Our Vision

We have a dream…  where each one of us at Standale Reformed Church

will deepen our understanding  and commitment to

“Loving and leading People into a maturing relationship with Christ”

and “Walking Across Our Community.”

This means that we have integrity….

…doing what we say we will do when we say we will do it, living the kind of lives Christ calls us to live and shows us by his example.  We believe that when we live lives full of integrity words like hypocrite and judgmental will not be associated with us.  We believe that this will happen by embracing the greatest commandments: “To love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as our self,” not just with our mind, heart, and soul, but with our wallet and calendar as well.

…as a community that will not settle for good enough, but will tirelessly fight for the kingdom of God in our neighborhoods, our city, our country and to the ends of the world, just as Christ showed us through his example.

…in our membership vows.  We take serious our commitments to regularly attend worship, to willingly and generously give of our financial and spiritual gifts, to be active in the life of the church and the world around us.

This means that we are authentic….

…in true community.  Where within our body of believers we have relationships where we are fully honest about our deepest struggles, experience love and acceptance and then are held accountable for continued growth.

…and are not given over to individualism, but rather, know we are created for and dependent on each other.  Where we are a place where the full love of the Body of Christ drives out the anxiety and fear of being known.

…where we will emphasize being who God has created us to be 24/7, rather than just expressing our faith by attending more “church” functions or doing more “church” tasks.

This means we have courage….

…to allow our faith to transform our entire lives rather than being compartmentalized just to the Sunday experience.

…to recognize that we become who Christ intends us to be only by affirming and embracing the power of the Holy Spirit.

…to pray expectantly,  to repent, to lead with great creativity; by doing this we can come to realize that effectively ministering in today’s world might challenge our current mental models and demand that we extend ourselves outside our comfort zone and evaluate progress not based just on Sunday morning worship attendance and offerings but by transformed lives and the stories transformation  produces.

This means we love….

…where we fall in love with God by engaging God’s Word through preaching, small groups, and personal Bible Study, not for the sake of knowledge that can be recited but for transformation and clarity about who God is and what he calls us to be and do.

…where we understand that each person is deeply valued by God and that we are called to meet them where they are at and accept them for who they are.  We know this is often messy, time consuming, emotionally draining and costly but accept this as a responsibility of being blessed.

…where people will know that we are Christians by our love.