VALUES AND VISION
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VALUES STATEMENT
It is our desire to honor Christ through our service on His behalf. To that end, we will serve with the qualities we most value: integrity, grace, excellence, relevance, authenticity, passion, humility, faith, inclusivity, commitment, joy and love.
Vision Statement
The Gate Church of the High Desert exists to Redeem People and Renew Creation by Making Disciples, Creating Community and Revealing the Kingdom of God in the Victor Valley through Compassionate Evangelism, Christian Education, Corporate Edification and Cultural Engagement.
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IDENTITY AND INITIATIVE
The Gate Church is committed to be …
Word Based – It is our mission to live and operate in accordance with God’s Holy Word. It is the standard for life and fruitfulness. We are convinced that a proper understanding of God’s Word enables us to hear the voice of the Spirit clearly and find our way forward in the plans and purposes of God. Our mission is to faithfully uphold God’s Word as the lamp to our feet and the light for our pathway!
Presence Driven – It is our mission to do all that we do from within the presence of God. There is peace and covering when living and operating in His presence. Our mission is to function from this place as well as to take His presence into the various spheres of life in culture and society.
Spirit Led – It is our mission to be led by the Spirit of God in all that we do to bring glory to the Father. Prayer and the prophetic are essential in discovering how to move forward in the plans and purposes of God. We endeavor to hear and obey!
Service Oriented – It is our mission to serve the body of Christ as well as the community around us. Through the love of Christ, we intend to reach out to those in need of Jesus by serving them in practical ways. Our mission is to convert the church to a servant lifestyle and to convert the world to a kingdom lifestyle.
2024 Theme
BE STILL AND KNOW: SPIRITUAL STRENGTH FROM SACRED SPACES
I am convinced that most believers are very undisciplined in their spiritual lives. Because of our freedom in Christ and our focus on grace, we tend to live our lives randomly. Our prayers are as needed. Our Bible time is occasional. Our church attendance is sporadic. Our service is seldom. There needs to be a heavy emphasis on obedience, discipline, faithfulness, and persistence.
We are too busy and the result is often a neglect of God, His Word, His will, and His ways! We tend to fit Him into our lives only when we are in trouble and need something from Him. But at other times, we run to and fro seeking pleasure, profit, and prosperity fueled by emotion and our feelings of self-reliance.
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It is time to stop, BE STILL AND KNOW. It is time to know God intimately and with intensity! It is time for us to rely not on human ability or ingenuity, but upon the spiritual strength that can only come from a real, tangible, and authentic relationship with Christ Jesus, the Lord of all!
“BE STILL AND KNOW” communicates to us the need for us to engage our minds from a place of stillness and solitude. It is to ground our lives, first and foremost, in the knowledge of God according to His own revelation of Himself from His Word. As we come to know God through Jesus Christ, our hearts are changed and we are completely transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Becoming still and getting to know God requires that we set aside time and space. SPIRITUAL STRENGTH is gained in these intentional times and SACRED SPACES. What is a sacred space? A sacred space, or sacred ground, a sacred place is a location that is deemed to be sacred or hallowed. Synonyms for sacred space are the following: an altar, a temple, or a designated religious site. I believe that a sacred space should be a home, a prayer room, and of course a church site. Sacred spaces help us to be still and know God. They help us to remember, heal, and reflect. They are spaces or places for prayer, meditation, and contemplation.
I believe God is calling us as a leadership team to call our people up to a higher level of spirituality! We are to call them to BE STILL AND KNOW God! To gain spiritual strength in these sacred spaces that have been consecrated for the purpose of experiencing the presence of God.
With this theme in mind, we should strategize to achieve the goal. We should design the calendar and all of our activities with the idea that we are getting to KNOW GOD and to know each other. Everything we do should take place as a means of encouraging one another to seek God in stillness and in the chaos of life. We are calling them to stay focused on the presence of God both in private and in public. As the Psalmist says,
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“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down (be still) in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters (calm sacred spaces). He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”