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NorthRidge Church
A Center for Christian discovery, development and experience.
NorthRidge—A Spiritual Shopping Mall
Our vision is most clearly understood when pictured as a spiritual
shopping mall. The shopping mall seeks to provide availability and easy
access to most everything a person needs or wants in an attractive,
convenient and desirable setting. It does this through providing a few
large anchor stores as well as a wide variety of unique specialty shops
all under one roof. The large anchor stores draw people to the mall by
providing for almost every conceivable need of the majority of people.
The host of specialty stores draws people by targeting the specific
needs of particular groups of people. Those people whose needs are met
by the anchor stores have several choices in one convenient place and
are in no way put out by all of the specialty shops that have no
personal appeal to them. However, while initially they have no
interest, they eventually discover them as a great source for meeting
their more specific needs. On the contrary, those people who have more
unique needs, interests, or wants, come to the mall because of the
specialty shops, but many of them eventually begin enjoying and
frequenting the anchor stores as well. For those people who are not
naturally drawn to the mall to shop, there are a host of diverse
activities, displays and events sponsored by the mall in order to
attract them. Though having nothing to do with the real purpose of the
mall, these novelties draw people in and provide the opportunity for
them to find something that they cannot live without.
We see NorthRidge as that kind of place, only for the purpose of
meeting spiritual needs. It is our desire to provide availability and
easy access to ministries designed for every spiritual need and want a
person has at every stage of spiritual development, from unbelieving to
mature believer. As well, we want to have something for every kind of
person God has placed in our surrounding communities. We want the doors
to discovering, developing and experiencing the Christian life to be
open to our community in every direction and in every conceivable way.
In order to remove as many human barriers to spiritual discovery and
growth as possible, we will seek to provide our ministries at times and
in settings that are attractive, convenient and desirable. Since many
people are not naturally drawn to Christ and His Church, we will
provide a diversity of seemingly unrelated activities and events that
will initially attract them to our ministry. In so doing, they will
have the opportunity of hearing and responding to the eternal truth
that they so desperately need in a non-threatening and personally
enjoyable setting.
In order to meet our communities general spiritual needs, we will
provide large anchor ministries of worship, fellowship, instruction,
stewardship and evangelism in a way that draws and generally satisfies
the majority of people. These anchors will include such ministries as
our weekend services, special concert events, success seminars, singles
seminars, ladies and men's events, etc. However, because life change
happens best in small groups and because of the vast diversity of
people and needs in our world today, we will provide a myriad of
smaller ministries as well. These will be targeted to special groups of
people with unique needs and wants that must be met if they are going
to discover, develop and experience the abundant life of faith that
Jesus died to give them. These will include ministries such as targeted
Sunday school and Bible fellowship classes, singles ministries, youth
ministries, recovery groups, specially designed small groups, etc. So,
like a shopping mall, we will be both large and small at the same time.
We see ourselves as a church that, through diversity, innovation, size,
total member involvement, flexibility, understanding of present
cultural and community needs, love and acceptance, concern for quality
and excellence, and commitment to truth, can meet the spiritual needs
of people in all of life's varying circumstances in an exciting,
relevant and enjoyable way.
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