Our Posture Toward The World:

We strive to have An Outward Face:

            As a church we do not exist merely for ourselves but for those whom God is drawing into his kingdom who are not yet part of his visible church.  Non-Christians are expected, welcomed and respected with all their questions, objections, struggles, and doubts.  We want to be a church that anticipates (and aggressively encourages and seeks) the presence of those who are not Christians in all of our services, cell-groups, seminars, meetings, conversations, and literature.  We will expect that we are always being overheard and realize that those who are not Christians will be looking on and listening in wherever we are as a congregation or as individuals.  There are no “in house” moments in our classes or services where we assume we are only speaking to Christians.

            The Lord would have his people extend hospitality and friendship to all.  We are friendship oriented not combatants.  We take a process approach to evangelism, not a crisis approach, so we do not seek to manipulate people to believe as we do.  Our intention is to be clear, intelligent, truthful, winsome and respectful.  In daily life we love our neighbors.  In worship we are intentionally conscious of and welcoming to non-Christians as our guests striving for comprehensibility at all times.  We believe that worship can be planned and conducted in such a way that the believer is built up and the curious are welcomed and challenged.  The bottom line is that the Gospel makes us a community where Christians say, “This is the place to bring my non-Christian friends.  This is what they need to hear, and how they need to hear it.”

           Because we as a church are sent to Vestal first (as our Jerusalem, Acts 1:8), and to the Greater Binghamton area (as our Judea and Samaria), we do not reject it, ignore it, withdraw from it, hate it, or speak of it as “the dark place” from which we hope God will deliver us and keep us safe.  Rather, in our confidence in the transformative power of the gospel, our understanding of God’s common grace, the benefit of the death and resurrection of Christ which permeates and sustains all of his creation, and our love for the image of God in other people we are able to engage our community with great expectation and hopefulness.  We seek to love, respect and serve the physical and spiritual needs of the community.

            We believe that nothing promotes the peace and health of Vestal like the spread of faith in the gospel.  It renews individuals and reweaves the fabric of our neighborhoods.  It is the Gospel that moves Christians to humbly serve, live with and love all the ethnically, socio-economically diverse people of our community.  So we will use our gifts and resources to meet the needs of others in our community, especially the poor, oppressed and marginalized.  And more than merely meeting the individual needs, we will work for justice for the powerless.

            We believe that the gospel has a deep, vital, and healthy impact on the arts, business, government, media, and educational institutions of any society.  Therefore we are highly committed to support Christians’ engagement with culture, helping them work with excellence, distinctiveness, and accountability in their professions.

            Because we believe the gospel has the power to transform any individual, any church, and any culture we also believe it can change both the conservative and the liberal components of the church.  Therefore we do not disdain the conservatives, nor fear the liberals, but willingly engage both with the expectation that it is the gospel that has the power to change.  Additionally, we have no illusions that our single church or our PCA tradition is sufficient to renew all of our community spiritually, socially, and culturally.  We are therefore committed to planting (and helping others plant) new churches, while at the same time working for a renewal of gospel vitality in all the congregations of Broome County and beyond.