A few weeks ago in my sermon titled “We preach Christ to All Souls,” I laid out seven distinct cultural values of All Souls Church. I have them listed below giving a quick explanation of each so you have an understanding of the kind of culture we desire to create at All Souls Church.

1.) We let the Bible do the heavy lifting 

(Expository Christ-centered preaching)

We believe the Word is able to convert the soul, shape the soul, give purpose and most importantly reveal God and his purposes to us. God has given us His Word to understand, live, endure suffering, and to show us salvation in Jesus Christ.

So every week we open up the Word to discover how it points us to Jesus. 

Our ministry is not built on programs, personalities, politics, marketing strategies, lights and fog machines, or any other strategies that humans create and force on the church. We stand upon the Word.

2.) We are a community of prayer and worship

The purpose of the gatherings and other activities at All Souls church is communion with God. We gather to worship Him. We pray to Him. He speaks to us in the Word and in the Sacraments (Baptism & Communion). We will not be hijacked by any other purposes, worldly perspectives, wants of the members, or preferences of individuals.

Many churches seek to entertain, we seek to encounter God. 

3.) We confess and teach “Christ Crucified” the confession of the Ancient Church

(a.k.a the person and work of Christ, Apostles Creed, Nicene Creed, 1689 Confession, Catechism)

Our message is “Christ Crucified.” We understand that religious folk might think we preach too much grace and irreligious folks think we preach foolishness but “to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). God’s grace leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4) and faith (Ephesians 2:8-10).

4.) We welcome all souls to gather at the feet of Jesus

We intentionally desire that our Church will be a place for all souls to worship and discover Christ. 

All people   

All ages   

All ethnicities 

All economic brackets   

All types of sinners

All perspectives and ideologies 

All who sin and need a savior

5.) We influence the world around us through service and forgiveness - not culture war

Many in American churches are involved in the culture war between right and left wing political perspectives. We are not. We believe that most of what is happening in the culture wars is foolish, divisive and biblically misinformed. 

Christ called us to reach the nations, not declare “WAR” on them. Jesus died for them. We also know that until a person is converted by the Holy Spirit, they do not have the ability or right perspective to obey Christian laws. 

We will not demand an unchristian world to act like they are Christians. Doing so is a fool's errand. 

We understand that in order for someone to worship Christ and obey God’s laws, it takes an intervention of the Holy Spirit. It is foolish to know that our hearts had to be opened by the Holy Spirit to receive the gospel and God’s morality and then turn around and demand that people who don’t have Jesus to act like they do. This does not mean we will be quiet about injustice, it just means we will not wage war as the world does.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh (a.ka. carnal, worldly, man-centered) but we have divine power to destroy strongholds”

2 Corinthians 10:4

We fight by the power of the Spirit with service, forgiveness, compassion and love.

7.) We are here to bless not stress

What we mean here is that we offer many ways for you to grow, but we are not trying to force anyone to do anything.

Serving, giving, attending, learning the Catechism and anything else must come from a holy desire not manipulation or coercion. Sometimes people need to just come and receive for a while. All Souls is a safe place for that.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Harvey