Vision and Rule of Life Overview Video
CPC's Rule of Life Expanded
This is a rule of life for those who call Central Peninsula Church their community of faith.
Our complex, hurried, distracted, and increasingly polarized society poses unique challenges to faithfully following Jesus. As a response to these challenges, we must intentionally and creatively consider the call of Jesus to follow him in ways that form every dimension of our lives, seeking to become the people of God by apprenticing under Jesus. Over time we are learning how to live every part of our lives as Jesus would live our lives if he were us.
Our shared identity as citizens of the Kingdom of God means we are seeking together the way of faithfulness by responding to the gospel announcement of Jesus in Mark 1, “Come, follow me…The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” To repent is to re-imagine everything in light of Jesus and the arrival of the Kingdom of God. In doing so, change the very patterns of thinking, believing, and living that shape our lives and world. The first step in this process is repentance by bringing every dimension of who we are into alignment with this good news that the Kingdom of God is available to us now.
Christian spiritual formation is not a static thing but a dynamic process of intentionally opening our lives to the work of the Spirit to become more like Christ. Our role in this process is, as Eugene Peterson says, "A long obedience in the same direction." And we believe this is best accomplished together, in community.
At various times throughout church history, different communities of faith have developed and lived under what is called “a rule of life” to counter some of the unique challenges of faithfully growing in Christlikeness. While the language of a rule of life can seem odd to our modern ears, it is a concept the people of God have used dating back to Daniel in exile in Babylon. A rule of life is not meant to be limiting, but it is to the follower of Jesus what training is to an athlete or a musician. Put simply; A rule of life is a shared set of practices and habits a community embraces to guide the process of spiritual formation.
As a community of followers of Jesus, we seek to be a transformed people, transforming the San Francisco Peninsula. A rule of life is a set of habits we seek to integrate personally and communally into the rhythm of our lives as an attempt to consciously organize the whole of who we are around the transformative work of the Holy Spirit.
In 2019, we launched a ten-year vision at CPC to "engage in spiritual formation at a magnitude that will propel us into thoughtful and gracious cultural engagement on the San Francisco Peninsula, to ignite both personal and societal transformation." To accomplish the next chapter of this vision, we will organize our community around a shared rule of life at CPC that focuses on two sets of practices: practices of presence with God and practices of participation with God. Our prayer is that these practices will shape our lives to become a transformed people, transforming the San Francisco Peninsula.