What we do:
At the heart of Cultivate Church is our mission: We grow faith, friends, and families that follow Jesus together.
We grow faith.
No one is unchanged after meeting Jesus: either we reject Him or we accept Him as savior, mediator, example, and Lord. Our job is to help people live out the life Jesus calls us to as Lord and Example.Because Jesus is the only help and hope for us, we want people to know Him.
We grow families.
We are here to help moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, caring families both live out their faith and pass it on. Kids matter and so do their caring adults. Our mission is to help people grow in practical and meaningful ways as they lead their families.
We grow friends.
We believe that many people have been burned by church or Christians before and often need to see that we really believe what we say. We believe that you can’t do life alone so we want to grow and foster friendships that help us follow Jesus.
We follow Jesus together.
Jesus holds it all together and says really clearly that he is the source of life for us. Like plants uprooted, or crops that aren't watered, we need one another and we need to be rooted in who Jesus is and what He has done. That happens best when we grow together. Our church wants to be a place where you grow towards Jesus and towards one another in love.
At the heart of Cultivate Church is our mission: We grow faith, friends, and families that follow Jesus together.
We grow faith.
No one is unchanged after meeting Jesus: either we reject Him or we accept Him as savior, mediator, example, and Lord. Our job is to help people live out the life Jesus calls us to as Lord and Example.Because Jesus is the only help and hope for us, we want people to know Him.
We grow families.
We are here to help moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, caring families both live out their faith and pass it on. Kids matter and so do their caring adults. Our mission is to help people grow in practical and meaningful ways as they lead their families.
We grow friends.
We believe that many people have been burned by church or Christians before and often need to see that we really believe what we say. We believe that you can’t do life alone so we want to grow and foster friendships that help us follow Jesus.
We follow Jesus together.
Jesus holds it all together and says really clearly that he is the source of life for us. Like plants uprooted, or crops that aren't watered, we need one another and we need to be rooted in who Jesus is and what He has done. That happens best when we grow together. Our church wants to be a place where you grow towards Jesus and towards one another in love.
How we do it:
Our actions grow out of our past and our future goals. This is how we grow faith friends and families that follow Jesus together:
Living by Faith by Risking Big
Cultivate Church has been a church for a long time, about 175 years. In that time we have lived by faith; taking chances, risking big, and trusting God. Our church used to be an underground railroad site, and has stood up for the lives and freedom of others for a long time. We know that God keeps His promises, loves His kids and always does what is best for them, and that we cannot please Him without faith. We want to practice our faith in God by trusting Him, doing what He desires regardless of consequence or cost, and asking others to do the same.
When this church decides to trust and risk for God, things happen that we never expected.
Cultivate Church risks big because we know that trusting God makes sense.
Being Voices of Hope by Fighting for the Weak
Our world can be a dark and broken place. At Cultivate Church we think God has placed us in this part of Indiana, at the four corners of Dekalb, Allen, Whitley, and Noble counties to be a light and to give hope to the people around us. We know that hope, real hope, is found in Christ and what He has done for us. We want to plant the seed of hope in as many lives as we possibly can. We want to do this by pointing to Jesus, our hope, in everything we do, being help to those who need it, accepting those who have been rejected, and telling people that life can be different.
We fight for those who are weak because they need the hope that Jesus can bring.
Our history, our DNA at Cultivate says, that we stand up and fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. We stand in the gap. We take the hit. We sacrifice, and we sweat, and we bleed so that others might have just a glimpse of the goodness of God. So at Cultivate our goal is to offer hope by using our strength to lead, to stand, to fight for those who are lost, forgotten and broken. God has led us to a better place, so it is our job to lead to a better place. That is why we call each other to be voices of hope.
Being Known by Love by Valuing People
Jesus said that His followers would be known by their love. We seek to love God, love each other, and love the community and people around us. What this really means is that we try to think of others before we think of ourselves. We do this by giving freely of the things God has given to us, teaching about what God has done and said, and by treating others as we would like to be treated. God loves the whole world and we want to share the love we have been given with the world around us.
You value what you spend money/effort/time on. God valued us and sent his most precious possession to us because he valued us. Because he loves us. He loves people. So as his kids, we have the same family resemblance. This church says people are big in our book. Tradition, culture, comfort, safety, all of these come after my valuing others.
Doing Life Together by Making Things Better
Doing Life Together is a close, meaningful, and authentic interaction and friendship with God and with others and it is what Cultivate Church is all about. We believe that being a church is about more than just being together for an hour on Sunday mornings. We believe that being a church is about doing all of life together, walking with each other through the ups and downs, navigating life with God and others, and seeking to better understand what it means to love Him and love people.
We know that God didn’t create us to live an isolated life apart from others. God made us to live a life that is closely involved in the lives of the people around us. At Cultivate, we believe that being part of a church should be more than a simple handshake and a hurried conversation. We seek to really become family with the people we do life with. More than just attending church services together in the church building when the church calendar calls for it, we interact with each other as the family that we really are as children of God.
We also believe that, like Jesus, we should live life with people outside of our church family. God intends us to do life with our friends and family outside of the church as well. People like our neighbors, our coworkers, our classmates.
We think that when we do life together, one of the things that happens is that we work together to make the people and places around us better. We carry each others’ loads and move each other forward. In that sense, when we do life together we make things better. Cultivate Church is here for God, but also to make Northeast Indiana better. Its who we are. Its what we do. We build. Cultivate Church makes our community better.
Growing Deep, Growing Wide
So all of this together means that we are a group of people wanting to grow. We want to grow to be more like Jesus in how we think, respond, engage, and interact with people and the world around us.
We want to grow towards others and not cave in on ourselves, suffocated by the weight of our own selfishness and pride.
We want to grow into the lives that God has always intended for us to lead.
We want to grow outward, inviting as many people as possible to join Jesus and the movement he started to be about faith, hope, love, and life by risking ourselves, fighting for others, valuing people, and making things better.
That is what it means to be a part of Cultivate Church. We invite you to come with us and grow.
Our actions grow out of our past and our future goals. This is how we grow faith friends and families that follow Jesus together:
Living by Faith by Risking Big
Cultivate Church has been a church for a long time, about 175 years. In that time we have lived by faith; taking chances, risking big, and trusting God. Our church used to be an underground railroad site, and has stood up for the lives and freedom of others for a long time. We know that God keeps His promises, loves His kids and always does what is best for them, and that we cannot please Him without faith. We want to practice our faith in God by trusting Him, doing what He desires regardless of consequence or cost, and asking others to do the same.
When this church decides to trust and risk for God, things happen that we never expected.
Cultivate Church risks big because we know that trusting God makes sense.
Being Voices of Hope by Fighting for the Weak
Our world can be a dark and broken place. At Cultivate Church we think God has placed us in this part of Indiana, at the four corners of Dekalb, Allen, Whitley, and Noble counties to be a light and to give hope to the people around us. We know that hope, real hope, is found in Christ and what He has done for us. We want to plant the seed of hope in as many lives as we possibly can. We want to do this by pointing to Jesus, our hope, in everything we do, being help to those who need it, accepting those who have been rejected, and telling people that life can be different.
We fight for those who are weak because they need the hope that Jesus can bring.
Our history, our DNA at Cultivate says, that we stand up and fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. We stand in the gap. We take the hit. We sacrifice, and we sweat, and we bleed so that others might have just a glimpse of the goodness of God. So at Cultivate our goal is to offer hope by using our strength to lead, to stand, to fight for those who are lost, forgotten and broken. God has led us to a better place, so it is our job to lead to a better place. That is why we call each other to be voices of hope.
Being Known by Love by Valuing People
Jesus said that His followers would be known by their love. We seek to love God, love each other, and love the community and people around us. What this really means is that we try to think of others before we think of ourselves. We do this by giving freely of the things God has given to us, teaching about what God has done and said, and by treating others as we would like to be treated. God loves the whole world and we want to share the love we have been given with the world around us.
You value what you spend money/effort/time on. God valued us and sent his most precious possession to us because he valued us. Because he loves us. He loves people. So as his kids, we have the same family resemblance. This church says people are big in our book. Tradition, culture, comfort, safety, all of these come after my valuing others.
Doing Life Together by Making Things Better
Doing Life Together is a close, meaningful, and authentic interaction and friendship with God and with others and it is what Cultivate Church is all about. We believe that being a church is about more than just being together for an hour on Sunday mornings. We believe that being a church is about doing all of life together, walking with each other through the ups and downs, navigating life with God and others, and seeking to better understand what it means to love Him and love people.
We know that God didn’t create us to live an isolated life apart from others. God made us to live a life that is closely involved in the lives of the people around us. At Cultivate, we believe that being part of a church should be more than a simple handshake and a hurried conversation. We seek to really become family with the people we do life with. More than just attending church services together in the church building when the church calendar calls for it, we interact with each other as the family that we really are as children of God.
We also believe that, like Jesus, we should live life with people outside of our church family. God intends us to do life with our friends and family outside of the church as well. People like our neighbors, our coworkers, our classmates.
We think that when we do life together, one of the things that happens is that we work together to make the people and places around us better. We carry each others’ loads and move each other forward. In that sense, when we do life together we make things better. Cultivate Church is here for God, but also to make Northeast Indiana better. Its who we are. Its what we do. We build. Cultivate Church makes our community better.
Growing Deep, Growing Wide
So all of this together means that we are a group of people wanting to grow. We want to grow to be more like Jesus in how we think, respond, engage, and interact with people and the world around us.
We want to grow towards others and not cave in on ourselves, suffocated by the weight of our own selfishness and pride.
We want to grow into the lives that God has always intended for us to lead.
We want to grow outward, inviting as many people as possible to join Jesus and the movement he started to be about faith, hope, love, and life by risking ourselves, fighting for others, valuing people, and making things better.
That is what it means to be a part of Cultivate Church. We invite you to come with us and grow.
