.
MISSION of the Reformed Church In America
The Reformed Church in America is a fellowship of congregations called by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be the very presence of Jesus Christ in the world.
Our shared task is to equip congregations for ministry–a thousand churches in a million ways doing one thing–following Christ in mission, in a lost and broken world so loved by God.
VISION of the Reformed Church In America
Imagine…
Laity and pastors unleashed, hungry for ministry; congregations mission-minded and inviting, authentic and healing, growing and multiplying, alert to the opportunities around them.
Imagine…
Classes and synods as communities of nurture and vision–accountable, responsible, sustained by prayer, alive to the Spirit.
Imagine…
A denomination, locally oriented, globally connected, that prays in many languages and beholds the face of Christ in every face; a denomination renewed and renewing, raising up leaders, always directing its resources toward the front lines of ministry.
Imagine…
Hurts being healed, the lost being found, the hungry being fed, peace healing brokenness, hope replacing despair, lives transformed by the love of Jesus Christ.
Imagine…
The Reformed Church in America, engaging the world.
LIVING OUT THE VISION
This vision will be lived out…
By congregations focused for ministry–creative, confident, healing, and radically attentive to the world outside its doors.
By consistories selected more for ministry than management, attuned to the Spirit, eager and equipped to serve.
By ministers of Word and sacrament open to dream, prepared to lead, willing to risk.
By classes that are empowering and proactive, living in communion, each accountable to all, and all to Christ.
By synods and staff that funnel resources to the local church, and keep us connected to the larger church.
By all the people of the RCA, a network of relationships, a fellowship that celebrates its gifts and confesses its failures, and where the ministries of all are valued and cherished.
To live out this vision by consistories, classes, synods and staff, our decision-making will be transformed by a pervasive climate of worship, discernment, and biblical reflection. We will no longer do business as usual, nor our usual business.
