Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church is a congregation in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). We are a worshipping community that seeks to transform the people and culture of Marion County, Florida, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Reality of Experiencing Christ
One of the chief values of our worshipping community is a real and personal experience with the living Christ. It is real in that we understand that Christ is alive and well in our midst today by the power of the Holy Spirit that He has poured out on the church. It is personal in that we understand that those who believe in Christ have this same Spirit in their hearts to testify of His rule and reign over all of life. To live, then, with a real and personal experience with Christ is to live by the Spirit (Galatians 5:22ff).
As such, the Spirit is the down payment of the kingdom of God, inaugurated by Christ's advent, where the life of the believer is being restored into proper communion with God, with self, with others, and with creation.
As a result, it is our belief that every person must have a sense of personal devotion. Every person must participate in a community of worship. Every person longs to know, wittingly or unwittingly, that Christ is alive today and is bringing His Kingdom into the world around us through our faithful surrender to His will. To see Him alive in the world around us is to find vitality in our walk with Christ. He is working today. He works everyday and all of history will reach its ultimate goal in Him and in Him alone.
Vocational Theology
Doing "theology" means applying Scripture to our daily lives. This means that the Bible is to be lived out in our daily experiences. God's providence and movement throughout time includes His calling (vocation) and gifting us for His work. As a matter fact, we are His handiwork and He has prepared in advance work for us to do. Understanding this divine intentionality is to catch a glimpse into the very mind of God and see that our life and work have meaning and value. Not only are we valuable and redeemable, but all of God's creation serves His glory and will be restored to its rightful order - so much so that the new heavens will show forth the labor of our hands as God's agents in restoring all things. What we do today is for eternity because all things belong to Him and He will have it all back.
As a result it is our belief that the most real part of being human is listening expectantly for a sense of how God will use our gifts and talents for His glory. Our belief is that the kingdom of God has been inaugurated - the great reclaiming project of God. We are one of His means of changing this fallen world for the heir of all things, Jesus Christ.
"Relation-ally" Joyful
In order to have relationships of joy in this life we must know three things - First, we must know that God created us and built us for relationship with Himself. We belong to Him and we owe Him gratitude for every breath, every moment, every thing.
Secondly, the nature of mankind at our inception rejects God. We center our lives on things in this life which hold out promise to us, but as gods they enslave. Every person seeks through his own gain to achieve some sense of power, approval, comfort, or control. Naturally, over time, when we are "not looking" these intuitive decisions become the worship of what we center our lives on. But worshipping such things ultimately leads to a loss of meaning for us. If we are achievers we find a lack of satisfaction. If we are not achieving we find endless striving. The created order was never meant to replace Him. Therefore, true joy comes in the peace of receiving His gifts of grace and mercy in the beauty of created things without making them gods.
Finally, when we understand the gospel of the kingdom, what we find is not merely forgiveness of our sins but true provision of all righteousness. That means that Jesus not only died for our sins but all of His righteous work has been credited to us as well. God accepts and regards us today as having all of the value and pleasure He finds in Christ.
When we put these three together we are able to be joyful in our relationships with others because we are no longer bound by others' expectations to fulfill our happiness. Our joy is in Christ. We are happy in our relationships because we have a contentment that transcends circumstances and people we can not control. For the first time we can extend ourselves wholly and freely to those around us without respect for their performance and our expectations. We actually enjoy our own mercy from the hand of God so much that we extend mercy freely as a gift for others just because they have need; not because we need from them or this life. In other words, we love with no strings attached, regardless of what they ever do with the Gospel.
