Our Mission

Watch Video
CLOSE

Who We Are

Our Story

We are a dynamic community of people on Atlanta’s Westside who are seeking a deeper understanding of what it means to be a Christian in today’s world. Sunday services are just one part of our shared life together. We cultivate relationships throughout the week and apply the Bible thoughtfully in order to live out the good news of Jesus in our whole lives. We believe God’s grace continually changes our hearts, transforming the way we see, know and love our neighbors.

Our Purpose

Is to embody and preview the Kingdom of God from Buckhead to Bankhead.

Five core values shape our life together, creating the acronym PEACE:

Invisible
Prize the Heart

Jesus taught that our words, attitudes and actions flow from our hearts. Information and aspirations alone cannot change us. Lasting change, therefore, must flow from hearts that are redeemed by his grace and ruled by his Holy Spirit. Every practice and relationship we pursue together seeks to expose, diagnose, heal and empower our hearts for progressive transformation into the image of Christ.

Embody Grace

The heart of scripture is the Gospel of free grace that unites us to God through the person and work of Jesus Christ. We experience this Gospel not in corporate worship alone, but throughout the culture of the church; the shared practices and dispositions that make us instruments of God’s grace to each other. Leaders serve to equip and empower each and every “body part” to fulfill his or her indispensible role in our common calling. As sinners living in a broken world, we expect redemptive friction, and we commit to apply the Gospel through the ongoing work of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Aim for Restoration

The Gospel that reconciles us to God also makes us agents of reconciliation with each other. Facing the heart of our city, we work to break down every barrier that has divided us, especially along the lines of race, class and culture. Powerful forces tempt us to grow inward only, becoming insular and incomprehensible to outsiders. Therefore we fight to practice habits of intentional hospitality that remove stumbling blocks and build bridges in the everyday relationships of life.

Cultivate Place

We believe local places are not just the setting for God’s kingdom, but one of the key dimensions in which the kingdom is made manifest. Living in a culture of widespread alienation and impersonal communication, we fight to live, work and play together, face-to-face, as much as possible. We expect God to produce lasting redemptive change in the social, cultural, political and educational institutions of our area, as well as the built environment.

Embrace Limitations

Every local church is only one partial manifestation of Christ’s universal, global Kingdom. We do not expect our church to meet every possible need, so we celebrate God’s work through other churches and ministries throughout our city. This posture liberates us to focus on our geographical area and to develop the particular gifts and resources God has entrusted to us. It also empowers us to build mutually supporting partnerships with other ministries, rather than duplicating their efforts.

Leadership

The Most Important Office

We believe the vast majority of service in the church is not performed by official leaders, but by individual members using their unique gifts and abilities to build up the whole Body. In this sense, Member is the most important office in the church. The role of formal leaders, then, is to accept responsibility for equipping and coordinating the rest of the Body to serve.

Elders and Deacons

In Presbyterian churches, there are two formal leadership roles: elder and deacon. In general, elders are responsible for spiritual needs, and deacons are responsible for physical needs. Pastors are elders with special training to preach and administer the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper). The board of elders is known as the Session, and the board of deacons is called the Diaconate.

Identifying Officers

One of the core convictions of the presbyterian church is that the people most qualified to identify spiritual leaders are the people being led; that is, the congregation. For this reason, members nominate candidates for elder and deacon every two years, with theological and practical training in between. At Westside, elders must also be elected by the congregation and then ordained and installed. All of our deacons are appointed and installed by the Session.

The following men and women are currently serving in these roles:

Our Staff