OUR VISION
Our vision is to be a grove planted in the city that sees those around us experiencing new life and flourishing. We long to see our city experience the life-transforming power of the gospel as we live out our calling to make disciples of Jesus in all of life. Gospel Communities (GCs) are the primary disciple-making context for the Grove. These communities allow us to live out our gospel identity as a family of servant missionaries. GCs provide the opportunity to love God as Father and one another as brothers and sisters, serve King Jesus by serving others, and live Spirit-filled lives as we declare and display the gospel with one another and in our city. GCs are the environment in which we live out our faith so that others will see our love for one another and recognize us as Jesus’ disciples. We envision these to be places of connection and belonging where all are invited to take a seat at the table. As God blesses our work by saving the lost, maturing the saved, and multiplying disciple-making disciples we will raise, equip, and send out qualified leaders to plant like-minded churches.
OUR MISSION
OUR VALUES
Gospel Rooted
We love the gospel of Jesus because it is good news. The gospel of Jesus has the power to save sinners and to continue to transform us throughout our lives. Being rooted in the gospel means that we place our identity in Christ and what he has done for us (John 15). In order to be a gospel rooted community, we need each one of us to understand the gospel and be able to communicate it in all of life. We believe being rooted in the gospel, in light of The Story of God, gives us the ability to live out our calling as His disciples, as we long for Jesus to bring about the new creation.
Love like Family
In the gospel, we have received a new familial identity through our reconciliation back to the Father, by means of the Son, through the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, as disciples of Jesus, we are family and ought to love like family. The scriptures emphasize that the transition of a non-believer to a new believer, and of a new believer to a mature believer, is most effective within a community that goes beyond mere gatherings. Jesus envisioned a people whose love for one another was evident and attractive to outsiders (John 13:29-30).
Live like Missionaries
We believe Jesus is calling each of His disciples in all of life to make disciples. How would our city be changed if each disciple of Jesus focused their time and talents like a missionary would do in a foreign context? We want to get to know our city, neighborhoods, and co-workers so that we might be able to speak the good news of Jesus in a way that sounds like good news. Our prayer is that the good news of Jesus will saturate Bakersfield.
OUR BELIEFS
The Evangelical Free Church of America is an association and fellowship of autonomous
and interdependent churches united around the same Statement of Faith.
God
1. We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.
The Bible
2. We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.
The Human Condition
3. We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.
Jesus Christ
4. We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus—Israel's promised Messiah—was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.
The Work of Christ
5. We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.
The Holy Spirit
6. We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.
The Church
7. We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God's grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.
Christian Living
8. We believe that God's justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.
Christ’s Return
9. We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.
Response and Eternal Destiny
10. We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen