Our Priorities and Values

Each one who follows Jesus is called to be his disciple. Being a disciple means living a lifestyle of following what Jesus taught, modeled, and believed. It’s a costly way of living, but it’s an abundant life. That lifestyle involves:

• Worship: using your words and actions to show God his upmost worth in our lives. We will gather each week to do so together.
• Communion: By taking communion together, we relive the story that unites us as Christians, the death and resurrection of Jesus. Communion reminds us of our identity and mission as those who follow Jesus.
• Liturgy: Living a rhythm of prayers and acts of worship.
• Life Together as Oikos: Oikos is an ancient Greek word for an extended household. Early Christians lived life together as extended households on a mission to share the good news of Jesus with their communities and to live life together, sharing the things of their lives.
• Mission: In Genesis 11, God starts to reveal his grand mission to bless all the people groups of earth. The “blessing” part of this plan involves God tangibly blessing our current lives and to reconcile us to God after we die. The church is God’s chosen agent for blessing all people groups, so God’s mission is why we are the church and our ultimate role as the church.
• Sabbath: God wants to give us in six days what we need for all seven days of a week, so we make sure we have a period of rest (no work) built into our schedule. During our Sabbath breaks we pray and we play, doing things that give us life
• The 5 ministry gifts of Ephesians 4: Each one of us has a gift for use in the church. Thus we all have a role in the church and there is no room for passive involvement. These gifts mean we are one of these
  • Apostles—”sent ones”, starters, initiators, pioneers
  • Prophets—those who forth-tell truth, usually questioning the status quo
  • Evangelists—those who love to tell their story
  • Pastors—those who care for groups, wanting and working to take them to the next level
  • Teachers—Those who love to impart knowledge (and learn more so they can impart more)

Our Statement of Faith: The Nicene Creed

As Scot McKnight illustrates in King Jesus Gospel, our creeds are intrinsically linked to the full gospel. What do we at Epiphany believe? It’s this:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, of things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the begotten of God the Father, the Only-begotten, that is of the essence of the Father. God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten and not made; of the very same nature of the Father, by Whom all things came into being, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Who for us humanity and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate, was made human, was born perfectly of the holy virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. By whom He took body, soul, and mind, and everything that is in man, truly and not in semblance. He suffered, was crucified, was buried, rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven with the same body, [and] sat at the right hand of the Father. He is to come with the same body and with the glory of the Father, to judge the living and the dead; of His kingdom there is no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, in the uncreated and the perfect; Who spoke through the Law, prophets, and Gospels; Who came down upon the Jordan, preached through the apostles, and lived in the saints. We believe also in only One, Universal, Apostolic, and [Holy] Church; in one baptism in repentance, for the remission, and forgiveness of sins; and in the resurrection of the dead, in the everlasting judgement of souls and bodies, and the Kingdom of Heaven and in the everlasting life.

Original photo by Mr G’s Travels