Mission and Vision Statement
The vision of LBCF is to celebrate God’s love and invite others into a life-changing experience of His heart.
We believe that God is, at all times, through the work of His Son through the Holy Spirit, moving us towards an experience of freedom in His love, regardless of circumstances, that draws us together in the richness of authentic community, continually transforming our fear to love, passion, and power, and calling us to be on mission to each other (our church), to our city, and to our world, connecting with God and with others and giving generously of the gift of grace which we have received.
We embrace and celebrate the mystery of God’s indescribable love, in which he gave His Son to the world, beginning in the Gospel of Christ the ministry of reconciliation to the whole world. Everything we do is a response to this wonderful reality of hope. We remember the words of Jesus, that “this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you [the Father] have sent.” (John 17:3) And so we look for eternal life and life abundant in a living connection and relationship with the Creator-God who expressed His love in Jesus.
We believe that the love of God compels and catalyzes us to love others and that in learning to love and serve one another and the world around us, we are changed. We believe Jesus delivers us from the helplessness of our own self-focus and self-absorption in order that we may experience the joy of giving generously to others. We believe that in the nakedness of giving, we are clothed.
We know that the love of God often seems to call us into more than we believe we can handle, only to surprise and awe us at the reality of God’s provision in all things. We gratefully embrace the reality that God makes “all things new.” We look to the Holy Spirit to complete the work of Jesus on earth through the Church universal and through Long Beach Christian Fellowship.
Long Beach Christian Fellowship
We are….
We are a group of believers committed to being transformed by the love of God that we may, in turn, love each other and others with the same hope and love. We remember the words of First John…
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
…and look to God’s love as the answer to our hopes and longings, knowing that in it, we are made whole. We are committed to being the church to each other and to a world longing to know the mystery of God’s love.
We are an….intentional, passionate, intimate, authentic, honest, accepting, empowering, championing
…community that…
worships, prays, listens and hears, serves, plumbs the scriptures, laughs, eats, dances, encourages, and creates a sanctuary
…together,
living out a mystery we don’t fully understand and yet embracing our calling as ministers of the grace of God, in which we take confident initiative and responsibility, living in a process of daily transformation in the ever-living plan and conversation that is God’s.
We respect that faith is not something we use to be right, but something that humbles us and changes us. It provokes us and at times challenges us; it destabilizes our survival mechanisms for the sake of abundance, and is often inconvenient and even uncomfortable. But its provocation is that we may be saved. Its discomfort is for a great reward.
We cling to the hope found in Jesus, believing His are “the words of life” and “the wisdom of God”, and we trust God to make us “the aroma of Christ to those who are being saved”. (II Corinthians 2:15)
We acknowledge that the body has many parts, and each member of our community is a unique expression of our ministry. As such, we welcome others to join us, bringing the unique gift they are.
We believe that the love of God is the hope of the world, and we are compelled to let our lives be changed and transformed into an expression of that love, knowing that only in God’s love and grace is that possible. We believe God calls us to be on mission to each other, humbly loving each other and putting each other before our own selves, as Christ has taught us, to our city, bringing hope to hungry hearts and bodies, and our world, participating in God’s call to spread the good news of Jesus’ message to the very ends of the earth. Our calling—to our church, our city, and our world, is an expression of and response to the reality that we have been captured by the love of the Father. It is the living out of our mission and vision to celebrate God’s love and invite others into a life-changing experience of His heart.
At LBCF: People are valuable, relationship is primary, worship is priority, God’s presence is indispensable, life in the spirit is normative, the kingdom of God is reality, prayer is foundational, discipleship is progressive, healing and wholeness is available, unity of the body is essential, reconciliation is visible, togetherness is dynamic, family is vital, mission is central, generosity is desirable.