Savior’s Vision
Journeying Together:
Loving God, Loving Others, Loving Life
Our vision is based on what Jesus proclaimed as the two greatest commandments:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”
“The second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:29-31).
These two commitments lead us to also embrace “Loving Life.” To show love for God and others, we seek to promote and protect fullness of life for others, as we do for ourselves.
Loving God
We strive to love God completely, both as individuals and as a church. We long for a deeper experience of God's transforming love. We walk in the light of Scripture, God’s written Word, as our highest authority and only certain guide on our journey into his love (Psalm 119:105; Hebrews 4:12).
In order to express our love for God, we commit ourselves to worship, prayer and the other ancient disciplines of the Christian faith as the only sure path toward spiritual transformation (Jeremiah 6:16). Specifically, we worship in the liturgical tradition of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, which helps us to proclaim the Word of God (Acts 10:42; Titus 1:19) and to share in the sacraments of Communion (Ephesians 6:18; Luke 22:19) and baptism (Mark 16:15-6; Romans 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:13).
Loving Others
The Bible calls Christians "the body" of Christ (Romans 7:4; 1 Corinthians 10:16, 12:27), and so we believe we are united with Jesus Christ in his suffering, death and resurrection. We are therefore called to a common life of “humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-6). We desire to welcome, include, and learn from people who may feel on the margins: widows, singles, persons with disabilities, and others.
We seek to empower one another to live and proclaim the Good News in our relationships, neighborhoods, and vocations -- especially locally, but also globally (Matthew 28:19-20). We commit ourselves to recognize and respond to those who are suffering and in need through giving, serving, praying, and promoting social justice (Micah 6:8). We have long-term relationships with Outreach, People’s Resource Center, and World Relief Chicagoland; and we support the Multi-Ethnic Church Development Fund.
Loving Life
We believe that wholehearted love for God and others produces a love for life that is contagious.
Because we love God, we receive with gratitude and celebration the life he gives us. God called his creation good, so we affirm the goodness of his world and seek to enjoy and conserve God’s creation (1 Timothy 6:17). We receive every good gift that comes down to us from God (James 1:17). We claim the victory of Christ over sin, so that we might “have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). The weekly Sabbath is an important part of our tasting the abundance of life that Jesus offers. (Exodus 20:8; Mark 2:27).
For more on Loving Life, you might enjoy our sermons on:
Savior’s Values
No list can capture the heart of our church, but here are a few things we value (in roughly alphabetical order):
Always Welcoming
St. Benedict wrote, “Let all guests who arrive be received as Christ, because He will say: ‘I was a stranger and you took Me in’” (Mt 25:35). We welcome people from all walks of life, those from diverse cultures and gifts, young and old, and with disabilities of many kinds.
ALL AGES WELCOME
We take each person’s spiritual lives seriously. Young people are not just “the church of the future” but “the church of now.” Elders are not just “the church of yesterday” but “the church of now.” We all experience God and pray and take in the Word of God. Though our adults, children and youth each has times on their own, we hope everyone can participate fully at Savior—as musicians, acolytes, Bible dramatists, worshipers, missionaries. As Pastor Mary says, “When we don’t find ways to integrate all ages into the life of the church, the church misses out.”
Collaboration in Ministry
We encourage each other to recognize and use our God-given gifts. Since God created men and women in his image and poured out his Holy Spirit on both, we welcome leadership and teaching from both men and women. We try to be low on competition and high on collaboration.
Community
We are not meant to be alone. Genuine community is always a grace. It is a gift. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it: “Because God has bound us together in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ, long before we entered into common life with them, we enter into that common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients.” Christian community becomes real in small steps, relationship by relationship, genuine connection by genuine connection, small group by small group.
Eating Together
It's true! We really do enjoy that.
Goodness of Godly Authority
We affirm that “Holy Scripture is the supreme authority in the Church, that it is the Word of God written, and contains all things necessary to Salvation” (from the Thirty-Nine Articles, a historical document important to Anglicans). We also embrace the historic pattern of leadership in which churches are led by bishops, priests, and deacons; and we thank God for the wise authority and teaching of our bishops and the Anglican Church in North America.
Grace
Paul described the grace that we receive from Christ as a free gift. It is not something we can earn. It is not based on merit. We hope that a vivid sense of God’s grace will infuse all our interactions with others.
Inward Journey & Outward Journey
We believe in inner transformation through prayer, silence, honesty with others, and other Christian practices. This “inward journey” works with the “outward journey” of loving others, like the 2 sides of 1 lung.. God loves the poor, and the poor in spirit; God loves those who are far from Him, or alienated from the church; God loves every race, every class, every culture. An integral part of our mission is to look outward, confront darkness, and live in faithful witness, service, and care for those in need.
Radically Resisting Busyness and Hurry
Modern life requires and rewards busyness and hurry—and even a local church may become frenetic. We try to resist busyness and over-programming, for as Eugene Peterson taught, “Busyness is an illness of spirit.”
SACRAMENTAL LIFE
Matter matters. God created all things, took on human flesh in Jesus Christ, and now dwells within us by his Holy Spirit—so all of human life is taken seriously, honored, and elevated. Therefore, we put first being together in person, eating bread and wine together, singing together, and so on.
Christian Beliefs
Apostles’ creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Jerusalem Declaration
1. Salvation
We rejoice in the gospel of God through which we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because God first loved us, we love him and as believers bring forth fruits of love, ongoing repentance, lively hope and thanksgiving to God in all things.
2. The Bible
We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God written and to contain all things necessary for salvation. The Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading.
3. The Creeds
We uphold the four Ecumenical Councils and the three historic Creeds [Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed] as expressing the rule of faith of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
4. Anglican History
We uphold the Thirty-nine Articles as containing the true doctrine of the Church agreeing with God’s Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today.
5. Jesus
We gladly proclaim and submit to the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humanity’s only Saviour from sin, judgement and hell, who lived the life we could not live and died the death that we deserve. By his atoning death and glorious resurrection, he secured the redemption of all who come to him in repentance and faith.
6. Worship
We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an expression of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be translated and locally adapted for each culture.
7. Church Leaders
We recognise that God has called and gifted bishops, priests and deacons in historic succession to equip all the people of God for their ministry in the world. We uphold the classic Anglican Ordinal as an authoritative standard of clerical orders.
8. Marriage & Sexuality
We acknowledge God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We repent of our failures to maintain this standard and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married.
9. Sharing Faith
We gladly accept the Great Commission of the risen Lord to make disciples of all nations, to seek those who do not know Christ and to baptize, teach and bring new believers to maturity.
10. Environmental Care & Social Justice
We are mindful of our responsibility to be good stewards of God’s creation, to uphold and advocate justice in society, and to seek relief and empowerment of the poor and needy.
11. Christian Unity
We are committed to the unity of all those who know and love Christ and to building authentic ecumenical relationships. We recognise the orders and jurisdiction of those Anglicans who uphold orthodox faith and practice, and we encourage them to join us in this declaration.
12. Christian Charity
We celebrate the God-given diversity among us which enriches our global fellowship, and we acknowledge freedom in secondary matters. We pledge to work together to seek the mind of Christ on issues that divide us.
13. Theological Clarity
We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on them to repent and return to the Lord.
14. The Goal of History
We rejoice at the prospect of Jesus’ coming again in glory, and while we await this final event of history, we praise him for the way he builds up his church through his Spirit by miraculously changing lives.