“Hospitality means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.”

Henri Nouwen

The Trinity is fascinating. The Russian iconographer, Andrei Rublev, depicts the three angels who meet Abraham at the Oak of Mamre in Genesis 18. As the three sit around the table, dining with one another, their eyes gaze toward each other with deference, unity, and peace. The painting is ripe with symbolism. But what is most striking to me is the open place at the table in the front center of the painting. Here Rublev grasps one of the deep truths of Christianity, we are invited to join in the life of God.

This is God’s hospitality. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Jesus makes the way for us into this life of God. Jesus, the Son of God, came down to his beloved creation to display God’s goodness, grace and love in the flesh. Through his life, death and resurrection, we are invited to taste and see that the Lord is good.

Vision

We exist to provide a place at the table of God’s grace.

Mission

Our mission is to invite people into a relationship with Christ and form a community that worships and serves together for the transformation of DENVER.

Invitation

“Everyone worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.”

David Foster Wallace 

Worship is how we know how to order our life, what’s important, what we value, how we spend our time and money. Worship is an invitation into the life of the Triune God. Jesus, God-incarnate, invites us to orient our lives around him as the One true God who truly satisfies our deepest longings, and offers his life on our behalf.

Formation

“Christianity is designed to be a free-hearted collaboration between Jesus and his friends.”

Dallas Willard

It’s a curious thing that God doesn’t just call individuals to worship him, but he forms communities to do so together. It is in these communities — commonly called church — that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we experience the tangible grace of God. No longer are we strangers and enemies, but we become family. Together we learn to practice forgiveness, grace, mercy and love.

Transformation

“The story of redemption is built on sacrifice.”

Andy Crouch 

Because of Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection, we endeavor to live lives of sacrificial service to those around us. Through both routine and radical sacrifice, we make ourselves available to God to do much more than we can imagine, as he redeems his beloved creation. 

Distinctives

We are guided by three distinctives that inform how we operate.

1. Liturgical — We are liturgically-minded — believing that the form of worship on Sunday mornings shapes and molds us for our interaction with the world around us the rest of the week.

2. Sacramental — We are sacramentally-minded — believing that God uses the material things of this world to display His love, grace and mercy in this world.

3. Missional — We are mission-minded — believing that we do not exist for ourselves, but we are outward-facing, so that more people can be invited into the community of Christ.

Vision Sermon