Since 2009, Antioch Community Church has been calling people to become whole-hearted disciples of Jesus who transform towns and nations with the love and power of the Gospel.
OUR VISION
To present to Christ a radiant Church, ready for His return.
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The Old Testament saints, prophets, New Testament apostles and Jesus Himself repeatedly emphasized a day in which God’s Kingdom would reign on the earth with Christ as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Not only would the Messiah come as a Sacrificial Lamb and offer forgiveness of sins through His death on the cross, but He would also return as a Conquering Lion to reign and rule for all eternity. Therefore, having in mind His return seemed vital to set before us, reminding us that we are not just living for today, but living for that Day in which He comes again and the mortal puts on immortality, the perishable puts on the imperishable, and death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:54). If the parables and teachings of Jesus and the apostles were not enough to convince us of this reality, Jesus repeats Himself to make it abundantly clear that He is coming again—"Behold, I am coming quickly…yes, I am coming quickly” (Rev. 22:7,12,20).
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In view of His coming return, disciples of Jesus are called upon not just to know and be aware of this, but to be ready. Ready like the wise virgins who had their lamps trimmed and oil stored (Matt. 25:1-13). Ready like the faithful servant put in charge of his master’s household (Matt. 24:45-51). Ready to open the door when He knocks (Luke 12:35-40), not sleeping, but alert (Mark 13:33-37). Knowing He is coming doesn’t necessarily make you ready, but actively preparing yourself does. Like a bride preparing for a wedding is the people of God, His Church, to prepare Herself for His coming. Everyone who has the hope of His coming purifies themselves (1 John 3:3) and makes sure they are ready to give account for their life. This opens us up for constant sanctification from the Holy Spirit, as we are always growing and maturing in our walk with the Lord. Even the apostle Paul later in his ministry admitted that though he was ready to depart and be with Christ (Phil. 1:23), he had not yet attained or become perfect, yet pressed on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God (Phil. 3:12-14). We must follow in his example and continue to make ourselves ready all the days of our lives by pressing on to perfection (Heb. 6:1) in every area of our lives. Then we will ready and confident on the day of His coming (1 John 2:28, 4:17), without blemish, holy and blameless (Eph. 5:27, Col.1:22).
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Jesus is not coming back for organizations, denominations, or individual people. He is coming back for His Church. And time and again the Scriptures reveal to us that the Church is to be the Body of Christ, with Jesus as our Head (Col. 1:8). As disciples of Jesus, we are called to be one Body (1 Cor. 12:12). Not only that, a mature body, build together in love (Eph. 4:16). This can only be accomplished through genuine and authentic relationships created within the local church. And when the church functions together in unity as one body, each member playing their part in fellowship with the other members, the gates of hell will not prevail against what God can accomplish through that church (Matt. 16:18). Church is not a building nor an organization, it is a local community of disciples fitted and held together by what every joint supplies (Eph. 4:16).
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If we are convinced Jesus is coming back for His Body, the Church, then we must ask the question, what kind of body? The answer is given to us clearly in the Word of God—a holy, blameless, spotless body that appears as a light in the world amid a dark and crooked generation (Phil. 2:15). Jesus taught that His disciples would be the light of the world, a city on a hill that cannot be a hidden, a lampstand that gives light to all (Matt. 5:14-16). We are called to shine forth the glory of God in every area of our lives. Like the sun radiates light for all to see, we too must radiate God’s glory for all to see. As the author of Hebrews says, Jesus is “the radiance of God’s glory”, allowing us to see the exact representation of His nature (Heb. 1:3). Jesus Himself said, “if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:9). A radiant church looks just like Jesus. Full of light and flowing with life (John 8:12). And this can only be accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit (John 7:38-39). A radiant church is a Spirit-filled and Spirit-led church filled with abundant life.
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Even in the very beginning of Creation in the garden of Eden, when God walked in the cool of the day with man, He saw fit to give mankind a purpose. In paradise, Adam was to cultivate and keep the garden (Gen. 2:15). As humans, we must have a purpose in life. And as a local church, we also must have one single purpose that we can rally behind. And we want to hear at the end of it all, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” for being faithful with the “talents” we have been given (Matt. 25:23). As ministers of the gospel and as disciples of Christ, we have work to do. We want to present our lives before God as pure and righteous. We want to present the work of our hands as a wise master builder would, not with wood, hay, and straw, but with gold, silver and precious stone so as to be revealed by fire one day (1 Cor. 3:10-14).
Finally, we must acknowledge who it is that we are presenting our lives and all we have done to. It is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Redeemer. Our Savior. Our Master. The One who was, is and is to come. The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning, and the End (Rev. 1:8). We know that we will not stand before some earthly king or worldly government whose wisdom and knowledge only spans the breadth of their small life, but rather we will stand before the Ancient of Days, the Judge of the living and the dead, Almighty God Himself. He is the Lamb of God by which all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is the Head of the body, the Church; and He is the beginning; the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have the first place in everything (Col.1:16-18). May Christ be glorified forever and ever. Amen.
OUR MISSION
To make disciples of Jesus who transform towns and nations.
When God put a dream in our hearts to plant a church in Bryan-College Station, we knew He was calling us to be a church-planting church— a church committed to reaching people with the Gospel, training and discipling them in the ways of Jesus, and sending them out into to towns, cities and nations.
OUR BELIEFS