Imagine A Church
With Relevant Music
“My heart is steadfast O God, I will sing and make music with all my soul.” Psalm 108
Music is crucial to our praise and worship of God. At THE LIFE, music resounds with what we can’t say with words only. The substance, message and content of the music we sing are so important. People often describe music as “the way in which our soul speaks.” If that is the case, what our soul says is truly important to us.
The music we sing and play reflects our message of Good News and Hope through Jesus Christ. The lyrics and content focus on God, not so much on ourselves and how we feel. To some this may not make much of a difference. To us, it makes all the difference!
At THE LIFE, the music is relevant and engaging. There have been many innovations in music since the hymn writers pioneered Church music in the middle ages. The music we play sounds modern. We strive to have music that would be part of our everyday lives.
At THE LIFE, the music is accessible. Do you play guitar? Drums? Piano? Flute? Clarinet? Viola? Or any instrument? Come and join the music team. Over the centuries the church has involved a limited number of musicians and only required one organ to cover myriad musical sounds. THE LIFE wants all people to make a joyful noise. You need not be a trained musician to use the gifts God has given you to help us worship God. Of course we want to sound good, and actually we do; quality is very important. What makes the music sound good is the integrity of those playing from their hearts, playing and singing what they truly believe. The music is not a performance; it is a group of people gathered together singing about God.
At THE LIFE, the music is memorable. Upload the music to your Ipod and have it as part of your everyday life. Parents tell us all the time that their children sing the songs at bedtime or while playing. Making worship music a part of your life everyday comforts the soul and brings hope to moments of our lives that get stressful. (for more info on Worship & Music , click here)
Where the Message and Worship is All About Good News
“Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is the proclamation of the end of religion, not of a new religion, or even of the best of all religions.…If the cross is the sign of anything, it’s the sign that God has gone out of the religion business and solved all of the world’s problems without requiring a single human being to do a single religious thing. The cross is actually a sign of the fact that religion can’t do a thing about the world’s problems – that it never did work and it never will…” Robert Capon
Religion is what we believe we need to DO to get right with God. Christianity is the end of religion! God has made us right with himself through Jesus Christ!
We center ourselves on that message, the Gospel message. “Gospel” means good news. What is the good news? The announcement that God loves us with an everlasting love. We celebrate this no matter what happens in life, no matter where we are, no matter what…God says to us, I am with you and I love you. Jesus Christ lives to redeem us from all our wrongdoings, and He calls us to get together and celebrate that message.
We as THE LIFE Church get together to share our joys and sorrows, to pray for one another and the world, to serve each other and the community and to be together in a world that is less than perfect. Our message is always good news and our worship is always centered on the message of Christ’s love for us.
Where All Are Welcome
“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people…” Luke 2:10
The Bible is clear that all people fall short of the glory of God and that Jesus Christ is “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The message of good news is for all, not just for some people.
Unfortunately, many have been turned off or turned away by the church for one reason or another, and they feel unwelcome. THE LIFE is a church that is new! We are not here to turn anyone away from the message of salvation. We invite all people to come as you are, regardless of color, job, marital status, favorite color or even favorite sports team! As church we focus not on US, but rather we focus on God who loves us! Worship with us, praise and thank God with us, serve with us and journey with us.
That Grows Food to Give Away
At THE LIFE, whether your thumb is green or brown, you can join our Gardening Community. This group tends to the outdoor garden where we plant, maintain, and harvest fruits and vegetables that we use for our dinners and give away out of our abundance. (for more info, click here)
That is Bible-Based - Not Tradition-Based
“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have LIFE in his name.” John 20:31
The Bible is the inspired Word of God, given to us for one main purpose: to come to know what Jesus Christ has done for us.
The Bible is a love story that tells all about God’s love for humanity. Yes, humanity doesn’t always love God and doesn’t follow the ways in which God calls us to live. Therefore the scriptures speak to us about God’s will for us and ultimately the scriptures reveal that we are people who are entirely unable to live up to the will of God. This is why as an entire story, the scriptures reveal to us our imperfect ways and how we rebel against God and one another and ultimately how God has brought us back to him through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ death on the cross was for our sin and the scriptures are written so we would come to believe that Jesus is Lord, who does for us what we never could do; Jesus makes us right with God!
In order to know our savior, we need to know what it is we need to be saved from. Therefore the scriptures talk of our selfishness, our greed, our sorrow, our rebellion against God, this is known as sin.
Jesus is the answer to our sin. No matter how hard we try not to sin, we will sin, we can never be perfect. We can never earn God’s love. Therefore God sent Jesus Christ to earn God’s love for us. And this gift is given to us freely, with no strings attached. All Christ asks of us is to trust that he does this for us! This is what the Bible teaches us.
As Church we follow the Bible, not traditions of the church that oftentimes make people feel excluded. (for more info on our Bible Study/Discussion Groups, click here)
That Prays
“Where two or three are gathered in my name I am there in their midst.”
We are not quite sure, but people often say, “My church doesn’t pray.” What we think people mean is that they don’t have the opportunity pray together as their church. At THE LIFE, we believe that God hears our prayers, our desires, our requests and wants us to have an active relationship with Him. We pray! All of our conversations, all our fun, all our worship is all prayer to God because God is with us.
We pray in prayer groups that meet weekly, we pray at our homes, we pray with our lives. (for more info on our Prayer Community, click here)
