Mission
Our mission is to glorify the Triune God by proclaiming Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, obeying all of His Word in all areas of our lives and calling all people – near and far – to do the same.
Values
1. Saved and Seasoned by Grace
We proclaim the gospel of God’s free and absolute forgiveness granted to all who repent of their sins and trust in Christ alone to save them. We have been made right with God by His grace, not by our goodness or efforts. Therefore, our fellowship with one another is established on this common ground: we are undeserving recipients of God’s grace in and through Jesus Christ. As we are then recipients of the undeserved mercy and unearned grace of God, we joyfully strive to be gracious in our speech and interactions with one another. Since God has forgiven us for our sins against Him, we have all the motive and means to be quick to forgive those who have wronged us. Since He has showered His kindness on us, we desire to show the same kindness to one another in genuine, Christ-honoring love.
[Ephesians 2:11-21; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:12-14]
2. Biblical Worldview & Submission to Scripture
God’s Word is our infallible source of truth; inerrant in all that it affirms and sufficient for all matters pertaining to life and godliness. In all things, we seek to submit ourselves to the Scriptures as God’s authoritative and revelatory Word; trusting all of its promises to us, believing all that it teaches, and obeying all it commands. Therefore, we are devoted to reading and rightly dividing the Word of Truth with the intention of faithfully applying it to our lives.
The Bible is our standard for what we believe about God, His Creation, and His plan of Redemption for man. For example, we adhere to what the Bible teaches about God’s design for things such as Christian worship, marriage, family, sex, male-female identity, the role of the church, and of civil government.
[Genesis 3:15; Deuteronomy 8:3; Psalm 19; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21; Luke 24:25-27]
3. The Lordship of Christ
God the Father has given Christ all authority in heaven and on earth; therefore, the church is called to disciple all peoples of all nations baptizing and teaching them to obey all that He commands. Because of this we see ourselves as under the Lordship of Christ. When we eat and drink, we do so as unto the Lord. When we put our hands to work, we do so as unto the Lord. When we teach our children math, we do so as unto the Lord. We believe that every aspect of our lives is to be oriented to Christ’s kingdom, because we are His beloved subjects and because everything else will one day vanish as a mist. As we seek to do all things in recognition of His gracious rule, we invite others to join us that they too may know the joy of serving the King and experiencing His salvation and redemption in their lives.
[Matthew 28:18-20; Colossians 3:17; I Corinthians 10:31; Hebrews 12:25-28]
4. Gathering for Worship
Gathering weekly to worship the Triune God is foundational to our identity as a local church. The Greek word for ‘church’ [ecclesia] literally means ‘gathering’ or ‘assembly’. Because the New Testament commands Christians not to forsake the assembly, we value and prioritize gathering with one another on Sunday for the purpose of worshiping God. We do this through singing hymns and spiritual songs, hearing God’s Word preached, offering up our prayers, and celebrating the Lord’s Supper.
Our primary principle for the content and character of our worship is the Word of God. In this regard, we emphasize faithfulness to Scripture in our worship, rather than innovation, entertainment or mere tradition.
Our understanding of gathering for worship requires embodied presence; therefore, we do not stream our worship services online. We intentionally come together physically in one place as one local body.
[Hebrews 10:19-25; Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:15-21]
5. Christian Fellowship
Enjoying together the salvation we have in Christ, we cherish times of fellowship that build us up in the faith. We value spending time with one another in prayer, work and recreation. An expression of this is our small groups that meet throughout the week in homes to pray, read the Bible together, and apply it to our lives. These groups aim at fellowship and discipleship so that we grow both in our relationships with one another and in our relationship with the Lord.
Spending consistent time with each other, in informal and relaxed situations, helps us open up more fully to one another, minimizing our temptation to only let others see the best of us. True Christian fellowship leads us to weep together, rejoice together, share our burdens, and confess our sins to one another. We believe this is made possible by the working of God’s Spirit in us.
[Romans 12:9-16; Ephesians 4:11-16; James 5:16; Romans 12:15]
6. Hospitality
We enjoy opening our doors (both church and home) to new and familiar faces; inviting people into our spaces to join us in enjoying God’s good graces that He has given…and to praise Him for it all. We see great value in sharing meals together and using the blessings God has given to us in ways that bless others. When we exercise hospitality, we are mirroring the generosity of our God who by His grace has welcomed us into His household, gives us food and drink that nourish and sustain us, sharing with us countless blessings from his bountiful store.
[I Peter 4:9; Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2]
7. Church Membership
We believe that Christians are a people who have gone public with their faith. The Christian life is not a private affair. We are to know and to be known by the people we regularly gather with to worship the God of our salvation. For this purpose, we value the practice of meaningful and Biblical church membership. This is not to create a higher level of belonging for some than for others, but rather to identify those who belong to Christ and are committed to following Him together with this local body of believers. Waukesha City Church is a particular congregation of believers who have identified themselves with Christ through baptism and who have covenanted themselves to one another as members of one body. As a body of believers who have gone public with their faith, we are accountable to one another for the faith we profess. Therefore, our practice of church membership is also accompanied by the Biblical practice of corrective church discipline for those who turn from the faith and persist in unrepentant godless living.
[Matthew 18:15-20; Acts 2:37-47; I Corinthians 5:13]
8. Gospel Witness & Evangelism
We gladly embrace the role God has given to us to bear witness to Christ right where He has us in Waukesha. We want to see our community embrace the gospel of Christ for salvation and flourish under His rule. Our strategy for making disciples of Christ ranges from preaching to parenting, from education to evangelism. Therefore, we hold high the public reading and preaching of God’s Word each Sunday. We honor marriage and praise God for the blessing of children, joyfully embracing the responsibility of parents to raise up their children; training them in the promises and instruction of the Lord. We likewise encourage our members to bear witness outside their households; seeking opportunity to proclaim the gospel to those who would hear it and being ready to give an answer for the hope that is in them.
In keeping with the risen Christ’s command to make disciples of all nations, we strongly desire to see the message of the gospel go out from us in power; both locally and globally. We want to see new God-honoring, Gospel-proclaiming churches planted both nearby in our hometowns and far away on the other side of the world, and we support such missional church planting with both our time and our resources.
[I Corinthians 14:24-25; 2 Timothy 4:1-5; I Peter 3:15; Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 1:28; Romans 15:18-21]