TRANSFORMING LIVES THROUGH CHRIST

The mission of Horizon Community Church of Palmdale is "Transforming Lives Through Christ".

That is the central focus of this group of believers.

Let’s look closely at that mission.

“Transforming” means changing from one thing to another thing. So, from what to what?

At Horizon we want to see people transformed from unbelievers in Christ into disciples (students) of Christ - people who trust in Him and do what He says.

Now, we are all at various stages in this transformation. Those people who come to Horizon as Christians are not going to be transformed from unbelievers into disciples; they’re already believers. But we want them to experience transformation into more faithful, devoted disciples.

Is this transformation a one-time event or a lifelong process? Both.

When someone truly believes in Jesus Christ, he is immediately transformed by God (as a one-time event). But then he must learn to trust God and live out that faith in everyday life. Another way of putting this is that he is learning to walk with Jesus and become like Jesus. This journey is a lifelong process.

“Lives” means our inner selves (heart) as well as our behavior. We are seeking real change that comes from the heart. God says of His followers, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33b) When God changes our hearts, those changes will be reflected by our behavior. We want to avoid both the trap of legalism (external conformity to rules without an inner heart change) and the trap of antinomianism (a refusal to obey God’s commands because someone doesn’t feel like it inwardly). We want to see every aspect of someone’s life transformed because of his or her relationship with Jesus.

We recognize that only the real Jesus Christ, the biblical Jesus, is the Person who can change lives. It is, after all, His Church (of which Horizon is a part), and our first love and purpose is to belong to Him.

HORIZON’S MISSION: TRANSFORMING LIVES THROUGH CHRIST

It’s great that Horizon is all about transforming lives, but we need to be clear about the process of transforming lives through Christ. HOW do we do that?

The process is getting people to encounter and interact with the real Jesus on a regular basis, using means which are spelled out in His Word.

This process is a tool, a framework, which Horizon has chosen to help people encounter the Living Christ in order to be transformed.

We’ve broken the process up into three parts, all involving some sort of CONNECTION.

Specifically, the process of transformation is: Connect to God, Connect to People, and Connect to Ministry. We believe that if someone sincerely Connects to God, Connects to People and Connects to Ministry, over time he or she will be transformed from an unbeliever to a faithful, devoted disciple of Jesus Christ.

A disclaimer:

The process is not a self-improvement, self-help program of human effort. Discipline & real effort are important but ultimately it is God who uses this process to transform us. It’s not a perfect process; it is a tool. Our faith is not in the process, but in God who uses it. A person is saved (and transformed) by God’s grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ (Romans 3:23-24), not by human effort. Nevertheless, we believe God has chosen to use certain things (the Bible, worship, prayer, meeting together, etc.) to transform lives.

Horizon’s process of transforming lives through Christ is to encourage people to: CONNECT TO GOD; CONNECT TO PEOPLE; CONNECT TO MINISTRY.

You'll see a "Connect to Resources" circle below also. This circle is our commitment to you to offer resources that will help equip every believer as they Connect to God, People and Ministry.

Let’s go over these one at a time. Click on a circle below to learn more: