Identity and Purpose
We are "Christ-ones"
The term “Christian” (literally "Christ-one") was originally created as a mocking title to those first century followers of Jesus (Acts 11:26; 26:28). However, and much to the disappointment of those who enjoyed using the designation to scorn them, the title was quickly adopted as a badge of honor by those early followers of Jesus. Like all Christian churches, ARCC is quite simply a local assembly of Christians. As disciples (students) of Jesus, we believe he is who he said he is in the New Testament and that true life, both now and in the future, is found in learning to follow in thought and actions "the way, the truth, and the life". (John 14:6)
The Ultimate Objective of the Church
The ultimate objective of every church, and therefore of ARCC, should be to bring glory to God. Glory is essentially the revelation of God resulting in praise to God. Simply put, God is glorified when He is SEEN and the response is "WOW!" An analogy could be that of the relationship between Walt Disney and Disneyland. In a sense, Disneyland reveals to those who experience Disneyland the "glory" of the person who was Walt Disney. Children of all ages respond with wonder and awe! To carry the analogy a little further, it has taken many people to build, maintain, and develop Disneyland over the years. You could say they played a significant role over the years in revealing the glory of Walt through Disneyland.
So it is with us that we, as God’s children, can reveal God in our love for Him, for one another, and for the world about us. In so doing, we bring glory to God. We have the awesome privilege and responsibility to "make God look good" and, as a result, we become glorious too (see 1 Thessalonians 2:19; Isaiah 44:21-23; Romans 8:29-30; Colossians 1:27; 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12; Revelation 19:7; 21:1-4, 9-10).
We believe God called this local church (ARCC) into existence over sixty years ago as a unique, but not exclusive, expression (or representation) of God’s people everywhere—what is often referred to as the Universal Church or the Body of Christ. We exist for a purpose, which is to bring glory to God.
The Two-Fold Mission of the Church
We believe that we bring glory to God by pursuing the two-fold mission of the Church which is reflected in our motto: "Inviting all to Jesus…Following Him together."
Traditionally, the inviting has been referred to as evangelism or sharing the "gospel", which means good news; the following is usually referred to as discipleship, literally being a student of Jesus. ARCC’s mission is reflected in Jesus’ famous words, "go and make disciples…." That is The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).
In the end, the Christian faith is (shockingly) all about Jesus Christ! In fact, it is usually when Christians forget this that they start getting into trouble! So we encourage all to consider the call to follow Jesus (on his terms), and to faithfully follow Him every day and in every way. Without getting into some heavy duty theology, we believe that an active faith in Jesus is the key to recovering our "image of God" (Genesis 1:27).
Finally, we know that we are not alone in this pursuit ("following Him together"). Not only do we as a church family strive to help one another out with life (Lord knows we don’t need any more enemies), we seek to link arms with all those who profess Jesus as Lord and Savior and honor the Scriptures (Bible) as the very Words of God. In particular, we are associated with the Growing Healthy Churches Network (GHC) – a region of the American Baptist Churches USA (GHC was formally known as American Baptist Churches of the West). Make sure you check out the Teammates page under "Ministries" for links to the websites of GHC and some of the other Christian churches or ministries we actively partner with.)