thedwelling.place
33 E. Lancaster Ave PAOLI, PA
484-350-8668
Text: 835-225-6631
Join us for Worship every Sunday at 11AM
Rooted in Christ
Ministry Philosophy
GO
GOD 1st
OTHERS 2nd
GO: It is out of our love for God that we respond to our community to love our families, friends, and neighborhood. This is not a suggestion for the believer, but a command. A command that starts FIRST with a desire to love Christ in response to His love that was given to us first, sacrificially and undeserved. SECOND out of our gift of undeserved love we are compelled to sacrifice and serve others. We support a model that holds fast to this distinctive order for all believers.
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 22:37
1st
Loving God Well
To love God well is to fully accept the love that God has already graciously lavished on us. It is to embrace His way as higher than our ways. It is to walk in accordance with His precepts. To do this well, is to spend significant time in His presence and significant time in His Word. Our ministry aims to support believers to be more diligent in their submission to Christ, help them build a deeper rooted faith through a growing knowledge of God’s word and foster a vibrant and biblical sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
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“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul"...
2nd
Loving Others Well
God’s beautiful love COMPELLS us to seek first His kingdom on earth by modeling to others what it means to abide in Christ. As imperfect clay molded by the Potter, our lives or vessels should be intentional in being the hands and feet of Christ. We trust the Holy Scripture and Holy Spirit to guide our hands and convict our heart as we do the work of the Lord; not assigning love or action as any man-made, predisposed cultural expectation, political ideology or denominational nuance. Loving others well means living out of obedience to God’s will over man’s earthly desires. As a church this starts by finding ways to demonstrate sacrificial love and support to the body of believers and organically overflows from the congregation into servant-leadership to our homes, communities, and world especially including those that persecute us for our faith.
7 Founding Principles of The Dwelling Place
A ministry based off John 14-15
(The Words of Christ)
1 / Point People to Jesus Christ (John 14:6)
Jesus is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. Jesus is the cornerstone (1 Peter 2:6) of all we do at The Dwelling Place. No one comes to the Father except through Christ (John 14:6). Our ministry’s main goal is to point people to Jesus. It is only through the power of Christ that lives can fully be transformed (2 Corinthians 3:18).
2 / The truth of God’s Word is the main filter for discernment, an active guide for how to live life and the foundation of our faith. (John 14:23)
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23) In a world growing in uncertainty and complexity we aim to point people back to God’s word as a guide for how to live and how to follow the Lord more closely and fervently. (Psalm 119:105)
3 / Teachable and Attentive to the Spirit of God (John 14:26)
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. (John 16:13)
4 / Provide Nurturing Soil (John 15:1-11)
Through teaching, preaching, prayer, discipleship and corporate care so that the church can develop deep roots that abide in Jesus, obey His Commands, and produce life-giving fruit.
5 / Love our Community in a way that reflects the love Christ showed us. (John 15:12-17)
“Love one another as I have loved you.” This selfless love should give witness to the transformational power of Christ and be counter-cultural to the selfless and lifeless world around us. It should be fruitful and be an overflow of the love Christ already demonstrated for us, that as we were still sinners - Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus does not just encourage this behavior of love, he commands it.
6 / Live boldly in the world but not of it. (John 15:19)
Jesus called us out of the world and thus the world will hate us because of our trust in Him alone. Our aim is to fix our hearts and minds on the things above (Col 3:2) and live boldly on God’s truth on earth while we await eternal glory. This means we should live and love differently than the world around us. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
7 / Bear witness to Christ’s redeeming grace (John 15:27)
Since we are with Christ, He calls us to bear witness to His kingship. “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph. 2:10) Part of this good work is to live fruitful lives that point others to Jesus Christ and share the gospel in our communities while discipling more believers in the family of God (Matthew 28:16–20)
Statement of Faith
As written by Paoli Community Church
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We believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as verbally inspired by God, inerrant in the original writings, and that they are of supreme and final authority in matters of Faith and Life .
We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
We believe in the absolute Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, truly God, truly Man.
We believe that man was created in the image of God, that he sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from God.
We believe God provided salvation by giving His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to take the sinner's place, and make salvation freely available to all.
We believe in the Resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord; in His ascension into Heaven, and in His present life there for us as High Priest and Advocate.
We believe baptism is the command to every Christian to follow Christ in believer's baptism by immersion.
We believe that every Christian should live a life and have a testimony that is pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ, a life that will not bring reproach to His Name.
We believe in the eternal security of the believer, "once saved, forever saved."
We believe in the physical return of Jesus Christ to earth.