What We Value

Missional Journey

As a community journeying with God we hear Him calling us to be a part of His Quiet Revolution (Mission) in the world, putting it to rights through the gospel and grace of Jesus Christ.  As the Father sent Jesus, Jesus is sending us, to always look beyond ourselves to the world we live in and the neighbours he brings across our paths.  We hear Him calling us to love our city and seek its well-being by getting involved in and serving our neighbourhoods, to radically engage its culture and invariably through quiet yet revolutionary lives to become a visible counter-cultural foretaste of the coming reign of God.

Scriptures: Jeremiah 29:1-7; Matthew 5:13-16; Luke 10:25-37; John 17:15; 20:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:11; 1 Timothy 2:2

Authentic Community

We live in a world where we find it necessary to define the kind of community we are seeking to cultivate as "authentic."  Authentic community is hard because it's messy and strange because it's full of people who are messy and strange...we all are.  The word "house" in our name signifies our hope to be more than an organization and more than just a gathering of individuals but rather a people from all backgrounds who choose to share life together in meaningful ways as followers of Jesus.  We see ourselves as family and friends, eating, laughing, working, playing, forgiving, serving and supporting one another in the midst of all the peaks and valleys of life.  "Joshua" is the Hebrew name for Jesus who we see as the head of our household and the one who gives us the mercy, grace and peace to be the people God has called us to be.  We see and hear Jesus guiding us to grow roots in our neighbourhoods and cultivate a community that would live in the midst of our city, seeking its well-being from the inside out.

Practically for us this means making interdependent community groups the heart of our church life.  These are safe, accepting environments where people can build authentic relationships, ask questions, laugh, learn, confess, share, serve and worship as we journey together as followers of Jesus.  Moreover, these groups seek to naturally enter into the lives of the neighbourhoods in which they meet through care, involvement and service as a starting point for a movement of grace and peace into all the world.

Scriptures: Genesis 2:18; Psalm 133:1; Matthew 28:19; Mark 3:34-35; John 13:34-35; 17:20-23; Acts 2:42-47; Romans 12:9; Hebrews 10:24-25

Beautiful Worship

Worship is not just a song we sing or a service we attend but a life we live in response to the beauty of God.  It is "taking our everyday, ordinary life--our sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking around life--and placing it before God as an offering" (Eugene Peterson's The Message).  It is a calling to jettison the all too common sacred/secular divide of our culture today for a view that sees all of life and all that we do as opportunities for the sacred to exist by attributing worth to the one who is worthy.  Whether we are riding a wave in the ocean, walking in the forest or feeling the sun on our face we thank God as the one who spoke creation into existence.  It is recognizing that God has uniquely crafted us as His workmanship with talents, skills and spiritual gifts that were meant to be used in service to others as expressions and reflections of the image of God in which we were all formed.  As Creator, God is the most creative, inspiring us to be His image bearers to our world through its stewardship and through the culture forming activities of our day such as music, film, art and media.

Scriptures: Genesis 1:26-27; Psalm 37:4; Ecclesiastes 8:15; John 4:23; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17 

Following Jesus

Following Jesus means recognizing him as Lord, Messiah, and Rabbi.  As Lord, everything was made through Jesus and finds its ultimate purpose in him as the apex of God's glory and grace.  Jesus is God, "The One", the King, and in him is Life.  As Messiah, he's also the one who has come to put the world right again.  He became one of us and through his life and by the cross defeated evil, sin and death once and for all.  Finally, Jesus is our Rabbi as we become his student-apprentices and enroll ourselves into the Jesus school of life.  With a joyful seriousness we immerse ourselves in the spiritual practices of Jesus such as silence, solitude, meditation, prayer, study, service, celebration, confession, etc.  Moreover, as the "quintessential human" Jesus shows us what it means to be fully human as he calls us to walk with Him today as bringers of the Kingdom of God to all creation.  This Kingdom primarily is not just a place we go to when we die but rather the rule of God in our hearts today working its way out into eternity.  It leads us to love a spouse well, raise children well, study well, face adversity well, manage businesses and finances well, form community life well, reach out to those on the margins well, share the gospel of Jesus well and die well.

Scriptures: Matthew 11:28-30; 23:10; 28:18-20; Luke 6:40; 9:23; John 10:10; 14:6; 17:3-4; 20:16, 28, 31; Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 11:1; 1 Peter 2:21