These Values help us to create the church and community we believe God is calling us to be. These are the non-negotiable convictions and priorities that guide all our actions. They are the guardrails along the highway that keep us on the road, moving safely to our destination.
In a world full of weariness and apathy, we desire to be enthusiastic about our relationship with God and others.
Matthew 22:37, “Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind.’”
Romans 12:11-13, “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”
Galatians 6:9, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
No matter where you are in your faith journey, you are welcome here. We believe no one should be on the outside looking in to the family of God. You belong here.
Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Leviticus 19:24, “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
We are learning together what it means to be a Kingdom community that's filled with people from different backgrounds, with unique perspectives and in different places on their faith journey coming together in pursuit of authentic relationship with Jesus and each other.
Acts 2:46–47, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
We don’t assume that we have all the answers. But we know that each one of us can do something to make the lives of our neighbors better. If we work together, our impact goes further.
James 2:14-17, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
We believe the best way to share the hope of Jesus with others is to share what He’s doing in our own lives. By sharing our stories, we are acting as witnesses to His goodness.
Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
1 Chronicles 16:24, “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.”
Acts 13:47, “For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
We confess Jesus Christ and the faith of the apostles as recorded in the Holy Scriptures.
The word catholic literally means universal. This means we understand ourselves to be a part of the community of believers that began with Jesus’s first followers, is alive today, and will continue until Christ comes again.
We stand in the mainstream of a church renewal movement of the sixteenth century called the Protestant Reformation.
Engage is a part of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) denomination. The ECC is a rapidly growing multiethnic denomination in the United States and Canada with ministries on five continents of the world. Founded in 1885 by Swedish immigrants, the ECC values the Bible as the word of God, the gift of God’s grace and ever-deepening spiritual life that comes through a faith with Jesus Christ, the importance of extending God’s love and compassion to a hurting world, and the strength that comes from unity within diversity.
The Evangelical Covenant Church is:
Evangelical, but not exclusive
Biblical, but not doctrinaire
Traditional, but not rigid
Congregational, but not independent
This reliance on the Bible leads us to affirm both men and women as ordained ministers and at every level of leadership. It is the reason we pursue ethnic diversity in our church and is the inspiration for every act of compassion, mercy and justice.
New birth in Christ means committing ourselves to him and receiving forgiveness, acceptance, and eternal life. God forms and transforms us—and it is through people transformed by Christ that God transforms the world.
The early Covenanters were known as “Mission Friends”— people of shared faith who came together to carry out God’s mission both far and near. The Great Commission sends us out into all the world to make disciples. The Great Commandment calls us to love the Lord our God and our neighbors as ourselves.
The church is not an institution, organization or building. It is a grace-filled fellowship of believers who participate in the life and mission of Jesus Christ.
We believe it is the Holy Spirit who instills in our hearts a desire to turn to Christ, and who assures us that Christ dwells within us.
This freedom means that we are set free from the power of those things that on their own tend to divide. United in Christ, we offer freedom to one another to differ on issues of belief or practice where the biblical and historical record seems to allow for a variety of interpretations of the will and purposes of God. We seek to focus on what unites us as followers of Christ, rather than on what divides us.