Vision and Mission

Our Mission

Out of our brokenness and God’s grace, we make visible (2 Corinthians 4:7) the whole Gospel and stand with the vulnerable in our neighborhood (starting with Lakeside Point).

Our Vision

For God’s Glory, everyone in our neighborhood is empowered to thrive physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually.

Core Values

  • Prayer: Because God is the one who is transforming lives (John 5:21), both in us and those we serve, we seek His guidance to join Him in this process (John 5:19).

  • Relationships: We can only play a part in this transformation if we know those we serve. So, we intentionally take time to listen to, learn from and suffer with our neighbors (Philippians 3:10).

  •  Empower: We help our neighbors discover their God-given talents and how to work toward their own solutions.

  •  Mobilize: Because this work is so relational (Exodus 18:14-15; Luke 10:2), we equip and activate those who desire to help our neighbors thrive.

  •  Collaborate: We cooperate primarily with our neighbors to find just, transformational solutions. We also seek to work together with other like-minded churches and organizations.

Advocate: We speak truth to power on behalf of our neighbors, even at personal expense.

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Structure

As we struggled with how to stand with our neighbors in the first few months of COVID and how to best organize for that, in June of 2020, we came up Nora Neighborhood Ambassadors, with four advocacy groups - housing, education, social service and food, all connected by training in our mission statement and the principles of When Helping Hurts and ways for people to connect relationally with the contacts made through the other advocacy groups. 

What does it look like?  

  • Education - Virtual school support and after school tutoring during virtual school for our neighbors who were struggling with enough English to support their children. Intermittent fun and educational days with parents to explore learning. Week long summer camp to give experiences and social interaction to kiddos

  • Housing - From helping residents with individual advocacy with maintenance needs, communication with office staff, to looking at how to seek overall justice and systemic advocacy for residence by holding the owner responsible and finding city officials who can help make that happen

  • Social services - Helping neighbors find ways to meet needs within their community

  • Food - First baptist food pantry and other food projects

  • Relationships - Throughout all of this, deepening our relationships with the residents and neighbors - in a mutual friendship for mutual edification. Making the gospel visible in how we relate to our Lakeside Pointe neighbors and how we continue in relationship with those who want that