Our Long Term Vision
To launch a church in Mid Macomb County, Michigan that goes on to plant future churches nationally and internationally; churches that create a “come as you are” culture that invite people to experience the love of God while allowing them to journey towards Jesus, more fully embracing His life, His character and His kingdom mission.
Our Mission
Arresting Attention provoking new thought forcefully advancing as we guide people to encounter God through knowledge and experience, engage each other through honest, open and messy relationships, express the love and life of Jesus through service and narration and expand our community through discipleship and church planting.
Our Values
Jesus declared 2000 years ago that “the kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men and women take hold of it” (Matthew 11:12). While we at Paradox take hold of this kingdom and advance with it we know that the Spirit of God will be our guide but we also know that through the experiences of life God creates values that are rooted deep within us that help guide our path and guard our conduct. These values are birthed out of our experiences of both joy and pain.
Ultimately, we value a holistic relationship to Christ and the Gospel, a relationship that engages heart, soul, mind and body. We believe it is God’s desire that we would encounter Him through the cognitive (Rom. 12:2) and the experiential (Hosea 2:1).
We believe that values are somewhat unique from one community to the next, creating a personality for each segment of the body. We believe that it is necessary that our values exist in balance and tension. Even the best of values can be misplaced if not held in balance. The tension that our values exist in is to help us truly live them out and not simply label ourselves with them. Additionally, we believe that a balanced approach in our values reflects the balanced, complex and paradoxical nature of God.
These Values are:
- Truth balanced with Mystery
Truth is the value that God has made Himself known and knowable to us (Rom.3:21) and that God’s glory is the point of all creation.
Mystery is the value that in all God has made known He is still unsearchable. Jer. 33:3
- Authenticity balanced with Integrity
Authenticity is the value that we must be honest with ourselves and others about where and who we are.
Integrity is the value that we will move beyond where we are to continually embrace the character and priorities of Christ
- Connection balanced with Solitude
Connection is the value that we have all been created to exist within the family of God, living a part in the family and story of God that is larger than our individual life. We exist to build each other up in Christ being a part of His redemptive work in each other’s lives.
Solitude is the value that we have been created to have a personal one on one relationship with God, which is the place where we find the strength and wisdom to handle whatever He brings to the road of our journey with Him.
- Sobriety balanced with Hope
Sobriety is the value to be honest with the reality that we live in a fallen, broken and painful world.
Hope is the value to believe the promises of God’s Word even when all of the senses seem to tell a different truth.
- Coming balanced with going
Come is the value that we must be men and women who correctly handle the Word of Truth, regularly studying and examining that we may grow in our knowledge and experience of God. We must do more than know about God but must come to Him to know Him intimately.
Go is the value that people matter. It is the value that we have not been created to keep our growing knowledge and experience of God to ourselves but to take our knowledge and experience to our lost neighbors. It is the realization that all we do on earth we could do better in glory, except reach lost people.
- Passion balanced with Commitment
Passion is the value that a life spent serving God is amazing and exciting and will be the richest and most fulfilling adventure we ever embark upon because it’s what we have been created for.
Commitment is the value that we will not give up in our pursuit of God when the “feelings” are not present or when it doesn’t seem very exciting in that moment. It’s the value that our walk with God is not about the experiences and excitement but about the deep-seated commitment that comes from the conviction that He’s all there is as Peter said, “where else would we go”.
- Humility balanced with Confidence
Humility is the value that we must not think more highly of ourselves than we ought but with sober judgment consider others better than ourselves. It is the ability to allow ourselves to be served while also giving ourselves to serve others.
Confidence is the value that in a world attempting to convince us that God is weak and that we are hopelessly left to our own power, we believe God is sovereignly in control and that He who began a God work in us will complete it. It is the belief that we are all given gifts and strengths and called to use those gifts and strengths for the advancement of God’s kingdom. A “pew sitter” is not an option for a Christ follower. We have been created in the image and the power of the King.
Our Core Beliefs
- All of life is about God and His Glory.
- All people matter to God
- Jesus is the hope of the world
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