VISION & VALUES

We exist to know and make known the real Jesus, in our church, our city, and around the world.

Fundamental to what it means to be human is that we were created in God’s image, for his glory.

The Westminster Catechism asks this question: "What is the chief end of man?" Its answer is simple: "To glorify God and enjoy him forever." We go through life often wondering what our purpose is; if there is anything greater than ourselves to live for. When we find our delight in God we discover our created purpose. As St. Augustine, the great church father wrote of God:

“Because you have made us for yourself, our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” 

For broken, rebellious,  sinners and sufferers like us, delighting in God can only come through the person and work of Jesus Christ. We can’t know or delight in God apart from him. Through Jesus' perfect life, substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection, in sheer grace, God forgives and frees us, adopts us into his family, and begins restoring us into what we were made for. Rescued rebels should be filled with the deepest joy and delight.

“And though you have not seen him, you love him, and though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” 
- 1 Peter 1:8-9

When we find the joy we were made for in God, it's normal that we’d spread that joy by sharing it with others. God’s people have been blessed so they will be a blessing (Gen. 12:2). And so we make it our mission to spread the message of joy through the gospel in our neighborhoods and cities all the way to the remotest parts of the earth.

Making Disciples &
Multiplying Churches

Our longing is to see the gospel of Jesus Christ explode across our region and transform lives and communities. 

When we open the pages of the New Testament, wherever the gospel is proclaimed it has an inherent power that creates multiplication. It's as if its explosive power can’t be contained. Hardened haters of Jesus are converted. Doubters become disciples. Sufferers are made whole. Broken, needy, desperate people find life in the risen Christ.  And churches, full of families of believers truly living as brothers and sisters in Christ, are planted in cities and neighborhoods.

Through the simple, ordinary, everyday stuff of disciple-making and church-planting, God’s kingdom presses into this world he is making new.

Summit’s mission is simple - to make disciples and multiply churches. We intentionally do all we do in order to see others swept up in the explosive power of the gospel and serving as conduits for that power in the lives of others.

Our Values

Gospel.

The gospel is much more than just the message by which we were saved. The brilliance of the sacrificing, dying, risen and exalted Jesus Christ must be central to all of life. The gospel transforms our hearts, shapes our ethics, pastors our souls and changes our behavior. The gospel is the word we preach to bring unbelievers to faith and and the word we preach to bring believers to maturity. True Christian community is created both by and for the gospel.

Community.

Christian community created by and for the gospel is the place where the gospel is most fully seen and understood. This is true as we continually preach the gospel to one another and live as God’s people under his loving rule and reign. As we serve one another and others in love and humility we should be a living expression of the gospel, in word and deed sharing together the peace, blessing and freedom of God’s kingdom.

Mission.

We serve a sending God who has sent us into the world as his ambassadors to declare the good news of the gospel and make disciples of all nations. This should not be only a personal activity. At Summit we want to creatively and intentionally do mission together. By proclaiming and demonstrating the gospel, we work together to introduce unbelievers to life in God’s family.