Our Vision
Trinity Harbor Church lives by faith as a COMMUNITY, defined by the CROSS of Christ, committed to the NEW CREATION that results from Jesus' rule.
Community.
At Trinity Harbor Church, we see ourselves as more than a collection of individuals. Humans were created to be members of the "body of Christ" (the church). Our community is a body with different members. We are a building composed of living stones. We are a family with weird uncles, stubborn mothers-in-law, and little sisters who get under your skin. But we seek to live as one. We want to live for one another and learn from one another. We want to grow together. We are not satisfied living individual religious lives. We strive to serve God together as one.
This emphasis is counter-cultural in a world focused on individual rights and self-dependence. Our culture teaches us to ask first, “How am I doing?” The Bible urges us to ask, “How are we doing?” When the Bible gives instruction, it typically addresses us as a community, not individually. Thus, we want to listen to our creator and obey as a community.
We believe that Christian growth happens only as the community grows up together. This attitude affects everything we do – from the way we read our Bibles, to the way we interact with and serve one another, to the way we hold each other accountable, to the way we interact with our neighbors. Love is an act that may only be engaged in union with others. Jesus warns the church, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.1
Cross.
Jesus endured great suffering on behalf of his people. We are his disciples, thus we seek to follow him. Scripture teaches that in a mysterious way, the church shares in the sufferings of Christ. The words of Jesus are tough to swallow: "Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." 2 At Trinity Harbor, we want to be faithful and joyful sufferers on behalf of one another and on behalf of the world. This means approaching life as a sacrifice. "No one is a Christian for himself alone," wrote Augustine.3
Martin Luther taught that an essential mark by which you can identify a church is its willingness to embrace suffering. "They must endure every misfortune and persecution, all kinds of trials and evil from the devil, the world, and the flesh (as the Lord's prayer indicates) by inward sadness, timidity, fear, outward poverty, contempt, illness, and weakness, to become like their head, Christ. And the only reason they must suffer is that they steadfastly adhere to Christ..." 4
We confess that we, like most people, work pretty hard to avoid any kind of suffering. We seek to fulfill every whim of pleasure. Our hope and struggle, though, is to humbly pick up our cross. A key way God changes his people is through suffering. Ultimately, we believe the paradoxical truth that this suffering will bring pure joy.5 We strive to embody the mysterious mixture of sorrow and joy. For Jesus promised, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
New Creation.
We believe that the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus was the most significant event in history. The effect that it had upon the world and upon life was so radical, the Scriptures teach that it was a cosmic transformation - the new creation. We strive together to see this new creation with eyes of faith. We are new men and women living as part of the new creation ruled by the new king. This changes everything. "Christ has turned the setting into the rising sun!" 6
 We are on a continuing journey, learning together what our inclusion and participation in the new creation means.7 It means we live under a new master - Jesus - rather than under the master of sin. It means being deeply concerned for the renewal of society so that our neighbors and our city might enjoy the rich blessings of God. It means believing people can change. It means embracing socio-economic and racial diversity against the tide of the world. It means learning to live holy lives set apart as a spiritual act of worship of God. It means laboring against oppression and injustice, comforting those who suffer, seeking peace in a world torn by conflict, and addressing poverty and hunger.
Christianity refuses to be restricted to the "religious" dimension of life. It affects all of life. The new creation involves every aspect of the cosmos, not just personal religion. We are living in a new order of affairs in the world.8 Abraham Kuyper declared, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'" 9
All humanity is still experiencing remnants of the old creation everywhere – a creation broken by sin. At Trinity Harbor Church, we want to be agents of Jesus, working out the effects of the new creation. And we want to do so with a repentant attitude, acknowledging that the historic church has been guilty of becoming deeply entangled in oppression, power, and violence.
Together.
Community. Cross. New Creation.10 These are not three separate things. They are inseparable facets of the Trinity Harbor vision. In a sense, we hope that they are three camera perspectives from which our church will be recognized. We live by faith in the new creation as a community. We can carry our cross, because we know that the new creation will come to consummation. We are a community united in Christ, who endured the cross for us.
----------------------------------------
1 John 13:35
2 Matthew 10:38
3 Augustine, Sermo 115, n.4
4 Martin Luther, On the Councils and the Church, from book Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings by Martin Luther, Timothy F. Lull, William R. Russell, p369.
5 Clement, Protreptic, c. 114
6 James 1:2
7 Hermann Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology, end of Section 36ff
8 Geerhardus Vos, The Pauline Eschatology, p. 47.
9 Abraham Kuyper, Inaugrual Address, dedication of the Free University of Amsterdam
10 In Richard Hays's book, Moral Vision of the New Testament. he identifies community, cross, and new creation collectively as being the three governing ideas of the New Testament from which the ethics of the church flow.
|