What is northgate ministries all about? Why do we do what we do? What motivates and drives us?
These questions are answered best by explaining our heart. So, what is our heart?
Upon starting northgate ministries in 2004, Paul Ravesteyn and the original core team at the time, spent a weekend away at Mcmasters Beach, with the sole purpose of answering this very question.
What has God made our heart to be?
After many discussions, as well as contemplation and prayer, after enquiring of God His will and purpose for them and their future ministry, Paul and the others came up with the five letter word 'STEIG' - an acronym which helps to explain God's purpose for us, where our heart lies, and what we base our ministry upon.
The word 'STEIG' explained
"For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life as a ransom for many." - Mark 10:45
We at northgate strongly believe that as a church and a ministry, the ongoing task ahead of us, our calling, is to serve the community and those in the world around us. We believe that we were put here, as Jesus was, not for our own purposes or needs, but for the purposes of God, and the needs of others.
As Jesus came down to the world, to suffer and lovingly give his life as a sacrifice in order that we may be freed from sin and brought into a right relationship with our God, we too believe that we are merely an important tool in God's hands, and that our role is - with love towards others as Jesus showed the world - to wholeheartedly give our lives over to service, and to serve God through serving others.
Northgate is a place to serve, not to be served. This will happen naturally, as we relate to and accept each other, and treat each other with love, the same love that Jesus shows to us all. He has already done us the ultimate service, when he suffered and died because of His love for us.
People are God's gift to each other, and blessings abound for those who live to serve others.
"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." - 2 Corinthians 3:18
When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we begin to transform. The first thing that happens is that every sin we've ever committed, is forgiven, and we are made righteous because of Christ. We become a 'new creation'(2 Corinthians 5:17) and we are freed from the bondage of sin. This is but where it begins.
The transformation we undertake in our lives as Christians is not an event, but an ongoing process. It is a journey that we all embark upon when we decide to follow Christ, one that we all walk, and will continue to walk until the day that our Lord brings us home.
To transform into the likeness of Jesus, to become completely like Him in all of His glory, is something that takes us our lifetime. The path of transformation towards spiritual maturity and victory in the Lord, is one paved with arduous trials and diffulties, but is also the most wonderous and rewarding thing a person can ever have in their life.
Jesus makes all things new, including us.
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." - Jerimiah 1:5
Northgate ministries wholeheartedly believes that every person who comes along, is an incredible and unique gift sent to us from God. Every single person is of a unique design, and has their own God given abilities and talents. God's calling upon everyone's life is different, and there are no common molds or common people at northgate. People are unique, and grow as God means them to grow.
We see that our role, as a ministry, is to empower each individual. To encourage and support them, and fill them with the passion to grow into what they were born to be. This is done not with rules, not with any criticisms or judgements of people on our part, but with compassion, kindness, and of course, as in all things, with love. Empowerment is facilitated by being Jesus to each person, and helping each person to become more like Jesus.
People are all different. People start at different places, and people grow differently, into different things. As a church, we simply wish to nurture that growth, and to empower the individual with what they need, to 'become all that God has made them to be'.
"They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." - Acts 2:3-4
On that day at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was bestowed upon the twelve apostles, it came and intensified their hearts and their ministry. So too, do we see our role, as to intensify the mission heart of God's church. To increase the passion and intensity of the church's devotion to mission, and to make it strengthen to become more like the heart of God, which needs no intensifying.
As we have empowered people to become what God made them to be, we now need to intensify the ministry of God itself. To 'fan the flames' and strengthen the fire in peoples hearts to serve and bring Jesus into the lives of others.
The practical way in which this is accomplished is through supporting other ministries such as northgates partners, and other regional churches by freely offering as a gift, the use of our facilities, and the God given abilities which we ourselves possess.
The people of northgate firmly believe that the church belongs to God, and not to any man or woman. Regional boundaries are of little consequence where God is concerned, so we seek to intensify the mission heart of the church as a whole, God's chuch, rather than simply that of northgate.
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." -
1 Corinthians 10:31
Gloryfying God is the paramount and ultimate goal of northgate ministries, and it is the reason that we exist. A motherhood statement. In all that we do, and in everything that we are, or aspire to be, we must ask ourselves this imperative question :
"Does this glorify God?"
It is not the heart of Northgate to do things for our own benefit, or for our own ends. We function as the living body of Christ, seeking the heart of God and His glory, not our own, in all things, and by acting and living accordingly. However it is achieved, our ultimate wish is that God be glorified.
God created us for his glory(Isaiah 43:1-7) and we believe that to bring glory to Him is fundamentally why we have been placed on this earth. We believe that every deed and action must be focused towards this, and that our identity as a church must be in alignment with this very design.
Northgate ministries is a loving, unified community of God's children, seeking to become all that God has made them to be, and in doing so, bringing glory to His holy and wonderful name.