Who We Are
We are a church that desires to be marked by “Listening, Loving, and Living.” These three things reflect our desire to be a people who love God and love others…with no strings attached.
If you are looking for a description of what you’ll find at Scottsdale First, you may want to read the I’m New section.
For those of you who want more information and like to read, here is a statement written by our Lead Pastor, Matt, about what the church should be. It is a bit technical, but the words are important. In the end, we identify with the words “listening, loving, living” as our way of living out what is expressed here (for more detailed thought about the phrase “Listening, Loving, Living,” see Our Mission):
The church should function, most simply stated, as a community, loving God, loving others, for the good of the world. As a community we are in this together. We love God with our whole selves, all of the time. We love others with no strings attached – love is not based upon merit. And the good that results from this love is global and local; for our family and our neighborhood and our globe.
A Community. One need only look at a few pages of scripture to find that a primary way God works in the world is through the cooperation of his people in community. Through genuine grace-based community healing transpires, love is known, hurts are healed, hope is found. The church is a group of people who have been captured by the love of God and therefore join God in his beautiful dance of love and mercy in the world, participating in the ministry of Christ by loving God and loving others for the good of the world.
Loving God with our whole selves. According to Jesus, the greatest commandment is this: “’You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38). There is no higher calling than to love God with our whole selves. A holy life is defined by love: John Wesley wrote that Christian Perfection “is nothing higher and nothing lower than this, —the pure love of God and man; the loving God with all our heart and soul, and our neighbor as ourselves. It is love governing the heart and life, running through all our tempers, words, and actions.” Loving God is not a lonesome act – it is done in community, leads to loving others, and results in good for the world.
Loving others with no strings attached. When Jesus was asked for the one greatest commandment, he answered with two. Jesus added to ‘loving God’ these words, “A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:39). The love of God is linked to loving others. The book of First John chapter four says explicitly that if we do not love others, we do not love God. And so the church, as a community, is called to love others as Christ loved us, with no strings attached. We do not love based upon any merit, for as Christ loved even those crucifying him, so we also love, without condition. John Wesley wrote, “The heaven of heavens is love. There is nothing higher in religion; there is, in effect, nothing else.” The church must be defined by outrageous love and scandalous grace as we love God and love others for the good of the world.
For the Good of the World both near and far. Jesus’ concluding words in the Greatest Commandment are “The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:40). The law and the prophets are instruction and correction for a people meant to bring Shalom (wholeness and peace) to a world full of chaos and oppression. So, loving God and others, if it is genuine love, will result in reconciliation, peace, justice, wholeness, and mercy. Nazarene theologian Thomas Jay Oord defines love in this way, “To love is to act intentionally, in sympathetic/empathetic response to God and others, to promote overall well-being.” What Oord calls “well-being” is a necessary component of love – the actions of love must result in good. As we love God and love others, the natural result is well-being – love is good for those closest to us and good for the whole world.
Pastor and theologian Greg Boyd poses this question, “What would happen if the ultimate criteria we used to assess how ‘successful’ or ‘unsuccessful’ our churches were was the question, are we loving as Jesus loved?” That is the perfect criteria. The church, functioning as an incarnational-missional-community, should be about Christ-like love. The church is a community, loving God with our whole selves, loving others with no strings attached, for the good of the world both near and far.