- Home
- Mission
Mission
The Mission of God
God’s desire for the world is for His name to be known and for His glory to fill it entirely (Habakkuk 2:14). He created everything and holds it all together (Colossians 1:17). He is in all of His creation and through it all (Ephesians 4:6). God is for His own perfect pleasure, plan and purpose.
His purpose is His own glory.
His plan is that we - through Jesus - might know Him and enjoy Him for His very goodness and nature.
His pleasure is our satisfaction in Him.
The Purpose of the Church
The purpose of the global Church is sourced from the mission of God. Because God is for His own glory - displayed in the redemption of humanity - we too are for the same. The purpose of the global Church is to bring God glory through our worship and the making of disciples.
The Great Commandment: Matthew 22:37-39
The Great Commission: Matthew 28:19-20
The Mission of The Chapel
At The Chapel, we seek to bring glory to God and make disciples through the practice of these four pursuits: believing in Jesus, belonging to His family, becoming His disciple and building His Kingdom.
What is God's glory?
God’s glory is the existence of the gift of salvation and reconciliation offered to anyone who sees it and clings to it, choosing to enjoy and hope in Him over the empty promises of sin.
Ephesians 1:3-14, 2 Peter 1:3-11
What is God’s nature?
God’s nature is the perfection of all that is good and true, for everything that is good and true is sourced from His very nature. He is perfectly holy, perfectly loving, perfectly just and perfect in His majesty and power.
2 Samuel 22:31, Deuteronomy 32:3-4
What is the gospel?
The gospel is the cosmic story of God’s grace cutting through the darkness of this fallen world to lavish love upon us. The gift of salvation through Jesus is the great hope of the gospel.
What is a disciple?
Disciple means follower. A disciple of Jesus has chosen reconciliation with Him by believing in the gospel as truth. They live in their new identity by trusting in the hope of Christ’s sacrifice and growing in love - first for God, and then for others.
Our Vision: Saturate
Our vision is to plant churches that magnify Jesus and saturate our communities with gospel teaching and believers living as disciples of Jesus.
The Chapel's Mission
Making disciples who make disciples.
Believing in Jesus
As humans, we are filled with beliefs. Some of our beliefs are stronger than others. Each of us, though, has one ultimate belief - the one we hold onto more strongly than the rest. This is the true object of our worship. Our worship follows our focus. As followers of Christ, our focus is on Him. It is Christ who made a way - where there was no way - to eternal fellowship with our creator God.
On our own, we are fallen people without hope. Christ saw us, and in his merciful love, volunteered himself to come to earth to live as a man and to die a sacrificial death on our behalf. It is only through believing in what Jesus Christ has done for us that we can be rescued - not by our behavior, or our generosity, or our intention or even our goodness. The requirement is perfection, and the blood of Jesus makes us blameless before God.
Belief is the source of discipleship. The desire to nurture belief is the source of everything we do as a church, from our weekend services to our small groups to how we live our lives. We desire for the purpose of everything we do to point back to the truth of the Word of God.
Belonging to His Family
The desire for belonging inside us isn’t a flaw; every fiber of our being was designed for relationship. That longing we feel is actually central to our Christian Faith. God exists in three parts - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - in perfect unity with the others. The very nature of God is relational. Being made in the image of our creator God (Genesis 1:27), we too are designed for relationships.
Gospel community, knowing and being known, is the scene of discipleship. Following Jesus Christ is intended to be personal, yes, but not private. We were designed for community and meant for a relationship with God, and with each other.
Groups and classes at The Chapel are two ways that we invite our people to belong to gospel family. These are places where we seek to live with uncommon love that radiates care and consideration for others over ourselves. We aren’t perfect, and neither are our groups. Life is messy sometimes. We hope that within the mess, we might commit to growing together in those attributes which reflect Christ - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Groups: ABFs
One way we practice gospel community and grow deeper into our identity as disciples is through Adult Bible Fellowships.
Resources
Becoming His Disciple
Disciple means follower. In ancient Israel, the religious teachers (rabbis) would all have ‘disciples’ that followed them wherever they went. These disciples studied under the rabbi and sought to imitate their teacher in all that they did.
In the same way, we desire to imitate Christ. Our lives are intended to reflect His love and light. Imitating Christ is the mission of discipleship.
The pursuit of Christ-likeness is where we seek to source our worship, our teaching, our service, our relationships and our attitudes. Likewise, discipleship is expressed in many different ways. By repeatedly choosing to serve His own disciples, Jesus gave us a lasting example of what marks the heart of a disciple - servant-heartedness. Saved people serve people.
Bible Classes
In addition to our ongoing groups, we also offer short-term classes throughout the year.
Volunteer
As disciples, we want to be growing in gratitude for the sacrifice Christ paid for us. We live from a posture of considering others more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). A natural overflow of these pursuits is serving others by volunteering.
Resources
Building His Kingdom
Through Jesus Christ, we have been given a life-altering gift that we can’t help but be compelled to give away. As we have received freely, so we give freely (Matthew 10:7-8).
Building His Kingdom, then, is the response of discipleship. We build God’s Kingdom with the desire to make His glory known and His presence enjoyed. As a church family, we seek to live missional lives saturated in purpose and intentionality. Loving our neighbors, volunteering in our community, serving the poor and needy and going on international outreach trips are all examples of how we seek to glorify God by building His Kingdom.
Outreach Trips
Building Christ’s Kingdom is the response of discipleship. We live this in many ways at The Chapel, including through outreach trips.
Local Outreach
While Acts 1:8 ends with a call to the ends of the earth, it begins with a call for us to be witnesses at home. Through our local outreach ministry, we seek to spread the love of Jesus across our city.
Resources
Akron
Sunday services: 9am & 10:40am
Building hours: 9am - 5pm Tue.-Fri.
Address: 135 Fir Hill, Akron, Ohio 44304
Phone: 330.376.6400
Email: info@thechapel.life
