Restoration Anglican Church
Through our name, we seek to fully capture all of our core values while being invitational to those who are curious about following Jesus and inspirational to those who are convinced.
The Core Values of Restoration:
- The Gospel Changes Everything
- The Gospel is Catalyzed by Community
- The Gospel is Proclaimed by Word and Sacrament
- The Gospel Calls us to Lives of Coherence and Responsibility
Restoration
The Biblical promise that gives me the most hope is that Jesus is coming back as King to restore all things and to reconcile all things to God. He is bringing a new heavens and a new earth. In those last days, there will be a judgment and a separation. Truth will be vindicated. We will receive beauty for ashes. The broken will be bound up. The devastations of many generations shall be repaired. Tears will go away. All of the scents and tastes we get of this coming Kingdom (seen in beauty, truth, kindness, grace) will be fully consummated in the fully-disclosed reign of our Sovereign King. It is a day that demands our lives. It is a day that is worth our lives.
It is a day to come that instructs our conduct in the present. In technical words, our eschatology determines our ethics. What we believe about Jesus’ coming reign determines how we live in this present time. It affects our materialism, our generosity, our priorities, our relationships, everything. We are people who live between 2 days (the day of atonement, when Jesus forgave us, set us free, and provided his spirit and the day of consummated restoration, when He comes back). We are people who live in the constant tension of the already and the not yet. This tension makes it hard for those on the outside to understand why we live the way we do. This tension pleads with us to use every ounce of our creativity and drive to implore ‘outside people’ to be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20). This tension is why we are planting a new church.
In restoration, we capture our core value– the Gospel changes everything. Grace wins, Truth wins. Love wins. The sweeping biblical narrative can be summarized by: creation, fall, exile, restoration. This is the big picture story from Genesis to Revelation. It is seen in smaller vignettes throughout the Scriptures. We are a church compelled by God’s project of restoration.
Anglican
We have all noted that from a marketing standpoint, we do not gain much from a word that at best is unknown and at worst defines the cultural wars of our nation. However, when combined with ‘restoration’, a more unusual word, ‘Anglican’ efficiently anchors us to a deep history and broader community.
This is who we are liturgically. It captures our value of beauty and aesthetic excellence. We want to express the hallmarks of Anglican liturgy– dignity, historicity, otherness, and transcendence– in our worship. We are also yoked to a multi-ethnic, multi-national, multi-cultural Anglican Communion that is historically rooted in the English Reformation and presently engaged in some of the most volatile intersections of faith and culture. We do not shun these realities. We are a church compelled by Christ’s command to apply the Gospel to every situation.
Church
We are a gathering of God’s people, the new Israel, the worldwide body of Christ, the priesthood of all believers, the democratized recipients of the Holy Spirit, the hope of the world. We are a discrete member of this universal body. We find our identity as a church. We are not just a community, a chapel, a service agency, or a group of friends.
Restoration Anglican Church: a community in Arlington following Christ the King
A community in Arlington
- We are geographically focused on a place. We are compelled to seek the welfare of the city to which God has called us (Jer 29.7). We are committed to living in gracious, transformational community while contending for the Gospel renewal of Arlington County.
Following Christ the King
- All of humanity is following something. We want to intentionally, overtly declare that we follow Christ. We have been nurtured in the DNA of The Falls Church. We desire to be yet another body that is making Christ King in our lives and in the lives of others. We are constrained by His Kingship– he is the one who calls the shots and manages our lives. We are a community of Christ the King that is calling people to look for the day of Restoration.
