“ABIDE IN ME AND I WILL ABIDE IN YOU.”

1. Worship first

   • The pinnacle of the human experience is worship. In all things, our posture is one of adoration and affection toward Jesus. Everything we are and do flows from intimacy in his presence. Expect extended periods of worship and freedom of expression. This is a place where there are no eyes of judgment, only eyes that are fixed on Jesus.

2. His Presence, not a performance 

   • We honor and value His presence above all else. Our desire therefore is not to cultivate a performance for man, but to welcome the presence of Jesus, trusting that He alone knows what’s best.

3. Encounter, not appearances 

   • One touch from Jesus changes everything. The most dramatic encounters in the gospels are unpredictable and messy, but they are also transformative and life-giving. We don’t expect today’s experience to be any different.

4. Tremble at His Word

   • We intently study Scripture, God’s Logos word, while also posturing ourselves to humbly receive and obey his Rhema word through the voice of the Spirit.

5. Take ground

   • Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. We continue this mission as we carry His resurrection power into broken places, particularly among the lost, the poor, the outcast, and the brokenhearted. This includes both local and global expressions and will involve our physically going and our support of others who will take Jesus’ presence to the ends of the earth.

6. Expect miracles

   • A dramatic mission requires dramatic provision. We don’t just believe that spiritual gifts of healing, prophecy, and miracles are for today; we expect them. As a community advancing the kingdom of God into dark places, we cannot rely on our own strategies or plans, but instead celebrate our utter dependency on the power of the Spirit in our midst.

7. Love > the supernatural.

   • Our emphasis is not on miracles or supernatural encounters, but on love. As we embody the love of Jesus in the broken places of the world, we expect his power to manifest in supernatural ways, but we never prioritize the supernatural over love. If we never see another miracle but learn to love like Jesus, that will be enough.

8. Prioritize community

   • We were created to exist in community. As a community practicing the way of Jesus together, we prioritize our connection to one another, making countercultural decisions to intentionally structure our lives around friendship and community. Participation in a Community of Practice is integral to life in this community and is seen as its primary expression, the context through which the presence of Jesus in us extends into our surrounding community.

9. The priesthood of all believers. 

   • We do not gather to passively receive from one or two anointed individuals. Rather, it is God’s desire to anoint and activate all believers in the manifold gifts of the Spirit for the purpose of ministry to one another and the world. Everyone gets to play! Our gatherings therefore intentionally create space for expression of the gifts present in each person to build up the community.

10. Generosity

    • We will intentionally structure ourselves to maximize generosity and will allocate the majority of our resources toward ministries beyond Sunday services.

11. Creativity 

    • As people made in the image of God, we cherish creative expression as a form of worship and a powerful weapon for reclaiming ground for the kingdom. We therefore celebrate songwriting, visual art, dance, writing, filmmaking, kingdom entrepreneurship, and other creative expressions. The Lord will draw creatives from around the world to this community, and Abide will become a hub of creativity, releasing expressions of such profound beauty that they will extend beyond the church and actually shift secular culture.

12. The Wisdom of Heaven 

    • The wisdom of heaven is foolishness to the world. Our decisions aren’t made according to worldly strategy but rather by the direction of the Spirit and the wisdom of our crucified King.

13. Prayer 

    • Everything that happens here will be bathed in and flow from prayer. We celebrate the reality that we can do nothing apart from Jesus and through prayer receive direction for the journey, the tools to pursue it, and the power to complete it.

14. Risk

    • We are called to take on battles far beyond our natural capacities, where only He can bring victory. We step into these areas of exposure, vulnerability, and risk with expectation that he will move in ways that we could never anticipate.

15. Embrace mystery

    • Jesus did not leave his disciples a theology textbook. He left them a meal and the promise of the Holy Spirit. We marvel at the mystery of his presence in the Lord’s Supper, and we celebrate the rebirth that happens through baptism.

16. Whole-hearted devotion

    • Jesus does not ask for fans. He is calling disciples, and his desire is to possess all of us. We are a community committed to active discipleship and quick obedience to the leadership of the Spirit. 

“Abide in me, and I will abide in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:4-5).”

Jesus’ heart for his people is not merely transactional. He came for more than an exchange that gets us into heaven. His desire is for us to be in him, just as he is in the Father — in a word, that we would abide. In John 17, the one place in Scripture where Jesus prays for modern believers, three times he prays that we would be in him and that he would be in us. His desire is for his Spirit to infuse the essence of our being, to permeate the very stuff we are made of and transform us into something altogether new as a habitation of his divine presence — a Christian. 

This is the heart of Abide. Only when we abide in him can we become like him. The apostle Peter says that we have been invited to participate in Jesus’ divine nature so that his love, his life, and his power flow into and through us, ultimately empowering us to do the things he did (2 Peter 1:3, Col. 1:29, 1 Cor. 13-15). It is from this posture that we will be marked by love and sent with power. 

“If you abide in me and my words abide you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you (John 15:7).”

One of the primary purposes of prayer is to obtain the heart of God – for our heart to become shaped like His as we begin to share in His affections. From this posture of abiding, our desires actually shift and we become able to pray the very will of God and release His purposes on the earth. The power and effectiveness of our prayers are therefore a function of our intimate connection with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. It is in this place of abiding that we are positioned and empowered to call forth the will of God for creation as sons and daughters. 

It is also from this posture that we are freed from the tyranny of self-righteousness and religious pride, recognizing that we are children of grace and that every ounce of fruit in our lives is a gift, solely the result of Jesus’ life flowing through us. Abiding therefore cultivates a poverty of spirit that allows us to humbly declare, in the midst of a life marked by unimaginable fruitfulness, that apart from Him, we truly can do nothing. 

“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love (John 15:10).”

Abiding is both a posture of the heart and conscious choices of obedience. The affection of heart birthed through intimate connection with Jesus is formed into maturity through obedience to His teachings.

Abide Christian Church will change people’s foundational concepts about God as they discover that He is not merely abstract doctrines and behavioral principles, but is active and alive. Abide will also lead people into a rediscovery of what it means to be human as they step into a new identity as a habitation of the presence of God, endowed with His authority to release a heaven on earth reality through His presence in us. 

The expressions of ministry that will be released through the empowered people of Abide will be immense. The reach into various spheres of life will be beyond our wildest imaginations.

An unusual aspect of Abide’s impact will be the empowerment and activation of other pastors, both locally and beyond. By offering evening expressions, pastors will have space to come, encounter the presence of Jesus, receive ministry, and carry a new anointing back to their congregations. The unique combination of Spirit-led ministry and deep biblical teaching offered at Abide will be approachable to pastors hungry for the presence of God but also seeking biblical fidelity as they lead their congregations into new expressions and experiences.

• Abide will begin as an evening gathering, meeting on the 2nd Sunday of the month at 4pm at the Estuary at 1455 N Alabama St. Indianapolis, IN 46202

• As a community that welcomes the presence of Jesus, we will need a worship team of musicians who are consumed by affection for Him and anointed to usher others into encounter with Him. The posture of the worship team will be one of sensitivity to the flow of the Spirit. Practically this will look like openness to corporate ministry or prayer moments during worship, moving off a setlist (even singing acapella if led), or other spontaneous worship expressions the Spirit births, even if unplanned. It will be a special team to cultivate this culture, and we are trusting the Lord to bring them together. 

• Children’s and Youth ministries will be built on a foundational belief that young people can hear the voice of God and move in spiritual gifts. In addition to biblical teaching, they will also participate in hands-on activations for spiritual gifts and will be given context and platform for their exercise both inside and beyond our church community. They will also have opportunity to serve as members of our prayer team for healing. We are trusting the Lord to bring children’s and youth pastors with a heart for disciplining young people to hear the voice of Jesus, to flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and to release a heart of worship in even the youngest of our community.

Abide Christian Church adheres to the historical beliefs of the Christian faith as outlined in the Nicene Creed. Please reach out to J.D. or Liz Collar for a complete Statement of Faith. 

You can also email abidechurchindy@gmail.com