There is nothing quite like a compelling vision to touch the depths of our being, align us together, and motivate us to action. Here it is:
To see God first in people’s lives through being a gospel-centric, mission-driven, city-loving church that engages with culture and remembers the poor.

Let’s break that down…

God first in people’s lives

The first commandment is that nothing else should come before God in our lives (Ex 20v3) and Jesus said ‘seek God first’ (Mt 6v33). Our mission is to help unbelievers get Godfirst in their lives, and help believers keep God increasingly first in every area of their lives. Oswald Smith wrote: Does God come first in my life or does business hold the supreme place? Is it God first or pleasure? God first or money? What about my family, my loved ones? Do they come first or does God? What then are the terms of discipleship? Let me give the answer in just two words: God first. And if I could, I would put them on a banner in the sight every congregation in the world - GOD FIRST.

Gospel-centric

The central message of the Bible is the gospel, or good news, about the person and work of Jesus Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 15:1–4, Paul provides the most succinct summary of the gospel: the man Jesus is also God, or Christ, and died on a cross in our place, paying the penalty for our sins; three days later He rose to conquer sin and death and give the gift of salvation to all who believe in Him alone for eternal life. The great reformer Martin Luther rightly said that, as sinners, we are prone to pursue a relationship with God in one of two ways. The first is religion and the second is the gospel. The two are antithetical in every way:

• Religion says that if we obey God He will love us. The gospel says that it is because God has loved us through Jesus that we can obey.
• Religion says that the world is filled with good people and bad people. The gospel says that the world is filled with bad people who are either repentant or unrepentant.
• Religion says that you should trust in what you do as a good moral person. The gospel says that you should trust in the perfectly sinless life of Jesus because He alone is the only good and truly moral person who will ever live.
• The goal of religion is to get from God such things as health, wealth, insight, power, and control. The goal of the gospel is not the gifts God gives, but rather God as the gift given to us by grace.
• Religion is about what I have to do. The gospel is about what I get to do.
• Religion sees hardship in life as punishment from God. The gospel sees hardship in life as sanctifying affliction that reminds us of Jesus’ sufferings and is used by God in love to make us more like Jesus.
• Religion is about me. The gospel is about Jesus.
• Religion leads to an uncertainty about my standing before God because I never know if I have done enough to please God. The gospel leads to a certainty about my standing before God because of the finished work of Jesus on my behalf on the cross.
• Religion ends in either pride (because I think I am better than other people) or despair (because I continually fall short of God’s commands). The gospel ends in humble and confident joy because of the power of Jesus at work for me, in me, through me, and sometimes in spite of me.
  A gospel-centric church is one that believes the simple message of the gospel is the motivation not only to become a Christ-follower, but also to live the life of a Christ-follower. Although the gospel starts with an event (hearing the gospel for the first time) it is also a process (Col 1v6). For example, Paul used the gospel to motivate believers to generosity with their money (2 Cor 8) and husbands to love their wives (Eph 5). Thus, the gospel is as relevant and motivating for the believer as it is for the unbeliever.

Mission-driven

The Great Commission from Jesus was actually not to plant churches, nor build healthy churches, but rather to go into the world and make converts and disciples (Mt 28v18-20). But as the early apostles did this, the inevitable result was the establishment of local churches. But here’s the thing: the mission shaped local church life not the other way around. Tragically, as the centuries rolled by the roles have been reversed and the priority has become ‘doing church’ rather than ‘doing mission’. The result is churches that are pastoral-driven (prioritizing caring for each other and creating a beautiful church culture) rather than mission-driven (prioritizing reaching the unchurched). Missiology must continuously shape ecclesiology and not the other way around. This affects the whole tone of church life – the language we use, the things that we emphasise, and our willingness to expand and plant more churches.

City-loving

This is what the LORD Almighty says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses…settle down…marry…have sons and daughters…increase in number ther…seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29v4). We believe that God has brought us to Joburg to settle down, engage, and work for the health and prosperity of the city. We thank God for the pace, passion, wealth and entrepreneurial spirit of the city, and for it’s influence across the nation and Africa….and we are working to harness these characteristics for the advance of God’s kingdom.

Engaging with culture

Culture refers to the way that people think and live. The two extremes to avoid are: the ‘Mirror’ Church that engages so thoroughly with culture that it compromises in the name of being relevant and simply reflects society back to itself, and the ‘Bomb Shelter’ church that fails to engage with culture at all, content to create a isolated community, relieved that all those wicked people out there can’t get in. Paul in Athens (Acts 17) is a superb model where he examines their culture to gain understanding of how they think, then he uses their culture to point to Christ. This is the Godfirst approach – relevant without compromise.

Remembering the poor

We believe that right at the heart of the gospel is “remembering the poor” (Gal 2v10) and we embrace the warnings and promises of Isaiah 58. To this end, we give money and means direct to the needy and also to other churches that are effective in empowering the poor, and we also have our own Philile – a series of pre-schools that we have started in under privileged areas of Joburg.