Below you’ll find AMR’s Theological Vision, a statement outlining our foundation, posture, identity, and mission. This document is offered as a shared vision for the life and work of the Church. For further context, read Geoff Ziegler’s introduction to the theological vision. This vision statement reflects the work of the AMR board and is presented as an invitation toward clarity, unity, and renewed mission.
Foundation
Our world will experience its full and joyful consummation once all things have finally been brought perfectly together in Jesus Christ, the risen and exalted King who now reigns and is putting all things under his feet. Astonishingly, God has chosen to accomplish this glorious plan through the Church. It is the Church that God has redeemed and called to be Christ’s body. It is as the Church obeys God’s call upon it that Jesus, its head, fills the world, causing even the heavenly authorities to marvel at God’s manifold wisdom. Alongside all other branches of Christ’s Church, our denomination’s sacred task is, in Christ, to help the Church increasingly fulfill this calling.
Posture
Gratitude
Because the exalted Christ has given his gifts to his Church, with his Spirit equipping and upholding his covenant community from one generation to the next, we commit to a posture of gratitude. We are heirs, not founders, of a great tradition, called to be faithful stewards of a precious institution rather than to neglect it or treat it as a means for self-promotion. Mindful of our indebtedness to those who have gone before us, we will honor and build upon the rich theological and denominational resources with which we have been entrusted.
Hope
Because the exalted Christ continues to lead and instruct his Church by his powerful Spirit, we commit to a posture of hope. Though the demonic dysfunctions of our society and the persistence of our indwelling sin tempt us to retreat into a bunker mentality or to capitulate to passive cynicism, Christ promises never to forsake us. Therefore, even as we look backward in gratitude for God’s previous blessings of theological understanding and fruitful ministry, we also look forward with confident expectation of the Church’s future blessings through Christ.
Trust
Because we, Christ’s body, are united in our Head, and because Christ is alive and actively preserving and deploying all his body for service, we commit to pursuing a communion of trust. Though Satan sows seeds of suspicion among us—through evil deeds done in darkness and bad-faith actions; through slander and false rumors; through uncharitable assumptions and quickness to judge—Christ calls us to charity. We will respond to such suspicion by choosing to honor and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Because Christ exerts his prophetic work through his Church, we will listen to each other and receive correction with humility and charity. As fellow priests in Christ, we will confess our sins and offer our forgiveness to one another. Because we share in his kingship, we will actively guard against all sinful behavior that breeds distrust.
Identity
Biblical
Because Christ the Head of the Church births and grows his Church through his life-giving Word, “the only infallible rule of faith and practice,”
We submit ourselves in every way to His holy and inerrant Scriptures, eschewing both progressive drift and fundamentalist perfectionism.
We oppose any behavior that subordinates the Bible to human wisdom, whether in the form of adding extrabiblical constraints to faith and practice—for God alone is Lord of the conscience—or by taking anything away from the whole counsel of God.
Reformed
Because Christ the Prophet directs his Church by providing a rule of faith and love, summarized in the Westminster Standards,
We gratefully receive these standards as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures, and we eagerly seek to bring the riches of our entire Reformed tradition into engagement with whatever new opportunities our moment may bring. Confident in these convictions, we also believe “there are truths and forms with respect to which men of good character and principles may differ,” requiring us to exercise mutual forbearance.
Sincerely subscribing to the “fundamentals of this system of doctrine,” we oppose terms of our communion that are either too lax, requiring only “substance subscription,” or too narrow, requiring “strict subscription.”
Presbyterian
Because Christ the King gathers and governs his Church, disciplining his flock through the polity and order he has given,
We commit to acting as faithful stewards of the institution we have inherited, diligently pursuing its purity, peace, and unity. We will actively engage in the labors required by its discipline and government, confident that through the orderly processes of Presbyterianism, Christ cares for his Church.
We oppose all forms of divisiveness, such as empty proceduralism or mob-like adjudication, instead energetically pursuing the biblical and constitutional means for confronting and correcting fellow believers.
Mission
Christ-Exalting Mission
Because Christ the Apostle enlists his Church as ambassadors of the single gospel of Christ to all,
We commit to the work of making disciples, desiring to see the loving rule of Christ take hold of every tongue, tribe, and nation. We believe it is the gospel of Christ alone that can bring this salvation. We also believe that this gospel proclamation must be thoughtfully adapted to its specific context and adorned with the Church’s good works.
We oppose any contextualization of the gospel that compromises its message or any extrabiblical restriction that hinders the gospel from taking root in all cultures.
Christ-Shaped Elders
Because, as the gospel creates new church communities, Christ the Chief Shepherd pastors his people through elders,
We commit to diligently training and carefully ordaining elders from various languages and cultures whose ministry, rule, and care reflect the strength and gentleness of Christ: godly men whose character is above reproach, exemplary in integrity, humility, and repentance, and whose competence in the Word of God enables them to instruct, correct, and guard against error.
We oppose expressions of leadership that either abdicate authority or exercise it in a domineering and abusive manner.
Christ-Filled Ministry
Because, through His elders, Christ the Overseer of our souls equips his people to participate in this mission and to build each other up into a community that increasingly embodies him,
We commit to structures of ministry that encourage among all members the godly exercise of spiritual gifts, so that these mutual expressions of “speaking the truth in love” produce a congregation rich in personal godliness, communal virtue, and wisdom for good works in every dimension of life.
We oppose an egalitarianism that eradicates the order ordained by Christ or a clericalism that devalues the biblical use of his gifts in the ministry of the whole congregation.
Christ-Saturated Worship
Because Christ’s mission finds its culmination as Christ the Great High Priest leads his people in worship of the triune God,
We commit to congregational worship that conforms to his instructions, confident that we encounter Christ through the ordinary means of grace: Word, sacrament, and prayer. We believe that these means should be appropriately adapted to the particularities of each local, embodied gathering, through the gifts of Christ’s people and under the authority of Christ’s officers.
We oppose the use of elements of worship not regulated by his Word or any enforcement of unbiblical restrictions that bind where Scripture gives freedom.
With joy we dedicate ourselves in Christ to this sacred calling. We resolve to persevere in this work until that glorious day when the earth is as full of the glory of God in Christ as the waters that cover the sea.