Jesus’ life was all about relationships.  He had a relationship Up to His Father through the Holy Spirit.  He had a relationship In to his friends the disciples.  He had relationships Out to people in which he came to give his life a ransom for.  We want Canton to be full of people who’s lives look like the life of Jesus. And so we are committed to living our lives in relationships Up, In and Out.

UP: Jesus demonstrated an incredibly intimate relationship with His Father. He said everything He did was in obedience to God. His whole ministry flowed out of His deep relationship with His Father, and all the power for living came from the Holy Spirit. What we see with Jesus is incredibly rich intimacy with God. As a community our aim is to live in constant pursuit of this type of upward relationship.

IN: One of the first things Jesus did as he started His ministry was to choose disciples. He focused a great deal of His time and energy on this small group. They shared their lives together, ate together, prayed, learned and served together. Jesus’ goal was to form a community that could continue His mission after He was gone. As a community our aim is to live in pursuit of this type of inward relationship.

OUT: Jesus was sent to earth to fulfill the mission of God to redeem and restore creation from the grips of sin, death, and evil. Ultimately He came for the world, to bring those on the outside into the family of God. Jesus demonstrated this by befriending those on the outside of religious life and society and restoring them to wholeness. As a community our aim is to live in constant pursuit of this type of outward relationship.