Mission, Vision, and Beliefs

We strive to restore, develop, and release people to fulfill their Christ-centered mission.

God's mission

God's church doesn't have a mission. God's mission has a church.

God’s mission is the restoration of all things through Jesus Christ. It culminates with the Gospel: the Good News of Jesus Christ. Jesus proclaimed and demonstrated this gospel in his life and ministry.

Restore

We want to see all people restored to relationship with God through Jesus.

Develop

We want to see all who follow Jesus be developed toward maturity.

Release

We want to release people to be active participants in God’s mission.

We focus on developing multiplying disciples of Jesus that join God’s work in the world.

Discipleship

Disciples are those learning from Jesus, how to be like Jesus, by being with Jesus.

Discipleship is the intentional process of becoming more like Jesus in his character and competency — being like Jesus and doing Jesus-like things. We prioritize a culture of discipleship through communion, community, and co-mission.

Communion

We grow closer in relationship to Jesus.

Community

We grow closer in relationship with other Jesus followers.

Co-mission

We join God’s work outside the walls of the church.

About our denomination

The Christian & Missionary Alliance was born out of a passion for Jesus and a heart for lost people. Centered in Him and empowered by His Spirit, our message remains unchanged and our mission remains uncompromising–until all have had the opportunity to hear of His inbounding grace, unrestrained mercy, and unyielding love.

In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love.

The Foundation of our Beliefs

The Apostle's Creed

We look to the Apostles’ Creed, an affirmation that has held the church together for almost 2,000 years, to define the essentials of our faith.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
And born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
And is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy catholic Church,
The communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body,
And the life everlasting.
Amen.

God

There is one God who is infinitely perfect, existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is the true God and the true man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He died upon the cross, the Just for the unjust, as a substitutionary sacrifice, and all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood. He arose from the dead according to the Scriptures. He is now at the right hand of Majesty on high as our great High Priest. He will come again to establish His kingdom, righteousness and peace.

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is a divine person, sent to indwell, guide, teach, empower the believer, and convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

The Bible

The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were verbally inspired by God and are a complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men. They constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice.

Sin

Man was originally created in the image and likeness of God: he fell through disobedience, incurring thereby both physical and spiritual death. All men are born with a sinful nature, are separated from the life of God, and can be saved only through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The portion of the impenitent and unbelieving is existence forever in conscious torment; and that of the believer, in everlasting joy and bliss.

Salvation

Salvation has been provided through Jesus Christ for all people; and those who repent and believe in Him are born again of the Holy Spirit, receive the gift of eternal life, and become the children of God.

The Church

The Church consists of all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are redeemed through His blood, and are born again of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church, which has been commissioned by Him to go into all the world as a witness, preaching the gospel to all nations. The local church is a body of believers in Christ who are joined together for the worship of God, for edification through the Word of God, for prayer, fellowship, the proclamation of the gospel, and observance of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

The Second Coming

The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is imminent and will be personal, visible, and premillennial. This is the believer’s blessed hope and is a vital truth which is an incentive to holy living and faithful service.

Cultural Issues

We often get questions about how our faith intersects with different questions and ideas swirling around in our culture. The topics below are not necessarily the most important beliefs about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, just the ones we get the most questions about.

At Crosspoint we believe that our position on cultural issues matters. We believe God’s ways are the best way to live life and therefore want to accurately know what He says.

We also believe that our posture towards people is just as important.

Jesus was uncompromising in teaching and calling people to align with his beliefs because he wanted them to experience the life they were created for. The sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, and normal every day people were captivated by Jesus and wanted to follow him. The Pharisees held many of the same positions and beliefs that Jesus did, and yet many people felt alienated by them.

The biggest difference between the Pharisees and Jesus wasn’t their position (though they did disagree about some pretty important things). The biggest difference was their posture. The Pharisees’ posture was characterized by pride, judgment, and looking down on sinners, while Jesus’ posture was characterized by love and compassion.

We want to be a community that is living into the positions and postures of Jesus. We hold to our beliefs with conviction and love towards those who disagree with us.

One last note: if you have any questions, please reach out to us. We want to be as clear as possible so that you can best discern what it looks like to be part of our community. However, there’s only so much that can be communicated in a couple paragraphs on a website. Many of these topics are complex and are best discussed with a lot of humility, listening, and a little bit of coffee.

You can find all the position papers on the Christian & Missionary Alliance’s website.

Human Sexuality

We believe in the historic Christian view of marriage and sexual expression, that marriage is a lifelong covenant between a male and female, that God created sexuality to be enjoyed in the context of that covenant, and that all sexual practice outside of marriage is sin. We don’t think everyone needs to be married to be complete (Jesus wasn’t married!), and that singleness can be an incredible opportunity to invest in God’s Kingdom in ways those who are married with children aren’t able to.We want to embody the posture of Jesus in how we live out this counter cultural belief. That means we will seek to welcome people from all walks of life into our community. In Jesus’ day, the people who followed him were often out of step with his teachings. He taught that to look at a woman lustfully was to commit adultery, and yet is consistently surrounded by prostitutes who profited on lust.
We don’t expect people to change before they can join us on the journey of following Jesus, but we also won’t shy away from championing what we believe is God’s best for them and challenging them to submit their lives more fully to Jesus and his kingdom.

Sanctity of Human Life

We believe all life is sacred and created by God, and that every soul is created in God’s image with infinite value and worth. Though our culture often seeks to devalue life on the margins (the unborn, people with disabilities, criminals, those of different ethnicities and nationalities, the dying, etc.), we believe God wants to protect all life and we seek especially to advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves.
If you’re interested in joining or learning more about the Kingdom Community focused on combatting human trafficking, click here.

Racial Justice

God created all people in His image and desires peace for His creation. Sin has created rifts and opposition along ethnic, national, and economic lines. Oppression and dehumanization exists where God desires peace and mutual flourishing.
We believe that the racial injustice that exists in our world runs counter to the good news of the Kingdom of God. As a people who are meant to reflect Kingdom values in our broken world, the church has a responsibility to promote racial equality and advocate for justice for those whose voices might otherwise be ignored.
If you’re interested in joining or learning more about the Kingdom Community focused on this work, click here.

Women in Ministry

We believe that God has gifted all people with gifts to serve the church and world, and strive to empower and unleash all people to steward their gifts faithfully.
Women have been a vital part of the Christian & Missionary Alliance’s work from the beginning serving with their gifts of preaching and teaching, administering the ordinances, and providing leadership to the church and its ministries.
Because of the way our denomination understands some key New Testament passages, there are two areas women are not allowed to serve in the local church: as the lead pastor or as an elder.Our Leadership Team is currently comprised of men and women. The men are considered elders and must constitute a majority, but every member is encouraged to lean in and use their gifts to help discern what God is up to in our congregation. This organizational structure is one of the options the Christian & Missionary Alliance has provided.

Gender

We want people of all gender identities to feel welcome at our church. Many people struggling with gender dysphoria experience an incredible amount of pain and we want our posture to be full of Jesus looking empathy and compassion.
We also believe that God created people as male and female and that we bear His image. We believe that our created body is an essential part of who we are and is good. We believe that we are to honor God with our body. As such, we believe that God’s design is that our created biological sex determines whether we are male or female.We believe that God’s purposes in his creation are often beyond our understanding and that we can trust his design for each human being, including their created sex.
There are many practical questions that arise, but we believe what it looks like for someone to take steps beyond weekend attendance in our community should be discerned on a case by case basis because each situation is so unique.