Jesus has perfect oneness with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He prayed that His church too would be united with that kind of powerful, jaw-dropping unity. The Church is people with differing gifts, stories, and backgrounds—but ONE mission, one love, one Spirit, and one Gospel. Because of this powerful unity in the Gospel, our diverse strengths only serve to further advance the mission. That’s why Rise is a collective, a people of different origins now fighting for one mission: to rise up and saturate our city with the Gospel.

Jesus did everything from the deepest sense of mission. Each step, each word, each question, each move he made was dripping with this huge vision. As His followers, we do everything with intentionality. The way we welcome people, the design of the stage, the kids' class curriculum, the care we provide, the discipleship methods—we think through all of it and then move forward with intentionality. The Church is not called to haphazardly hope for the best, but to shape everything on purpose to the glory of Jesus.

Jesus was not reluctant but zealous to save a sinful world. He made our problem His problem, because the mission burned in His bones. As His followers, we too are not obligated-helpers in the mission of God, but passionate owners, astonished that we actually get to play a role in an eternity-altering mission. We teach children, take out trash, edit videos, mockup spreadsheets, and lead teams with a palpable sense of calling. We go the extra mile, to see Jesus take every square inch of our city.

Jesus bettered everything He touched. He takes people as they are, but never leaves them the same. Today, Jesus is still on the move healing, correcting, sanctifying — changing hearts and flipping cities upside down. As His followers, we carry that same calling to leave everyone and everything better than we found it. Whether programs, processes, performance, or people, we draw out their fullest potential through continual improvement. We want everything in our sphere of influence to increasingly shine with the goodness of Jesus.

Jesus obsessively developed people. Though shouldering the burden of saving the world, He always had time for people. He is the great multiplier, spinning into motion the disciple-multiplying movement of the Church. As Jesus’ disciples, we are called to obsessively develop people. We multiply new disciples, group leaders, kids teachers, administrators, church planters, youth leaders, door greeters—you name it, we multiply it. We expand our Gospel-impact as far as possible in our city, and as deep as possible into coming generations by relentlessly raising up.