THE G.O. PRINCIPLE

The G.O. Principle is simple: Love God, and love Others. This principle comes from the two greatest commands Jesus gives us in Matthew. When we love God and love others well, we live out the mission of the Church to change the world through more and better followers of Christ. 

Love God:

We demonstrate our love for God when we grow in our relationship with Him. We can grow our relationship with God in lots of ways, but it all starts with Powerful Gatherings. These are chances for believers to have life-changing encounters with the living God through community worship, powerful Bible teaching, reflective prayer, and immediate obedience. We believe it is impossible to grow in your faith alone, so Purposeful Relationships are also key. There are two kinds of relationships every believer needs: those with other believers for the sake of encouragement and building up, and those with people who are far from God. Yet the best way you can grow in your relationship with God is by championing your own development through Spiritual Disciplines, such as devotion to prayer, regular study of Scripture, and generosity, among others. These can help to keep your eyes on Jesus, and continue growing in Him every day. Lastly, we love God by obeying Him in Meaningful Service. Serving others is the birthmark of a disciple, energizing the believer’s own faith as well as others’, so we boldly call all disciples to change their world through opportunities to serve.

Love Others:

When we talk about loving and investing in others, we are talking about more than just your closest friends and family. We are talking about the Great Commission: to go into all the world and make disciples (Matthew 28:16-20). The way that God does this is mainly through human relationships. We know that 95% of people who come to faith in Christ do so because of a relationship with a believer. God wants to use us to reach the world, and it starts with the people He has already placed in our traffic patterns. We all have between 8 - 15 people God is putting into our lives that are far from Him. Our job is to love them, pray for them, serve them, and listen to them; to have God conversations that will turn into Gospel conversations. This is how we begin to live out the Great Commission: by loving and investing in the people God is already putting right in front of us.