Presuppositions are understood assumptions of fact controlling how any church (or individual) approaches ministry. Though transcending any specific context (presuppositions are not contextual!), presuppositions affect the expression of a given church’s ministry as it seeks to work out its commitments (see below) in a particular context. Presuppositions answer the question “why”. Any and every method (how) of ministry can and should be informed by its presuppositions.

Summary: Christ’s gospel, the good news about his life, death, resurrection, ascension and reigning Lordship, can transform any person, community, institution or place.

Explanation: Evangelical New Testament scholar Simon Gathercole distilled a simple, three-point outline of the Gospel as it is found in the New Testament ("The Gospel of Paul and the Gospel of the Kingdom" in God's Power to Save, ed. Chris Green Apollos/Inter-Varsity Press, UK, 2006.)

The Gospel then is that announcement of “Good News” that through the person and work of Jesus, the Messiah, God fully accomplishes salvation for us. He satisfied the judgment our sins deserve, bringing us into fellowship with God. He established his kingdom which eventually will be seen in a restored creation in which we will enjoy new life together with him forever. When we believe and rely on Jesus’ work and record (rather than our own), we find that God summons us into this new life so that we can begin to experience it now by his Spirit.

Therefore:
The Gospel Changes Individual Lives.

Summary:
In the words of Christopher Wright, the whole “Bible renders to us the story of God’s mission” and the essence of God’s mission is “to extend his reign through the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Summary:
Everything God created, as God’s creation, remains very good (1 Tim 4:4–5).

Commitments are those things which we value and emphasize in ministry, believing that as we devote ourselves to these things, we will fulfill our purpose of bringing glory to God by being a sign of and witness to what God has accomplished, is accomplishing, and will accomplish through Jesus Christ and by the Spirit. While flexible, whatever methods we choose for executing our commitments will inevitably be informed by our presuppositions.

Throughout the Bible, the distinguishing mark of God’s people is that they know the living God to be present with them (Deut 4:6–7; 2 Cor 3:7–17). And while God is always with his people, it is in gathered worship that this truth is most acutely experienced and revealed (Lev 9:5–6; Jn 2:21–24; 1 Cor 14:24; Heb 12:22–29). Therefore, our services of worship hold primary place for what we do as a church. This meeting is the hub around which all our other ministries and gatherings revolve, the source in and out of which other ministries flow. Our purpose is to help people, believers and unbelievers (1 Cor 14:24-25), come into the presence of the living God and commune with him through Christ and by the Spirit.

A central theme which runs throughout the Bible is that God is creating a people for himself. God is not merely saving individuals; he is building a new community. The development of that community lies at the heart of God’s covenant promise “I will be your God and you will be my people.” Consider the following:

CPC must therefore take the call to be God’s new community with utmost seriousness. We are made in the likeness of a God who is not only committed to community and calls us to community, but is himself a community. He did not create us to live in isolation and autonomy. We will never be what we are supposed to be or do what we were made to do while living in isolation from worshipful friendship with God, and mutually-serving friendship with others.

God desires and purposes to be known throughout his entire creation (Is 11:9; Hab 2:14). He has not only saved us from something (our sin), he has saved us for something: to participate in his mission to restore the creation, which happens when people repent of their sins and follow the world’s rightful and gracious Lord. God’s people have been blessed to be a blessing (Gen 12:2–3), called to call, elected for the world’s sake (Ex 19:4–6; 1 Pet 2:9–11). Therefore CPC exists here in Santa Barbara as a witness to God’s saving acts so that he might be known and worshipped as the world’s Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. This makes us:

Kingdom-Minded:

As a church, we are both a model and agent of God’s Kingdom and a witness to its unique priorities—loving and serving one another, ministering to the poor, upholding social justice, being generous with our resources, being a light in the darkness, serving God with our heart, soul, mind and strength.

City-Positive:

We exist to love and renew Santa Barbara, to seek its peace and prosperity (Jer 29:7). As a church, we are the first fruits of God’s new creation and have the potential to be a transforming presence in this city. We are called to embody the gospel as we seek to give foretastes of the Kingdom by seeking the healing of our city’s brokenness. In the end we are not so much looking for Santa Barbara to have a better church, but for CPC to cultivate a better Santa Barbara. Therefore, we desire the gospel to change:

God’s goal is to restore, to renew, to regenerate, his beautiful yet broken creation back to his original intention. In the Bible, that intention is called “shalom”. Shalom, as C. Plantiga defines it, is “the webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight. It means far more than mere peace of mind or a cease-fire between enemies. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight. Shalom is the way things ought to be.” In our worship-gatherings, community interactions, and missional engagement, we set our sights on the experience of God’s shalom, the renewal that only his Spirit can bring through the gospel.

Having laid out our commitments individually, it is important to note that they are to be viewed as inseparable and interrelated. It is not as if when we devote ourselves to worship on Sunday morning, we stop being committed to community, mission, or renewal. Rather, when we prioritize any one thing, others are still valued. We worship as a community in mission with the hope of renewal. We engage in mission as a community as an act of worship.

When Paul wrote these words to his congregations (Gal 4:19, Rom 8:29, 2Cor 3:18), he was writing about spiritual formation. Christian spiritual formation is the engagement of the whole person into the continuing process of being progressively formed, conformed, and transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Everyone receives spiritual formation as everyone is in the process of becoming something. The question is: What is a person becoming and is that process leading to good or ill? As a church, we need to take a conscious, intentional hand in a disciple’s developmental process as they are impacted by the gospel Word and under the direction and energizing of the Holy Spirit. We need to be able to say: “This is how you mature in the faith here at CPC.” Maturity will involve:

At a macro-level, the process in which one engages to cultivate these things is:

*Note that our spiritual formation process parallels our commitments.

The anchor and center of discipleship at CPC is Sunday worship. Since the object (or objects) of our worship defines us psychologically, sociologically, and spiritually, the things we worship shape the way we think, feel, behave, and relate. Worship is the most formative thing any individual does. In the service we are reoriented toward God and nourished through the liturgy of Word and Sacrament. There, the gospel challenges the religious, the irreligious, the mature christian and the new christian all the same time. There we are renewed in covenant with God.

Private:

Through the gospel-shaped liturgy of our corporate gatherings, worshippers learn a paradigm for how to related to God on a daily basis.

Corporate gatherings (and individual times) of worship, however, are not enough for one to fully understand, live out, or grow in the Christian faith. Christianity can only be experienced through community life.

Life in community creates alignment of purpose through which we serve both the church and the world. As more of our deep spiritual, emotional, psychological, and social needs are met by the gospel as it is lived out in community, God’s grace begins to overflow from our hearts into actions of service, mercy, and a desire to communicate the gospel to those who do not yet know God. We begin to look for ways to make and renew culture and its institutions so that they honor God’s design. Recognizing that many of these things cannot be accomplished individually, we also appreciate the need to move out in mission with others, as a community.

The more we reach out in mission, the more the Spirit makes us aware of how much our own lives fall short of God’s intention. Consequently, our need for God’s empowering grace deepens and we begin to hunger for his presence more and more. This Spirit-given desire, in turn, leads us back to worship where we are renewed by God’s presence afresh.