Mission, Vision,Values & Goals
Our Mission
is to serve the Lord, Jesus Christ and to honor God’s will. We participate in God’s healing of the world by encouraging discipleship, living love, kindling hope, inspiring beauty, and championing justice in our neighborhood, our local community, and the greater world through prayer, worship, and service.
Our Vision
We will be a vibrant, transformative Christian faith community for our congregants, and an essential center of our neighborhood by actualizing Christ’s love through our faith and works.
Our Values
1. Our worship | our identity and lifeblood: Worship is the core of our faith community and its life. In this sacred place and within this sacred time we experience spiritual reformation to enact God’s mission. A transformative worship experience in all its facets and expressions during the week and the liturgical year are the soul of our identity and faith formation.
2. Our faith community (I) | a covenant relationship: Being part of a faith community means making a commitment to seek unity with integrity, which means that we, as the body of Christ, are seeking to live principled spiritual lives in the truth.
3. Our faith community (II) | a community of joy and beauty: At the heart of the Church is the Good News of Christ. In all that we do as a community of faith, we strive to be thankful for the joy we experience in knowing God’s love and for the beauty of creation. As human beings created in the image of a creative God, we share in the joy of creating beauty to glorify God in the world.
4. Our tradition | our theological roots: As a part of the Reformed Theological tradition, we serve as a missional presence in our community for the Presbyterian Church (USA). Our deep liturgical, theological, and historical roots urge us to grow, adapt, and reform ourselves to meet the evolving needs of the world in accordance with God’s will.
5. Our spiritual growth and formation | Growing in Christlikeness: Forming disciples is among our essential duties, according to the Great Commission. We support the spiritual growth of those who are at the beginning of their faith journey, those who are already mature disciples, and all in between. We do this through worship, prayer, mentoring, spiritual exercises, and Christian education.
6. Multigenerational engagement | reflecting the richness of God’s Kingdom (I): We value the dynamic voices, gifts, experiences, and energy of our multi-generational community and strive to nurture cross-generational relationship for the good of all in all we do.
7. Being a welcoming community | reflecting the richness of God’s Kingdom (II): Embracing the diversity of God’s people is crucial to our call to spread the Good News to the ends of the earth. Making disciples is vital to reflecting God’s love in the world. We value the range of talent and humanity in our congregation. By God’s plan, every perspective adds to the body of Christ. We welcome all to join our community.
8. People before programs | relationships come first: People are transformed by relationships with the divine and with one another. Programs are a means to that end. Therefore, we work to engage everyone in our community in meaningful, faith-forming practices and relationships for the sake of our mutual growth and transformation.
9. Always Reforming | our call to seek God’s leading: God continues to act, to speak, to lead, to reveal to us what it means to be a people of faith. We recognize that to meet God’s call to mission, we must be ready to adapt to new needs and opportunities.
10. Our neighborhood | our place in the world: We believe God has called us to this place for this time. For over 70 years, our historic buildings and grounds have been the center of our faith community, the physical embodiment of our identity, a reflection of our values, and the space for our sacred interactions. We recognize that we are an integral, material part of our local neighborhood, offering us an opportunity to be a blessing to and a spiritual locus for these people among whom God has placed us.
11. Our mission partners | those we are called into relationships: We seek to engage mission partners by building relationships with, learning from, and investing ourselves in their work because we believe there is a synergy in partnerships that bear greater fruit for God’s Kingdom.
12. Our dedication to justice and love | for the good of our soul and society: Justice and love are essential attributes of God revealed in Jesus Christ. As God’s image-bearers, we reflect God’s love, beauty, and justice in the world by advocating for the good of others in every way.
13. Being stewards of creation | caring for our world: We were created to live lives of dignity, flourishing in God’s good creation, and have been called to be wise stewards of it. We work to live in harmony with the natural world, both individually and collectively, and advocate for environmental responsibility so all people have access to the goodness and beauty of creation.
As a Faith Community
We propose to pursue our values by:
1. Providing a profoundly transformative worship experience based on our tradition and designed to shape us into genuine disciples of Christ;
2. Following Jesus’ example of honoring the dignity and image of God in all people by working to dismantle racism and poverty by advocating and acting to break down the systems, practices, and thinking that underlie discrimination, bias, prejudice, and oppression as well as working to change laws, policies, plans, and structures in our society that perpetuate the economic exploitation of people.
3. Welcoming all individuals into all aspects and roles within our church regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, and /or sexual orientation.
4. Ensuring that each church activity derives from a position of faith and designing each event, service, activity, and group interaction for broad engagement with our faith community.
5. Designing evangelism initiatives that aim toward balancing age groups.
6. Working as disciples of Christ to improve the conditions of our neighbors by providing resources that raise the neighborhood’s quality of life and elevate its hope for a better future.
7. Showing the willingness and the duty to speak truth to power as we seek God’s Kingdom by advocating for justice.
8. Exercising sustainable practices within the church and in our individual lives and advocating for environmental justice. We are commanded to steward the creation as the handiwork of God.
9. Advancing our mission, vision, values, principles, and goals by considering how each decision strives for a positive impact to society, the environment, our church’s economic sustainability, and our spiritual growth.
OUR GOALS
Four Short Term Goals (2 years):
Goal #1: Build Local Community Connection
By November 2023, we will become an integrated partner in our local community.
Goal #2: Develop Cross Generational Relationships
By November 2023, we will build relationships with young families on a regular basis.
Goal #3: Ensure Worship & Formation Alignment
By November 2023, our worship experience and formation efforts will reflect our vision to build relationships with young families without a faith community in Ogden.
GOAL #4: Attend to Ministry Infrastructure
As FPC Ogden achieves the benchmarks above, attention will need to be given to the infrastructure of the ministry in order to sustain the kind of ministry the church envisions.