Where We're Headed
Our Vision
Loving God, Loving People
According to Jesus, the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. The second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Living Word's main focus is to follow these two great commandments by loving God and loving people.
At first glance this vision may seem simple, perhaps even shallow. But according to Jesus, all the law and the prophets--the entire Word of God--rest on these two commandments. Simple? Yes. Shallow? Far from it. Jesus' simple command to love God and love people is far deeper and much greater than most people realize.
Loving God is incomplete without loving people. Imagine a woman saying to a man, "I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. But I do not love your children. In fact, I can't stand your children. But I deeply love you." That is what we say to God when we declare that we love him but not the people created in his image. God created us to love him and to love others. He longs for a relationship with us that involves loving him and loving others. God grieves when we declare that we love him while mistreating others.
Following God involves obeying what God declares is first and foremost. Loving God and loving people is the heartbeat of the Bible and the lifeblood of Living Word.
Freedom of Worship
Living Word is a fellowship of believers who worship God in Spirit and in truth--not religiously, but in a biblical manner with liberty. Our sanctuary is a place to express your love for God to God without intimidation. We welcome all people from all backgrounds; as a result, we have many different kinds of people with many styles of worship. Our people enjoy expressing their love for God through worship. We respect that. But don't worry, just because someone around you worships in a particular style doesn't mean that you have to do the same. Freedom of worship allows you to join in with your own expression of worship or you may choose to ignore everything around you--the choice is yours.
Community Outreach
Living Word's vision also involves reaching out to the community, restoring broken relationships and strengthening people by offering hope through God's Word. Living Word has been likened to a spiritual oasis where people come and are blessed, refreshed, restored and strengthened.
World Outreach
Our love for God and people, our freedom of worship, and our desire to restore broken relationships motivates us to reach out to others throughout the world. Religion does not transform people. Relationships do. Our relationship with Jesus Christ is transforming our lives, motivating us to encourage people everywhere to be reconciled with God.
We believe in taking the good news of Jesus Christ to all the world. Sometimes we go ourselves. Sometimes we send others. Sometimes we support those who are already there. But all the time we believe in building relationships that transform lives. God is good and we desire to share his good news with as many people as we can.