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We Are Becoming a Jubilee Community!

What Does that Look Like?

The World Culture is a hyper-busy place that depersonalizes, alienates, and segregates. It is transient, shallow, and offers empty promises. It crushes hopes and dreams, embitters, and fosters distrust. It stunts growth and gives a false sense of community. It enslaves and impoverishes us spiritually, mentally, emotionally and bodily;and fragments our selves. It fears strangers and dislikes differences. It frantically seeks youth and beauty and fears death and pain. It desperately seeks happiness and pleasure but can never be satisfied, content or truly joyful. Its heroes are flawed icons who fail us in the end.

The original Jubilee temporarily restored people to each other, gave rest to people and the land, brought about justice and renewed people’s relationship with their Creator. It was a shadow of the future Kingdom that would come with the Messiah. Jesus ushered in the eternal Jubilee personified in Himself. The old order passed away. The Jubilee Community is all about inviting people to join us in that new order of Jubilee.

It offers a life of simplicity, peace and restoration. It affirms individuals and brings them into wholeness. It is a true community where people love one another by laying down their lives for each other, joyfully sacrificing to love their neighbor. It is a community working to build deep committed relationships that hold one another accountable to be all that their Creator wants them to be. It encourages them to grow all of their lives. It cherishes age, maturity and wisdom; nurtures innocence and protects the weak and broken. It is a refuge of hope but spreads its dreams of beauty into darkness. It seeks out and welcomes strangers into its midst and introduces them to the spiritual reality of a caring God. It embraces and celebrates differences. It easily forgives and relentlessly seeks reconciliation. It brings healing to broken people and comfort to those in pain. It defends the powerless and seeks to bring about justice. It is a community that finds true contentment and fulfillment. It is a people who joyfully renew themselves in communion with their heavenly Father God. It is a community that tells the story of its hero, the only perfect human being: Jesus the Messiah.

For More About the Jubilee Community's Vision, Click Here!

Core Operating Principles

College Hill Presbyterian Church
a Jubilee Community
Connecting, Serving, Celebrating
We are led by the Holy Spirit
We show respect for all individuals

CORE OPERATING PRINCIPLES

These are the Core Operating Principles by which we distinguish ourselves:

  1. We are led by the Holy Spirit
  2. We show respect for all individuals
  3. We depend on one another
  4. We are focused in our Vision
  5. We strive for our best in His service

Leadership Missional Action Team, Fall 2003

"Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." Galatians 5:25

  • We believe at all costs we must be rightly related to God.
  • We are led by the Holy Spirit in all aspects of planning, decision making, program execution, inter-personal relationships, as well as in our own personal lives.
  • We recognize that our role is to be available for the Lord's use in service to Him and to each other.
  • We recognize our own imperfections and are humble.
  • We give and receive grace from one another.
  • We strive to have teachable spirits.

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. " I Peter 4:8-11

  • We seek truth and speak it with respect.
  • We are honest and transparent with each other.
  • We value differences of ideas and people.
  • We foster a unity of spirit and purpose.
  • We follow through with commitments and are accountable for doing so.
  • We are committed to engaging all generations, making the youngest to the oldest integral parts of CHPC's ministry/mission.
  • We are not afraid of constructive conflict: we embrace disagreement as a vehicle for deepening relationships.
  • We understand and respect that God has gifted everyone uniquely for work in His kingdom.
  • We ask for dialogue before making decisions that will affect others. Whenever possible, input is sought from those affected by decisions.
We depend on one another.
We are focused on our Vision.
We strive for our best in His Service.

"But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them just as He wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body."

  • We create space in which the Christian disciplines of listening, praying, studying, sharing disagreeing, comforting, planning, working, and building up of one another occurs.
  • We bring people together of different ages, races, and social backgrounds under the common bond of mission in jesus Christ.
  • We create a climate that encourages honest, caring relationships between people who:
    • make time for one another;
    • celebrate/rejoice together;
    • know and serve one another; and
    • are accountable to one another.
  • We value mentoring and discipling as we work shoulder-to-shoulder toward our common Vision.

"But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." II Timothy 4:5

  • We expect our leaders to breath life into the Vision of CHPC.
  • We live within the boundaries of clearly defined and agreed upon priorities.
  • We are guided in all decisions by our Vision.
  • We link everything we do to God's Vision for CHPC.
  • We are committed to building the body of CHPC into a people who accept the commitment, practices, and disciplines of a missional community.
  • We desire all to be empowered in taking personal ownership of the health of the CHPC organization.
  • We evaluate annually all ministries against God's Vision for CHPC.
  • We set continuous and challenging goals for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of all communication to and throughout the Body.
  • We are committed to finding passionate people around which to build ministry.
  • We "work with the end in mind."

"Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom." Ecclesiastes 9:10

  • We desire to bring God the honor due Him; therefore, we strive to bring excellence and quality into all aspects of our relationships, lives and ministries.
  • We are committed as a Body to be culturally relevant and to respond to the needs of the fragmented society all around us.
  • We are intent on becoming a learning Community:
    • Clear about who we are - as well as who we are not
    • Tied to or Vision and purpose
    • Committed to being "transformed by the renewing of the mind" (Romans 12:2)
    • Open to the Spirit and to one another
    • Intent on building relationship that values commitment, risk taking, speaking the truth in love, accountability,learning, respect for integrity, excellence, humility, and interdependence.

These are the constant, passionate, Biblically-consistent values that undergird and guide the life of College Hill Presbyterian Church. They define our distinctive essence and are foundational in effecting God’s call for this community of believers to give ourselves away.

By the Power of the Holy Spirit, we dedicate ourselves to continually seek God’s leading in how to live these values. As we move into the future, we aspire to be consistently intentional, constantly creative, and serve with excellence in all things.

We glorify and enjoy God as both the source and focus of all we are and do.

We believe Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord, submitting our will, time, and resources to Him for the building of His Kingdom.

We commit ourselves to the authority of God’s Word, seeking to be reformed, guided, and shaped by its truth.

We desire to know God, equipping, discipling, and encouraging all ages toward wholeness in the Lord.

We devote ourselves to nurturing healthy and healing relationships in the church and in the world.

We share God’s passion for the lost, declaring and demonstrating the Gospel of Jesus Christ by our words and actions.

CHPC Congregation
1998

College Hill Presbyterian Church is called to be a community of spiritually maturing Christians knowing, believing, praying, and living the Word of God. We are called to give ourselves away in unconditional love to God, one another, and others . . . so that we and all those we touch may know God personally and intimately through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. All to the glory of God.

CHPC Session
1996