VISION: To be a Worshipping Community in the Heart of Downtown

As a Christian community worshipping in the heart of downtown Knoxville, we recognize that the health of the downtown is vital to the larger city. We strive to promote beauty, safety, and justice for everyone in our city. Our church members, both individually and corporately, commit to support the well-being of downtown through our prayer, our work, our study, our play and our daily lives.

MISSION: Seek the Peace of the City -- Jeremiah 29:7

What does a city look like when it experiences God’s peace? A peaceful city gathers her citizens as neighbors around a vast table to commune with one another and God. A peaceful city is a place of abundance. Her food, healthcare, homes, jobs and opportunities for education abound and are available to all.  A peaceful city is a place of unity.  She gathers people into a safe place. No division exists between people, the land or God. People of every tribe, tongue, class and nation live next door to one another. A peaceful city is beautiful. The city's beauty reflects provision for her citizens, care for local history and geography, and the creativity and vision of each artist.  A peaceful city is a place of worship.  God provides for every need, and all citizens are unified in their thanksgiving to God.

VALUES

WORK: We affirm that work is a primary way we glorify God on earth. We affirm that work was given to human beings before the fall, and is therefore part of God’s plan for humanity. Work is our daily activity. It is our talent and purpose in action. We affirm the role of the body in discerning vocation. We affirm the importance of public discipleship: equipping our members to live out their calling in the workplace and in the city.

PRAYER: We affirm our dependence upon the God revealed to us in the scriptures and affirm that we are powerless to live fully the life we were created to live without His guidance and empowering Spirit. We affirm that we, as individuals and as a congregation, are in a covenant relationship with a God Who Speaks. We affirm that God gives all the gifts of the Spirit to His people today. We affirm the practices of individual and congregational discernment. We affirm healing prayer for the sick and receiving and testing prophetic words. We affirm the ancient practice of the daily office, praying morning and evening for our city..

STUDY: We affirm our desire to be a school of Christ, a learning community, where, through the study of the church’s teachings, we fall in love with God and with one another and therefore with our neighbor as well. We affirm that God’s Word is fresh and alive and speaking dynamically today. We affirm the intrinsic authority and trustworthiness of the Bible, given by God as the ultimate rule for Christian faith and conduct. We affirm the contribution of the historic church to biblical interpretation, the positive fruit of contemporary biblical scholarship, and the insights provided from the worldwide church. We affirm the role of scripture, reason and tradition in biblical interpretation, with scripture being the supreme authority by which the church should judge itself, its thinking and its traditions. We affirm the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.

BEAUTY: We affirm that all beauty reflects the beauty of our creator God. We affirm the role of the artist both in the world and in the church. We affirm the role of the arts as a means of encountering God. We affirm that through art, it is possible to experience “revelations the like of which cannot be achieved by rational thought” (Solzhenitsyn). We affirm that beauty within the built environment recognizes an interdependent relationship with the natural environment. We affirm the efforts of all who seek the beauty of the built and natural environment, because in doing so they render the city of man more like the City of God.

JUSTICE: We affirm that the God of Israel is righteous and just and is in the process even now of putting the world to rights. We affirm justice as a matter of healing, reconciliation and wholeness. We affirm that Christ is reconciling all things to himself through the cross. We affirm the proclamation of the gospel as the means by which sinners hear and respond to the good news of God’s reconciliation in Christ and respond in faith, therefore becoming members of God’s covenant family. We affirm the critical importance of listening to our city, paying attention to her wounds and aspirations. We affirm the works of justice that emerge from this patient listening: hospitality towards the stranger, care for the earth, service with the poor, and working for the transformation of the structures of our city so that our city might better reflect God’s shalom.