Our Values
The most important thing about Northwood is not what makes us distinct—it’s what we share in common with every other true church. As a result our mission, vision, and values are our humble attempt to simply make clear what the Scriptures call the church to be and what we therefore aspire to be.
Mission is why we exist. It’s what God sends his church into the world to do. Vision is what we hope to accomplish. It’s a picture of where we are going and the impact we hope to make by God’s grace. And our values express how we hope to see our mission and vision accomplished.
Our Mission:
Northwood Community Church exists to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ in the Bay Area and among the nations. (Matt. 28:18-20, Acts 1:6-8)
Our Vision:
To see Jesus Christ treasured above all else and made much of through local churches in the Bay Area and every corner of the world. (Matt.13:44-52, Eph. 3:10)
Our Values
Our values, Jesus, Community and Mission express what does and what we hope will increasingly shape the life and culture of our church family. This is why each of our values begins with the phrase, “we aim.”
Recognizing that there are many ways these values already shape the life of our church, there are still and always will be many ways we need to grow in grace, so we are “aiming” to increasingly be what by God’s grace in Christ he has already declared us to be.
Jesus
Many people see Jesus simply as a good teacher or as a helpful example to follow, yet the Jesus revealed in the Scriptures is foolishness to the world but of infinitely more value than any teacher or example. Our desire to be gospel-centered, submitted to the Scriptures, and dependent on the Spirit describe the wisdom and power of the true Jesus. (1 Cor. 1:18-31)
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1. Gospel-Centered: We aim to apply God’s grace in Christ to all of life
More on Gospel Centered →The gospel is good news of what God has done to establish his kingdom and deal with our sin through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is God in human flesh. The gospel teaches us that “we are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe” but can be “more accepted and loved than we ever dared hope.” This acceptance and love is not based on our obedience or works, but on what Christ has done for us. It’s all of God’s grace, and it’s received through repentance of sin and trust in Jesus. Further, the gospel has rich implications for all of life.
Being gospel-centered means we will invite non-Christians to receive God’s grace by repenting of their sin and trusting in Jesus. However, this is not just a message for non-Christians, as if once we begin our relationship with God by grace through faith, we then grow and serve God by our own works apart from his grace. Rather, the same grace of God that was at work by the Spirit to rescue us from sin’s penalty also sustains and changes us.
So being gospel-centered means we will seek to bring the gospel to bear on every domain of life and through it encourage Christians to continuously repent of their sin, their attempts to earn God’s grace, and their self-sufficiency instead trusting Jesus for their identity and hope in response to God’s grace.
(1 Cor. 15:1-4; Rom. 1:5, 15-17; Gal. 2:14, 3:1-6; 2 Peter 1:3-11)
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2. Submitted to the Scriptures: We aim to search the Scriptures to know Jesus and to submit all of our beliefs, values, and practices to him.
More on Submitted to Scripture →The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, authoritatively reveals the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures bear witness to Jesus, explain our need for Jesus, foreshadow Jesus, are fulfilled by Jesus, and have made Jesus fully known so that we might trust him and follow him. Further, as God’s Word, the Bible has ultimate authority over us because God has authority over us. So as we seek to know, trust, and reflect Jesus we will be submitted to the Scriptures as God’s authoritative word to us about Jesus and how to follow Jesus.
Being submitted to the Scriptures means we will search the Scriptures to know Jesus and what he desires for us, and as we grow in our understanding of the Scriptures we seek to submit all of our beliefs, values, and practices to God’s Word, not just as individuals but even looking to Scripture for how we do church. Further, because we believe “we are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe,” we recognize that we as a church will never arrive, so we will always need to seek to more faithfully submit our assumptions, our interpretations, and our very lives to God’s Word.
At Northwood this involves preaching “the whole counsel of God” through gospel-centered sermons generally through one book of the Bible at a time, reading the Scriptures together in community, and training ourselves to instinctively ask “Does the Bible have anything to say about that topic?”
(Luke 24:25-27, John 5:31-47, Acts 20:27, 2 Tim. 3:16-4:5)
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3. Dependent on the Spirit: We aim to depend upon the Holy Spirit to empower and direct our ministry.
More on Dependent on the Spirit →Jesus tells us that it is for our advantage that he ascended to heaven because his departure meant that the Holy Spirit would come to us. This is to our advantage because the Spirit convicts the world, gives us new life in Christ, guides us into truth, empowers us for Christian service, makes Jesus personally present with us, and glorifies Jesus in all he does through applying Christ’s words and work to our hearts so that we would be conformed to his image for his glory.
Further, the Scriptures make it clear that “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Ps. 127:1). Essential to life and ministry is the recognition that God is God, and we are not. All things were created by him, through him, and for him. He is over us, above us, stronger than us, wiser than us, and reigns over us and the world around us. He alone has the power to save. That means that if we are to accomplish anything by way of life and ministry, it will only happen according to his will and power, and for the sake of his glory.
So, we must be fully and completely dependent upon the Spirit of God if we are going to accomplish anything of significance for the kingdom of God and his glory. While not the only way to foster dependence, one of the most significant ways we can depend upon the life-giving Spirit is through being constant in prayer. At Northwood this involves intentional prayers in corporate worship, a commitment to pray for one another individually, spontaneous prayers in meetings as we need the Lord’s wisdom, and regularly gathering to pray for God’s priorities to come to fruition in and through our church family and around the world.
(Isa. 43:11; Ps. 127:1; Ezek. 36:26-27; Matt 6:9-13; John 3:3-8, 14:26, 16:7-15; Acts 1:7-8; Rom. 8:29, 12:12; 1 Cor. 12:7; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 3:16-17, 4:12; Col 1:15-20)
Community
Jesus tells us that the way the world will know we are his disciples is
by our love for one another. Our desire to be a hospitable, reconciled, and redemptive community describe what this kind of “otherworldly” love looks like. (John 13:34-35)
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1. Hospitable Community: We aim to welcome others into our community corporately and into our lives personally as Christ has welcomed us.
More on Hospitable Community →The gospel celebrates the fact that although we were enemies of God, he welcomed us into his family through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. As Christ has welcomed us, we are now to welcome one another and to show hospitality not just to one another but even to strangers. Being a hospitable community means we will have both a heart posture of welcoming others and a practice of giving or accepting invitations into one another’s lives and even into our homes to share life together.
Our heart posture of welcoming others means we will strive to remove all barriers to the gospel except the gospel itself in our language, in our practices, in our culture, in everything. We show this kind of welcome in our corporate worship by aiming to be accessible to all who come in through making our practices and messages understandable to newcomers. We show this kind of welcome by considering first not how we might be more comfortable or how our preferences might be satisfied, but by instead considering how we can count others’ interests more significant than our own. Very practically, we do this by regularly asking“How would someone who is new or different than me experience our community and worship?”
Our practice of hospitality means that we will seek to welcome one another into our lives through intentionally giving and accepting invitations to deeper relationship such as through coffee, lunch, and time in one another’s homes. Our practice of hospitality means that we will also look for opportunities to do this for newcomers in our midst as well as with our neighbors and co-workers.
(Luke 5:27-32, 14:12-14; Rom 12:13, 14:13, 15:7; 1 Cor. 8:1-13, 9:19-22, 14:9, 16; Phil. 2:4-5; 1 Pet. 4:9; Heb 13:2)
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2. Reconciled Community: We aim to demonstrate that our community is united because of Christ across every barrier that could divide us.
More on Reconciled Community →The gospel celebrates the fact that we have been reconciled not just to God, but to all those who trust in Christ because of his life, death, and resurrection. What unites the church is not our common interests, musical preferences, political convictions, age, ethnicity, nationality, financial status, education, or stage of life. What unites us is our common faith in Jesus Christ, who has made us into one body made up of many members, the body of Christ, through the cross and resurrection. Further, having experienced this reconciliation through Christ, the church has now been entrusted with the ministry and message of reconciliation.
The world has no trouble understanding unity among people who are the same. And they have no trouble understanding diversity among people who are different. But what the world can neither understand nor explain is unity among those who have no natural reason to be unified. However, since the gospel reconciles people of all backgrounds and in turn gives those people the ministry of reconciliation, the gospel creates a human community radically different from any other community around that commends the beauty and sufficiency of Jesus to break down every barrier.
Being a reconciled community entrusted with a ministry of reconciliation means that we will seek to invite all people to be reconciled to God through Jesus, and as they are reconciled to God we will seek to cultivate reconciliation among one another. This includes reconciling those who have been sinned against to those who have sinned against them as well as seeking reconciliation across the natural barriers that divide us today. Being a reconciled community means we will fight to be unified in our shared convictions about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus while celebrating the diversity of our important yet non-essential differences that could threaten to divide us. As we give ourselves to this ministry of reconciliation, it is our prayerful hope that Northwood would reflect the diversity of the Bay area as a church that gives the community around us a glimpse of the age to come when people from every background, ethnicity, and generation will worship Jesus with one voice. (2 Cor. 5:18-21, 12:11-13; Gal. 3:28-29; Eph. 2:11-22; Rev 7:9-10)
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3. Redemptive Community: We aim to be transformed by the redemptive power of the gospel as a transparent, gracious community.
More on Redemptive Community →The gospel celebrates the fact that we have been redeemed, which means to be freed from the power of sin and Satan, not by our own power or performance but by the power and grace of Jesus. This means that those who trust in Jesus are not just saved, but are actually made new, increasingly reflecting the character and conduct of their Redeemer. Further, since the gospel frees us from an identity based upon our performance, it makes us into people who can conduct far more transparent, honest, intimate, and loving relationships. In God’s kindness we most often experience the redemptive power of Christ in a community of informal redemptive relationships.
Being a redemptive community means we will welcome all as they are, sinners and sufferers alike, yet none of us will stay as we are. Instead we will slowly, steadily, and increasingly seek to grow in grace together. Being a redemptive community means that because Christ does not relate to us on the basis of our performance for him, we don’t want to treat each other based on our performance. Instead we will operate by grace, responding to one another’s sin with the compassion, forgiveness, love, and grace necessary to walk alongside one another with the hope of gospel growth. Being a redemptive community means that because our identity is not rooted in performance but in Christ’s redemption we will not hide our sin nor our burdens. Instead we will walk in the light, confessing our sin and sharing our burdens with our brothers and sisters in Christ as we invite them to correct and encourage us with God’s Word.
It is our prayerful hope that as we pursue being a redemptive community, we will increasingly be a community where we are informally yet intentionally free to be honest about our struggles, sin, and suffering expecting to be encouraged by God’s grace and love because of the safety created among us by the grace found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. (Rom 8:29; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal 6:1-2; Eph. 4:24; Col 1:14; 1 Thess. 5:9-11; 2 Tim. 3:16-17 Jas 5:16; 1 John 1:5-9)
Mission
Jesus’ final words to his disciples were that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. With these final words
Jesus established the priority of mission for his church. Following the example of Jesus and the early church we will pursue this mission through multiplying disciples, mercy and justice, and kingdom partnerships. (Acts 1:8)
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1. Multiplying Disciples: We aim for every member to be intentionally investing in a few people at a time to multiply disciples, leaders, and ministry.
More on Multiplying Disciples →The pattern Jesus and his first apostles established for ministry was to intentionally invest in a few people at a time, who would then be able to teach others also, even while ministering to great crowds. This is the principle of multiplication: intentionally discipling a few at a time for their spiritual good, so that they would grow into spiritual maturity and then use the gifts God has given them to help others do the same.
This kind of spiritual multiplication only happens when ordinary disciples view the church’s various gatherings not as the end of their connection to the church, but as the launching pad for a variety of intentional relationships that continue day to day and week to week focused on the person and work of Jesus. Further, this spiritual multiplication depends upon the intentional and continual development of faithful Christian leaders, who are equipped and eager to pour their lives into others for the sake of the gospel. This means we will prioritize gathering the whole church together as a family while being careful not to overfill the lives of our church with so much organized activity that there is not time for intentional relational investment in a few people at a time.
It is our prayerful hope that as we prioritize intentionally investing in a few people at a time everyone would be equally known even as we acknowledge that no person will know everyone equally well. We long for every member to be engaged in discipling others and being discipled with the result that non-believers would become Christians, that new believers would grow into maturity, and that mature disciples would give themselves to spiritual multiplication. We also hope that as we give ourselves to this work, that God would multiply our efforts by raising up a whole host of faithful church leaders who would be eager to give their life to faithfully pastoring, planting churches, and taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.
(Mk 4:1-2, 4:10, 9:2, 2 Tim 2:1-2, Titus 2:1-10)
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2. Mercy and Justice: We aim to represent Jesus by seeking the welfare of our city through deeds of mercy and justice.
More on Mercy and Justice →We believe that the mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ by lifting up the gospel and calling people to repent of their sin and to trust in Jesus for their salvation. Yet the essence of what it means to be a disciple is to “obey all that Jesus commanded,” and disciples when they are fully trained will be like their teacher. When we consider the character and attitude of Jesus, one of the emotions Jesus shows more than any else is compassion. Further Jesus identifies his ministry as one which proclaims and brings freedom to those who are captive and oppressed. This freedom is most fully brought through the liberation of people from their enslavement to sin and death through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Yet a careful look at Jesus ministry reveals this word ministry was never separated from deeds of mercy and justice. In fact one of the most compelling ways to introduce our neighbors to Jesus is by serving them in practical ways.
Mercy is simply meeting people’s basic needs out of a gospel-produced compassion. Doing justice includes taking up the cause of the vulnerable and marginalized and engaging as good citizens of our communities. Though the central mission of a local church is not to cure poverty or rehabilitate neighborhoods, we will encourage and equip our members to meet the needs of our community as salt and light in our broken and hurting world with the hope that by doing so we might be able to point them to the solution for their most fundamental need: the mercy of our Savior, Jesus, who satisfied God’s justice when he bore the penalty for our sin on the cross. As we reflect on the mercy we have received in Christ, a heart changed by his grace cannot help but pour itself out in deeds of mercy and justice.
It is our prayerful hope that as we engage in this good work of mercy and justice that our God has prepared for us that our community would increasingly become a good place for all people to live and that as a result of our efforts many people would come to faith in Christ.
(Deut. 15:11; Ps 140:12; Isa. 1:17; Jer. 29:4-7; Zech. 7:10; Micah 6:8; Matt 9:36, 28:20; Lk 4:18, 6:40, 10:25-37; Gal 2:10; Eph. 2:10; James 1:27)
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3. Kingdom Partnerships: We aim to partner with others in the gospel by sharing our resources and sending out our members to advance God’s kingdom.
More on Kingdom Partnerships →God’s eternal purposes are so much bigger than Northwood; God’s purpose is to bring glory to his name all the way to the ends of the earth. We cannot reach the Bay Area on our own let alone the rest of the world. Nor has God entrusted this mission to us alone; he has given this mission to the whole church.
For this reason we value gospel partnerships beyond Northwood, not only within our denomination, but also with other gospel-centered and church-loving individuals, organizations, and churches throughout the Bay Area, as well as to the far reaches of the globe. Further, God’s global purpose remind us that he is not seeking simply to grow our church but to advance his kingdom.
Therefore it is our prayerful hope that as the Lord sees fit to grow Northwood in both maturity and membership as we pursue our values of Jesus, Community, and Mission that we would have the privilege of expanding God’s kingdom by sharing our resources and sending out our members to seek the welfare of our city, to strengthen existing churches, and to plant new churches not just in the Bay Area, but around the world. In doing this we hope to be a part of reaching all peoples with the hope of the gospel and that these groups would come to worship the one true God.
(Matt 6:10; John 17:18; Acts 13:1-3; Rom 10:14-15, 15:22-33; 2 Cor. 9:1-5, 11-15; Eph. 4:1-6; Phil. 2:19-30, 4:2-3; Titus 3:13; 3 John 5-8; Rev. 7:10-11
The best way to see these values lived out is to join us on Sunday.
WORSHIP GATHERINGS
Sundays 10:00 am