Sojourn’s Philosophy of Ministry

Our Identity

  • Evangelical. We are joyfully centred on the gospel of Jesus Christ – the good news that Jesus, the Son of God lived, died, and rose again for the salvation of all those who put their faith in him. 
  • Confessional. We are grounded in the Bible (God’s inspired and inerrant Word) and in truths summarized in various Christian creeds and confessions. We adhere to Reformed confessional standards such as the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Shorter and Larger Catechisms. These statements express biblical truth in time-tested words. Knowing and embracing sound doctrine leads to healthy, beautiful, and God-glorifying lives.
  • Missional. We believe the gospel calls us to live lives of grace, generosity, hospitality, and service. This means that while holding firmly to to God’s trustworthy Word, we seek to sow gospel seeds with lives characterized by patience, sacrificial kindness, and resilient hope. What we believe affects how we live.
  • Presbyterian. We believe that the Bible teaches that churches should be led by pastor-elders, each Christian being an active part of the body of Christ. We are a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

Our Purpose

To be formed into a gospel community for the good of Stoney Creek.

In other words, Sojourn Community Church exists to gather the saints and to reach the lost.

Our Vision

A community sojourning in the way of Jesus, raising a new generation of disciples, and working for the good of Stoney Creek.

 

Our Values

  1. Deeply Formed. As disciples of Jesus, we live as sojourners in this beautiful but broken world and citizens of the heavenly city. This challenge requires being deeply formed in the image of Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:6-7). We are committed to integrating historic practices of spiritual formation, rooted in the gospel of grace, and applied to city life today. 
    • Practice: Nine historic practices are listed below in our discipleship wheel, which represents a balanced life centred on loving God, loving one another, and loving our city
  2. Inviting Community. We want to be an inviting community both because there should be something intuitively attractive about how we love one another, and because we are actively inviting people who don’t know Christ into our midst.
    • Practice: Opening our lives to others in our city in active hospitality by sharing our table, our resources, and our relationships
  3. Serving Stoney Creek. We want to adopt a hopeful, humble, servant-hearted posture towards the place where we live, asking God to establish his kingdom here “on earth as it is in heaven.” To be city hopeful is to have an orientation toward the city, knowing that God is renewing all things, and to long to see God’s purposes fulfilled for the place where we live, work, and serve (Jeremiah 29:7)
    • Practice: Sharing the good news of Jesus through word and deed in a contextualized way for the city and its people.

Our Story (so far)

  • June 2023: Called by New City Church
  • June 2023: Began fundraising
  • September 2023: Began to meet with the purpose of raising disciples committed to the vision of a church plant
  • March-April 2024: Formally gathered a group of 30 adults committed to founding Sojourn Community Church
  • May 31, 2024: Sojourn is established as a mission church in the PCA
  • Summer 2024: Soccer Camp outreach, Trial Worship Services, Membership Classes
  • September 8, 2024 (Lord willing): Begin public worship services!