We believe that God calls His people to focus on Jesus Christ. We believe that our ultimate goal is to know Him and become like Him. We believe that historic Christianity has always emphasized knowing Jesus through faith, and not through a system of morality or religious achievement. We believe that personally trusting in Christ will inevitably lead to a changed life. Because the person of Christ is our focus, at Koinos we do not primarily focus on politics, social issues, morality causes, or organized efforts to bring about "family values." We do believe that Jesus calls His people to live a different kind of life that is often at odds with the larger world around us. However, we do not believe people change by working hard at their behavior. We believe people change as they trust in Christ Himself. As they experience His love, forgiveness, and personal truth, they become different people.
We believe that all people are sinful and incomplete in themselves—including our church leaders. We believe that the Way of Christ calls us to humility and honesty. We believe in a world of sound-bites and "spin," we are called to be the people of truth. At Koinos, we believe we are not serving God or others by putting on a false display of piety on Sunday mornings. Of course, as believers, the Spirit of God calls us to a way of life that can be uncomfortable for some. However, we believe that being honest about our short-comings, struggles, and the reality of our human experience is actually a key component to spiritual transformation.
We believe that God created the physical world and declared it to be good. We believe that God has not abandoned human cultures and everyday life, but entered it Himself in the incarnation of Jesus. We believe that God's people are not culture warriors, but appreciate and even use the best of our world to reflect on the wonder of God Himself. We believe spirituality is not a matter of escaping the world that God made, but seeing the everyday spheres of work and family and neighborhoods and friends as the places where we meet and serve God Himself.
We believe all believers are simply redeemed sinners. We believe God saves us, not by what we do, but by His goodness and grace. We believe, therefore, that we are compelled to be kind and compassionate to those who do not yet know God. We believe that we need to do everything possible to model Christ's love to them. We believe that we need to prioritize making the life and message of Jesus understandable to those who are newly encountering Him. We believe that if we are not welcoming newcomers with open arms, we are no longer a church in the mold of Jesus Himself.
We believe that God is a personal being who can be known. We believe that when God chose to reveal Himself to humanity in the most complete form, He became one of us. We believe that when people ask the most important questions, God's answer is offering Himself to us. We believe that a church reflects God's glory through the relationships we have with one another. Koinos is not a place where you come on Sundays to perform rituals. Koinos is not simply a place where you come to get spiritual information; Koinos is a community of friendship with God and each other. We find it is often hard to describe Koinos to someone who is not yet a part of us. It's awfully hard to describe what it is like to experience a community of friends.