We, the Leadership of the Central New York Church of Christ look forward to tremendous growth spiritually, emotionally and numerically in the years to come for the Central New York family of God. Our goal is to be a church full of disciples that love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and that love each other just as Jesus loved us (Matt. 22:37-40, Jn. 13:34-35). We want to lead the way in laying down our lives for each other and emphasize the need for every disciple to be a committed servant in the body of Christ (1 Jn. 3:16, Mk. 10:43-45). We want to reach out within our community and share our faith, so that through us, God can make disciples of all the nations living around us (Matt. 28:18-20) and bring them into a loving, serving and maturing body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-16).

With this in mind we would like to emphasize the following 7 areas:

1. Worship - The primary function of the family of God is to be a worshipping community in attitude and lifestyle (Matt. 4:10, Jn. 4:23-24, Rom. 12:1-2). In our worship services we want to experience the presence of God as we express honor, gratitude, awe, humility and brokenness before Him. Our walk with God should be a daily and consistent focus.

2. Holiness - A desire to be like Him should flow from effective worship. God desires us to come out and be separate so we can show the world his holiness (Lev. 11:45, 1 Thess. 4:7). We believe holiness is bigger than just avoiding sin & should focus on developing a taste and passion for God and a hunger for righteousness. Jesus must be the Lord of our lives.

3. Family - We believe that Christianity is a one-another religion. We are the family of God! We share a common faith, common blood and a common love for God and each other. Our commitment is to love, forgive, encourage, serve, lay down our lives, and to share our possessions and our hearts with each other (Rom. 12, 1 Cor. 12, Gal. 5:13-26).

4. Discipling - We are committed, not to only baptizing people into Christ (Acts 2:38, Eph. 4:1-7) but to growing, training and equipping disciples for kingdom-life (Eph. 4:11-16). We recognize the biblical mandate to help each other grow and we continue to believe in accountability, seeking and giving biblical advice (Proverbs) and corporate prayer.

5. Serving - Our church is a church built on the biblical concept of ministering to the world’s hurts and needs. Jesus’ goal in life was to give up his life for others (Jn. 12:24-26). The servant-heart of sacrifice - showing concern for others and a willingness to give up time and money - is deeply rooted in OT and NT themes.

6. Evangelism - We are committed to testify to the world that Jesus is our Lord and Savior (1 Pet. 2:9-10; 1 Pet. 3:15). Evangelism should be personal and natural. We will provide small groups as well as larger meetings to encourage a deep commitment to sharing the good news.

7. Benevolence - We are committed to making a difference in our world around us. Jesus taught that his followers are the salt, light, and leaven in a world that needs to elevate its morals and standards (Matt. 5:13-16). We want to influence our neighbors through marriage help, child-rearing classes, generosity, meals, adoptions, helping widows and orphans, the poor and sick both in our community and in our world.