TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT SHARON
It is a church that was founded in 1824, and yet today we work hard to make our church an irresistible place to be in our community. Through God's provision, we are working hard to create relevant, irresistible environments.  Our goal is to create experiences where the Holy Spirit is free to work in the hearts and lives of adults and children, and to which they, in turn, will be compelled to invite their friends and family members.

WHAT IS THE CHURCH'S MISSION
This is something that all churches throughout the world share, though it is phrased in a thousand different ways.  The mission of Sharon is based on Matthew 28:19-20: "To lead people into a growing/obedient relationship with Jesus Christ."

WHAT IS THE CHURCH'S STRATEGY
To accomplish our mission, we have chosen to imitate Acts 2:46 and provide weekly environments for people, age 2+, to meet in large group (TEMPLE) and small group (HOME) settings.  From the New Testament, we see that Jesus tended to use the same strategy by spending time with His 12 as well as time with the 500 He ultimately left behind (1 Corinthians 15:5-6).

WHAT ARE THE CHURCH'S BELIEFS

1. The Scriptures
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.

2. God
There is one and only one living and true God. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

God the Father:  God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

God the Son:  Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.

God the Holy Spirit:  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

3. Man
Man was created by the special act of God, in His own image, and is the crowning work of His creation. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore every person or every race possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

4. Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.

5. God's Purpose and Grace
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.

6. The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local body of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel…and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. The New Testament speaks also of the church as the body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages.

7. Baptism and the Lord's Supper [Communion]
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.  The Lord's Supper [Communion] is a symbolic act of obedience whereby followers memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

8. Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly ...the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to hell. ...The righteous will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

9. Evangelism and Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations ...to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by personal effort.

10. Stewardship
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions.

11. The Christian and Social Order
Every Christian is under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in his own life and in human society.

12. Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.

WHAT ARE THE CHURCH'S CORE VALUES
In order to accomplish our church's strategy, we have agreed as a church family on the following values:
· Practical Teaching - All teaching at our church will be from God’s Word and communicated in clearly and creatively, with the goal of application in the audience’s life. (Matthew 7:24-25) Jesus communicated principles that were geared to change lives because they were firmly anchored in God’s truths and He used fresh methods that allowed people to hear the truths in a fresh, life-impacting way.
· Real Relationships - We want to create environments where real relationships of love, support, and friendship can grow. (John 15:12-15) Jesus did not just create a group of followers, they ultimately became His friends, a group of individuals that He cared for with all His heart. He shared His life experiences, like the Garden of Gethsemane, with them.
· Private Disciplines - We will partner with God in growing all believers attending Sharon in giving, prayer, and fasting. (Matthew 6:2-16) Jesus mentioned giving, praying, and fasting as being acts that He assumed were already practiced. He promoted the significance of the privacy of and instruction in each.
· Real Life Situations - We will partner with God in what He is doing in a person’s life in the situations in life where they find themselves. (Mark 4:35-41) - While in a storm with His disciples, Jesus was awakened by them. As they tried to awaken Him, they called Him teacher. After Jesus had calmed the storm, their perspective of who Jesus was changed: “Who then in this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” We all have real life situations when all that we know is challenged. God uses these to help us grow more intimate with and more knowledgeable of Him.
· Personal Ministry - We will intentionally minister to the body of Christ at Sharon as well as to the unbelievers in our lives with the goal of seeing them become believers too. (John 13:1-15) - Jesus set an example for believers to serve one another by washing His disciples’ feet. (Matthew 28:19-20) - Jesus told His followers to serve unbelievers by taking the gospel message to them, with the goal of seeing them become disciples of Christ Himself.