What we believe

Our Mission: To glorify God as we connect, grow and serve.

What is our Mission at Clayton Community Church?

Our greatest desire as a church is to glorify God in absolutely everything we do! Our passions, our values, our missions – all of it grows out of this devotion. We could do a lot of ‘fun activities’, plan cool programs, craft messages, run camps, volunteer our time (and we do!), but it’s all pointless unless we do it all to glorify Him.

So, what does glorifying God actually look like here?

It looks like connecting people to God and others. At CCC, we work tirelessly to give people opportunities to meet with God throughout our everyday life. We share our stories. We talk about what God has done for us. We aren’t afraid to woo and challenge people with the life-changing message of Jesus. As Billy Graham would say, we “evangelize by cooperating with the Holy Spirit to bring a person one step closer to Christ.”

Take a peek at just some of the ways we do this:

How We Connect

  1. Outreach Events to those who wouldn’t normally attend a Sunday worship event so they can taste and see that the Lord is good (and that being the church can be fun!)
  2. Prayer for anyone who shares a need with us, and teach our people to do the same.
  3. Honest Worship experiences that draw people to see the heart of God.
  4. Small Groups where people can experience real-life community and taste what it’s like to go deeper with God.
  5. Reaching out and caring for the vulnerable and those in need in our community.
  6. Ministries that invite people and children of all ages to meet with and learn about God.

It looks like helping people to grow in their faith and fall more in love with Jesus day by day. Being in church isn’t just about showing up, it’s about having a real encounter with God that transforms our lives. It’s about experiencing His love and falling more in love with Him. It’s about being challenged and changed week by week as we grow into the men and women of God we were created to be.

How We Grow Together

  1. Teaching: We teach from the word of God, so it becomes a “lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path” (Psalm 119:105).
  2. Prayer: We pray together for transformed lives, and train people in prayer so they can become leaders and warriors in prayer.
  3. Small Groups: We come together in smaller groups to provide real community and discipleship that helps us grow deeper in our faith.
  4. Worship: Our worship is focused on creating real encounters with God and bringing biblical truths to our people through music.
  5. Daily Practice: We learn ways to daily practice being in the presence of God.
  6. Stories: Our stories are powerful, we help our people learn to tell their own personal stories of faith and to listen to the Holy Spirit to know when to speak and share.

    It looks like serving our community by using the gifts God has given us to meet our neighbors physical and spiritual needs. There are people in need all around us. It’s our job as the Church to reach out to them and meet them in their place of need. This is the Great Commission – to find the hurting and those in need and bring them healing and bring them to God. God has given each of us gifts, and our desire is to grow in these gifts so we can serve our community.

    This is how we seek to have an attitude of service:

    How We Serve

    Serve in our giftedness

    Serve through your giving

    Serve with your time

    Serve sacrificially

    Serve with honor

    What are the values of Clayton Community Church?

    1. We value Generosity…Because we believe Biblical generosity is giving that is a result of a transformed heart. We give because God loved us first and because we long to love, live and give as He did. We want to grab hold of the abundant life in Christ – of which giving is an important part. Generosity is a cultural change, a mindset change, a change of our heart. Once this change occurs it will bless marriages, families, businesses and communities. There is no definition or difference of who is or is not supposed to give based on wealth or poverty. Even the poorest person can still give generously
    2. We value A Culture of Presence…Because we believe as a Christian and as a church that the presence of God is to be a part of our daily lives.  Christ is present in the world through us who are believers and followers of Christ.  The presence of God made his home in us through the Holy Spirit. If we are in Christ, the presence of God is in us and we have access to his presence at all times.  We can commune with God and experience his presence every day.  We hunger and thirst after His presence above all else.
    3. We value Joyful Identity…Because we believe that our greatest identity is found when Jesus transforms our lives. When our identity is found in Him we are filled with true, steadfast, and lasting joy
    4.  We value Developing a Culture of Welcoming and Belonging… Because we believe our God is a welcoming God. It’s up to us to ensure that all who enter Clayton Community Church feel the welcoming love of Jesus. Not only do we welcome those who come to us, but we go outside of the church, loving people and inviting them to a place of belonging in Christ’s family.  God loves those who are far from him and desires to be close to them! Our Lord will stop at nothing to bring you home safely home where you belong. You have value, you have a home, you belong here.
    5. We value a Culture of Honor…because we are made in God’s image. Jesus dies to restore us to relationship with Him, therefore we are significant. Honor recognizes and affirms that every person is valuable.
    6. We value Discipleship…because we believe Jesus wants you to fall more in love with Him and become more like Him with each passing day. Discipleship is not about doing, doing, doing, more for Jesus but flows out of a personal relationship with Him. Discipleship is learning who God created you to be and walking in that identity.
    7. We value Miracles and Healing because we believe Jesus promised miraculous signs would follow believers and they would do even greater works than He did. We owe the world an opportunity to experience the power of God and an invitation to salvation because Jesus sent us into the world, just as the Father sent Him, with the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is impossible with God. Therefore, no person or situation is beyond His ability to bring complete restoration. Because of this truth, we believe miracles did not stop with Jesus and the apostles and are meant to be a common experience as we declare the good news of the Kingdom. Our new normal is to live a Spirit-led life and assist in establishing God’s Kingdom on earth, making love our primary motivation.
    8. We value a Community of Worshipers…because we believe we were created to bring glory to God! We are to take every aspect of our lives and give it back to God. We hide nothing from Him and walk with Him daily in a life of authentic worship; a life that declares the truth of who God is, His absolute goodness, magnificence, absolute power and never ending love.
    9. We value Justice through Service…because we believe God calls us to see all people as those having value and worth. We will serve the “least of these” so that our actions match the love we profess.

    “We celebrate a person for who they are without stumbling over who they are not.”

    – Bill Johnson

    What are our beliefs at Clayton Community Church?

    We are a part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and these are our Essentials (For complete information about our denomination, please check out www.epc.org)

    “All Scripture is self-attesting and being Truth, requires our unreserved submission in all areas of life.  The infallible Word of God, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is a complete and unified witness to God’s redemptive acts culminating in the incarnation of the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Bible, uniquely and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, is the supreme and final authority on all matters on which it speaks.  On this sure foundation we affirm these additional Essentials of our faith:

    1. We believe in one God, the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  To him be all honor, glory and praise forever!
    2. Jesus Christ, the living Word, became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth.  He who is true God became true man united in one Person forever.  He died on the cross a sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures.  On the third day He arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, where, at the right hand of the Majesty on High, He is now our High Priest and Mediator.
    3. The Holy Spirit has come to glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to our hearts.  He convicts us of sin and draws us to the Savior.  Indwelling our hearts, He gives new life to us, empowers and imparts gifts to us for service.  He instructs and guides us into all truth, and seals us for the day of redemption.
    4. Being estranged from God and condemned by our sinfulness, our salvation is wholly dependent upon the work of God’s free grace.  God credits His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justifies them in His sight.  Only such as are born of the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus Christ become children of God and heirs of eternal life.
    5. The true Church is composed of all persons who through saving faith in Jesus Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit are united together in the body of Christ.  The Church finds her visible, yet imperfect, expression in local congregations where the Word of God is preached in its purity and the sacraments are administered in their integrity; where scriptural discipline is practiced, and where loving fellowship is maintained. For her perfecting, she awaits the return of her Lord.
    6. Jesus Christ will come again to the earth—personally, visibly, and bodily—to judge the living and the dead, and to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.  “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”  Rev. 22:20
    7. The Lord Jesus Christ commands all believers to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to make disciples of all nations.  Obedience to the Great Commission requires total commitment to “Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.”   He calls us to a life of self-denying love and service.  “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  Ephesians 2:10