Help Us Launch
We’re beginning The Rockford Mission by forming a Launch Team, a group of people who commit to serving in the early stages of the plant, while we are forming and norming. These folks take on extra commitments in order to help get the church off the ground.
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A church plant often goes through rapid changes, both as it learns what is and isn’t working, and as people visit to determine if they want to worship in that community. To provide stability and allow us to practice hospitality, we are looking for a group of people who can join our Launch Team.
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The needs of the Launch Team will likely change over time, but generally speaking, we are asking for Launch Team members to:
Attend the Rockford Mission for 12 months
Give sacrificially
Serve at least once a month
Embody a spirit of hospitality, invitation, and welcome
Note: we understand that things may change! There is grace if what you intended becomes infeasible or unsustainable.
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No! We recognize not everyone can commit to giving this level of time or energy given the other things they have going on. You are invited to worship with us even if you are not a member of the Launch Team.
Do you want to make The Rockford Mission part of your Parish?
The concept of parish may seem a little antiquated. It conceives of a life lived in a specific geographical area, an intentionally limited life. This simplicity can be helpful as we think about the work and relationships that God has called us to. But we often live spread out far beyond any one place. What does it mean to abide by the values of a parish today?
A friend once told me, “parish is where your relationships are.” All of us cultivate a parish through the places where we invest ourselves. If you’re thinking about joining The Rockford Mission, we hope you’ll consider it through the lens of parish: do you long for this place and for these people to be part of your life’s center of gravity?
Even if you don’t live in the neighborhood, if you want to see the reality of the Kingdom reflected here as we seek to incarnate the Kingdom of God here at 829 S. Rockford with others who are apprenticing themselves to Jesus, we hope you’ll join us.
FAQs
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We anticipate a “soft” launch in Advent of this year for those who are part of the Launch Team and the existing Cornerstone congregation, with a “hard” launch with services open to the public in January 2026.
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In this early stage, we are emphasizing values over vision. We aspire to be a contrast community in Christ by cultivating Presence, Belonging, Apprenticeship, and Participation, through a shared Rule of Life.
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Rule of Life is a term derived from monastic communities which has found various expressions throughout the Church historic. It refers to a community who chooses to abide by a set of shared habits, rhythms of grace, in which they together seek to grow and be transformed in Christ through day in, day out adherence to these habits.
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Our Rule will grow and change over time, but in this moment we anticipate our Rule have both corporate and personal elements that we will practice together.
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We hope to see more of each of our values manifested in our shared life together by shared practices we hold.
Presence is cultivated primarily through our Sunday Gathering
Belonging is cultivated primarily through our Groups and observing the Church calendar together
Apprenticeship is cultivated primarily by maintaining a personal rule of life with input from community
Participation is cultivated by serving, both the needs of the body and the needs of the world
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Cultivating more of our life in Christ is not a one-size-fits-all situation. We encourage all of our members to cultivate a personal Rule, revisited regularly, to help cultivate our values as a contrast community. The four areas of focus are:
Presence - attentive to God, self, and neighbor
Belonging - with my household and church family
Apprenticeship - sustained in my body
Participation - for the sake of others
In each of these areas, consider an area of embrace and something to abstain from.