At Catalyst Church we believe God wants to bring complete life-change to a person, and that God has provided a way for this transformation to happen through his Son Jesus Christ.
Come as you are. If you’re perfect already—or think you are—Catalyst might not be the place for you. But if you’re seeking hope and healing, or have this sense you’re farther from God than you’d like to be, we could be a great spiritual home for you. We want to share God’s grace and acceptance, and be used by God to give back what’s he’s so freely given to us.
Be transformed. At Catalyst we value life-transformation—beginning with ourselves. While we want you to “come as you are,” God loves you so much that he doesn’t want you to stay that way. As we respond to God’s amazing grace that’s been given us, we participate with God in the renewing of our minds and our personal transformation—like an acorn that gets transformed into a mighty oak or a caterpillar morphed into a beautiful butterfly. As this happens, we begin more and more to think as God thinks, love what God loves, do what God wants us to do.
Do it with others. When we belong to Christ, we belong to and need other Christ-followers. This is where “being church” comes in. We need each other to stay encouraged, connected and instructed in the ways of Jesus. And to support each other as we strengthen our marriages and friendships, raise kids, love enemies, serve our neighbors, and share God’s Good News with a world badly in need of hope and healing.
And because Jesus hung out with outsiders, sinners, and those in need of hope and healing, God calls us to do the same. We want to help people with real needs while offering a relationship with Christ to those in our homes, schools and workplaces, neighborhoods, and even around the world.
More Catalyst values:
- Biblical: Knowing and Living Out God’s Word We embrace the Bible as our ultimate authority for faith, belief and daily living. We preach, teach, study, discuss and reflect on God’s Word to give direction to our life and mission. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”—2 Timothy 3:16 (See also: Psalm 19:7-11; Hebrews 4:12; Isaiah 55:11)
- Spiritual: Our New and Growing Life in Christ We pursue a personal, growing relationship with Jesus Christ, beginning with receiving new life through God’s initiative in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. We participate with God in the ongoing transformation of our character and actions (Romans 12:2) into Christlikeness—through daily dependence on Christ, obedient living, ongoing filling of the Holy Spirit, sacrificial service, bold witness, and wholehearted love for God and others.
- Relational: Being and Building the Body of Christ We invest in deep, loving and safe relationships with each other as believers. We encourage one another, and invite others to hold us accountable for our actions and attitudes. Furthermore, we intentionally engage others in community by creating groups, ministries and environments of grace and truth where people can know and love each other, share struggles, grow in Christ, call out Spirit-given giftedness, and serve together. Because we value children and youth as Jesus does, we recognize our responsibility to raise up a new generation of devoted Christ-followers in our homes and communities. This includes all of us loving and investing in kids, while equipping parents to be primary disciple-makers of their children.
- Missional: Sent to Proclaim and Be God’s Good News to the World We live out our love for the Lord by sharing God’s heartbeat for the least, the lost and the lonely, by throwing “parties for sinners” (Matthew 9:12-13, 10:8; 25:35-36; Luke 15), and by following God’s lead into strategic locations, relationships and partnerships in our communities and the world around us. We will reach people with the Good News of Jesus Christ and “make disciples of all nations” as part of our everyday lives. This living by faith and giving with abandon, understanding it is impossible to out-give God.
Beliefs/Faith affirmations. Our faith affirmations include the central teachings of the historical Christian church including one God as three persons: Father; Jesus Christ his Son, fully God and fully human; the Holy Spirit. When new members join our church, we ask two questions about belief: “Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior and promise to follow him as Lord?” and “Do you accept the Holy Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, as the word of God and the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct?” We then ask if they intend to live as faithful followers of Christ and commit to our life together.
We are part of The Evangelical Covenant Church, a movement around the world that has roots in apostolic Christianity. We are a Reformation church, a part of the Church universal, and an evangelical church. In that heritage, we share certain central beliefs, which draw us together in faith and fellowship and make possible a freedom among us on more widely ranging issues.
Covenant Affirmations. The Evangelical Covenant Church seeks to form and nurture communities that are deeply committed to Jesus Christ and passionately engaged in Christ’s mission in the world. The purpose of Covenant affirmations is to make clear the values and principles that have guided the Evangelical Covenant Church since its founding in 1885.
For Covenant people, our essential beliefs are summed up in what we call Covenant affirmations:
- We affirm the centrality of the word of God.
- We affirm the necessity of the new birth.
- We affirm a commitment to the whole mission of the Church.
- We affirm the Church as a fellowship of believers.
- We affirm a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit.
- We affirm the reality of freedom in Christ.
For a more complete discussion of these affirmations, go to the Covenant website at www.covchurch.org/affirmations.
