Our Vision

What is the vision that fuels, guides and explains who this church is? It’s captured in this sentence. And yes, we know the sentence is not self-explanatory on first look, you must get to know it. This explains a great deal about who we are at Council Tree. We hold relationships at the core of who we are, and no person is self-explanatory on first look, you must get to know them.

What do we mean by ‘embracing’?

We are a church that has and will initiate personal relationships. We want to become friends with you as we believe a church is a sacred network of authentic relationships. We are committed to believing that friendship can cover a very wide range and cross borders of age, economics, political persuasion, theological distinctives, ethnicity, etc.

Because we believe that multiple perspectives and experiences need to be present for optimal community health we go as far as to say we want to be an “80-20” church. That is, if 100 represents the scale of “right” and “left” (Socially, politically, theologically, etc.) we believe our community should encompass the scale from 80-20. We have discovered that when relationships are based on our commitment to Christ above everything else, they flourish in surprising ways.

We are drawn to this type of community because we see it first modeled in the 12 Jesus gathered as his apprentices. Among them he had radicals who wanted to overthrow Rome and traitors who became rich by cooperating with Rome.

We understand that Paul nailed relationships best when he described how Jesus, Gods son, initiated relationship with humans at great cost to himself* and that Paul himself did not hold on to his distinctives at all cost, rather, he worked overtime to become ‘all things to all people’* so they could understand the Good News Jesus brought of the Kingdom of God.

Philippians 2:5-8, I Corinthians 9:22b

What do we mean by ‘connecting’?

That each is uniquely integrated into the network of Council Tree to engage in relationships and service* that are mutually beneficial. A church at its best is a community, meaning that we did not hand select everyone one who is in it, we give the group a degree of influence in our lives and we each have gifts that keep the community healthy that are needed and counted on. We have discovered that when people are connected in relationships and their gifts are activated, they find inspiration and their needs are met.

I Corinthians 12:7, 12-14

What do we mean by ‘hungry’?

Most centrally, those who have an awareness of the depth of their own (and others) needs, however those needs are presenting.* Acknowledgment of need (for relationship, purpose, rescue) is an admission of weakness and dependence, which is key for a life in the Spirit.* The through-line conflict of all four Gospels is with Jesus and religious leadership who portrayed strength not need. It turned out that the ones who knew they had need were best able to known and follow Jesus.

Matthew 11: 28-30, II Corinthians 2:10, Luke 14:21

What do we mean by ‘known’?

That the church is a community where all have the opportunity to engage in genuine Kingdom kinship. Our greatest needs revolve around relationships. Being known means that you know several others developing stories, they know yours, and others have some level of say or influence in your life.*

We have discovered that being seen, received and known is one of the most significant factors for long-term healthy church life.* Deep level knowledge of others in genuine relationships supplies the resilience necessary to endure the inevitable challenges all lives encounter.

Ephesians 5:21, John 21:21

What do we mean by ‘nourished’?

Nourish is our synonym for discipleship or apprenticeship to Jesus.* We are being nourished when we are with another so we can become who they are and do what they do. Being with Jesus so we can live like Jesus is at the very heart of what we believe a church is. We are increasingly become a church that is organized around intentional relationship that grow the fruit of people following Jesus in an intimate and healthy way which energizes us to know and practice our own giftedness and purpose in pursuit of Jesus kingdom.

Matthew 28:19-20