VALUES
TRUTH
In an age where many do not believe in absolute Truth, we hold to the Bible in all that it teaches as the very Word of God. So we study and teach the Bible carefully, striving to live out the Truth in our daily lives. We speak this Truth in love and gentleness to those who do not believe it, and seek to avoid being argumentative about our beliefs.
FOLLOWING JESUS
Being a Christian is not just about attending a church. Our intent is to be people who believe Jesus' words, hold to his teaching, and live in obedience to Him. Because he loved us and gave his life to save us from our sins, we want nothing more than to live our entire lives following him and telling others of his love.
WORSHIP
God is the only one worthy of worship and we were made to worship Him. Because of all that Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross, we love Him and want to sing of his excellence, beauty, and grace. We sing our songs to God in awe of Him and experience the wonder of his presence in the midst of the church.
SMALL GROUPS
To grow as disciples in a church, Christians need a smaller context beyond the larger gathering of a Sunday service. The Bible lays out this model in the book of Acts. We gather in small groups during the week to apply the Bible to our lives, pray together, and enjoy new friendships.
PRAYER
Prayer is a primary way that we cooperate with Jesus in his work and stay in close relationship with him. We spend time with him in prayer and know that he hears us. We pray to him alone and we pray when the church is gathered. We pray for each other and we present our needs in prayer, thanking him for everything he has done.
MULTI-ETHNIC
We are a church committed to love and unity among people of many cultures, races, and nations together in Christ. Our command from Jesus is to reach “all nations” with the gospel so we seek to heal the wounds caused by the sin of racism and division. The church best represents Jesus’ intention when made up of every race and ethnicity in one unified family.
MULTI-GENERATIONAL
People of all ages are needed to build a healthy church. We have a specific passion to reach university students, but a biblical church also reaches grandparents, families, young professionals, youth, and children. This is the Bible’s model and all generations are essential for effective, disciple-making churches.
RELATIONSHIP
A biblical church is made up of people who grow in real, loving friendship that is lived out in unity of purpose. We need each other and help one another as we grow to maturity in Jesus. In healthy churches, people enjoy following Jesus together and constantly make new friendships as Jesus adds people to His church.
LEADERSHIP
Jesus gives leaders to equip, instruct, encourage, and protect His church. Without leadership the church is ineffective. We are careful that our pastors and leaders are trustworthy and meet the Bible’s qualifications. Because of this, we are able to follow them with trust and confidence as we serve Jesus together.
CHURCH PLANTING
Local churches are the primary means of making disciples for Jesus. Thus, we constantly train church planting pastors, worship leaders, and planting teams to start new churches in other cities. Biblical missions are best lived out through sending new churches where the gospel is preached and people become authentic Jesus followers.
MERCY
God extended mercy to us when Jesus died for our sin to rescue us. Because of this, we extend mercy to others who want to know Jesus and experience his forgiveness. Jesus has taught us to forgive others as we have been forgiven by him. The church is to be a place of healing, restoration, freedom, and new life.
LOVING GOD
We want to grow in loving God through obedience, sacrifice and worship. That means we will try our best to listen and obey when we hear Him speak. It means we will give ourselves fully to Him, live for Him, and sacrifice for Him, even when it feels hard. One of the ways we will regularly express our love for Him in our gatherings is through singing intimate, engaging, heart-felt songs of worship that genuinely convey our hearts of love for Him.
LOVING OTHERS
We want to grow in loving others in a way that reflects God's great love for us: genuine, lavish, and selfless. It is definitely easier to love God than to love other human beings. God is perfect, people are not. Still Jesus told us that loving other people is equally important to loving God. He commands us to love all others, not just the ones we want to love. While this can be one of the hardest things we are ever called to do here on earth, it can also be one of the most powerful and wonderful things God can use us for.
LIVING IT OUT
All of this stuff sounds really nice, but it is useless if we do not live it out. At Clear River we want to be known as people who really live out the message of Jesus not just on Sundays, but in every moment of our day-to-day lives. We want to be an authentic community of God lovers and people lovers who live out the message of Jesus and the Bible in such a real way that others can experience the love and mercy of Jesus.
CHURCH SIZE
Churches can get too large to most effectively do the work of relational disciple making. We do not attempt to grow mega-churches or do multiple campuses. We believe the ideal size for a relational local church may be under 1,000 people.