First Assembly of God

Our Values

The core values of Georgetown First Assembly are Truth, Missional Living, Community, Discipleship, Prayer, and Worship. These values serve as the foundation of our ministry and serve to guide us as we pursue themission of God and the God of the mission.

Truth
Although we cannot capture Truth in a sentence, we find itsessence in the Triune God. In His grace, the Father has revealed Himself through the Son by His Spirit. So, Truth is found in the Person of Jesus. He isthe Truth, and the Truth sets us free (John 14:6, 8:32).

God's self-disclosure to humanity is found in a sacred compilation of various works known as the Bible. God has given us 66 books (39 Old Testament, 27 New Testament) written in three languages (Hebrew, Greek, and a bit of Aramaic), over a period of more than a thousand years, by over 40 authors on three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe). Authors include kings, peasants, philosophers, fisherman, poets, statesmen, and scholars. It covers hundreds of controversial subjects with amazing unity. It is the best selling book of all time and is now available in over 3,000 languages. It is our guide to Truth...our compass to the Triune God. The Bible is an essential and infallible record of God's self-disclosure to humanity. These Scriptures are fully inspired by God. We search the Scriptures to be introduced to the Triune God and the Holy Spirit leads us to discover the Truth that sets us free.

Our prayer is that we would develop a taste for truth – even difficult ones. We desire to couple Truth with grace in hopes that we might also introduce non-believers or re-introduce de-churched believers to this same God. We want to lovingly and gracefully extend Truth to a culture desperately seeking answers, hope and meaning.

Missional Living
Our Lord Jesus declared that, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:18-20). The Great Commission is the basis of our mission and is not an option for the believer in Christ.

Our response to the Great Commission is to live our lives missionally. We want to live the mission of God every day, everywhere we go. We want to be intentional about life – to live life on purpose. Acts 17:26 says that "He (God) made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation..." This means that God is intentional about placing us in our neighborhoods, our work places, and our classrooms. Life is not a random accident; rather, God designed it with intention and purpose. Missional living means that we live the way of Jesus in front of the audience that God has given us.

We are called to serve our neighbors in order to demonstrate the rich compassion of our Lord. In sharing the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus radically taught that our neighbor is anyone in need, regardless of social status, race, or even religious preference. In serving those in need, we reflect for them the love, compassion, grace, and mercy of our God. We desire to mobilize our membership for life-affirming outreach and ministries of mercy within our community and beyond.

We desire that our members show compassion daily for the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the outcast. We are to ask ourselves, "Who can I be a neighbor to?" Those who follow the way of Jesus will be known for their love towards others. We love, serve, and care for those that God has "determined" us to be around in the hopes they will see Jesus in us, hear us speak of Him often, and be drawn to Him. We extend our lives missionally when we introduce or re-introduce our neighbors, co-workers, family and friends to the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ. According to Acts 1:8, the empowerment for this missional life comes from the Holy Spirit. We are not left to merely "try hard" in fulfilling the mission. We are empowered supernaturally by the Holy Spirit through baptism in the Holy Spirit to become effective as we live the mission of God every day.

Community
Throughout the Bible, community is a major theme. Beginning with His first creation, continuing with Israel and the New Testament Church, God always calls out a people for Himself. We value authentic relationships. These authentic relationships are vital in our journey to become like Jesus. We find true community through authenticity. Webster defines authenticity as, "true to one's own personality, spirit or character." Authenticity, which is closely related to the virtue of honesty, is the fertile soil in which the image of Christ grows within each of us. Community thrives when people are authentic and genuine, yet it is misleading and disingenuous when authenticity is sparse. Our desire is to become a place where everyone finds a place in the family – the community of faith – through involvement in small groups.

The road to authentic biblical community is the pathway of servanthood. Authentic Christian community is built as everyone does his or her part and puts the interests of others ahead of their own interests. Jesus said it this way, "Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:26-28). Jesus revealed to us the necessity of serving one another when He washed the disciples' feet. We are to serve one another in the church. We express our love for Jesus in an authentic way by washing His bride's feet. Foot-washing expresses itself in a myriad of ways from changing diapers in the nursery, greeting people at the church door, teaching children the way of Jesus, mowing lawns for widows, providing childcare for single moms, serving meals for the hungry, or attending to the needs of the less fortunate. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.

Discipleship
There is an ancient blessing that is still used among rabbis and their disciples today. It says, "May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi." In other words, the goal of the disciple is to walk so closely behind his or her rabbi that the dust stirred up as he walks gets all over you. When Jesus said, "Come and follow me" He was inviting those who would learn from Him to walk closely behind Him and live the way that He lived. To be a disciple is to live the way of Jesus. True disciples of Christ are not formed through gaining cognitive knowledge about Jesus; they are formed through learning to live the way of Jesus over the course of a lifetime.

There are over 50 biblical "one another's" that admonish us to be closely involved with a few others (small groups) in order that we might learn and imitate attitudes and behaviors that characterize God's household – the community of believers. Small groups are intentional efforts to create an atmosphere conducive for believers and non-believers to grow in their understanding and application of God's direction in their lives. Our prayer is that we would develop a holy discontentment with where our lives are and embrace the hope of what our lives can be with the help of the Holy Spirit and the encouragement of our spiritual family.

Prayer
We desire to be a prayerful people who place our trust in the wisdom and power of God. Prayer, throughout the Bible, is defined as constant, personal communication with God. Prayer is not a means to manipulate God by using just the right words and phrases in order to get what we want. E. Stanley Jones once wrote: "Prayer is surrender – surrender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boat hook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I put the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God."

God wants us to pray because prayer expresses our trust in God and is a means whereby our trust in Him can increase. Through prayer, God allows us as finite beings to be involved in activities that are eternally important. Through prayer, God is glorified when He answers. Jesus said, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." Prayer is the means whereby we abide in Christ. It is in prayer that we learn to recognize His voice when He speaks to us. Richard Foster wrote: "Real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth, but from falling in love." It is in prayer that we find intimacy with Jesus and the strength and power we need to live the way of Jesus.

Worship
The ultimate end for which God created man is to see God's glory and worship Him fully. True worship is far more than simply singing a few songs. Louie Giglio wrote: "Worship is our response both personal and corporate to God for who He is and what He has done expressed in and by things we say and the way we live." True worship will cost me everything. It is the daily act of laying down my life. It's giving God all that is "me." It is a constant call to crucify my will and pursue His. True worship means I allow myself to be broken and spilled out like the perfume in the alabaster jar. True worship is arranging my entire life around Jesus, His mission, and His community – it will cost me my self-centeredness.

Worship is the motive and the goal of all our deeds of love done to fellow believers or to unbelievers. Seeing and being captivated by the glory of God makes us long to align ourselves with God's purposes of love. And the goal of loving others is to build believers and unbelievers alike into people with greater and greater capacities and desires to praise the glory of God's grace.

 

 

 

 

 

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