Philosophy of Ministry

We are always striving to answer these key questions:

How do you foster spiritual growth in people?

What kind of community brings about change for the sexually broken?

    In order to be comfortable with our identity as a para-church ministry we had to discover our boundaries. We are not a church. It is not healthy for people to think of us as a church. In order to prevent people from becoming overly dependent on us, we needed to define our responsibilities.

     We exist to support the work of the Body of Christ, not to replace it. We specialize in the area of homosexuality and sexual brokenness because that is where God has touched us.  
 

 
It is unrealistic to expect each church to be equipped to handle all of the many issues that people are burdened with. We can provide assistance because of what God has done in our lives.

  
While we incorporate worship and teaching in our meetings, and provide an accepting and loving atmosphere, we do not want to provide an ongoing source of fellowship for our participants. We exist to encourage and equip people to be able to find the support that they need in a church body.

     Our philosophy is to provide structure and boundaries that are 'just enough'to allow people to have a healing experience, to know they are loved but not be dependent on us and to get them integrated back into the Body of Christ.

     We discovered that an intense spiritual experience with God is a vital component in a person's healing process but it is most beneficial within the context of the traditional disciplines of Christian life. To simply have a powerful experience does not call forth the growth that God would work in their lives.

     At the same time, discipline without spiritual experience is empty. Disciplines without a true encounter with God turn into legalism and stifle any benefit derived from them. So, for some, our ministry has provided them the structure they have always needed in their spiritual life and for others it has been a meeting place with God.

     Without turning a blind eye to sin, we've chosen to create an environment of safety, where people can be honest without fear of repercussions. Then, we allow the Holy Spirit to lead them to a life of purity. We know that in the depth of our being we don't want to be sinners. It's been amazing to see how this allows for the change toward holiness, as incremental as it sometimes seems.

Return to Main Upper Room index