The Highrock Network of churches is made up of ten, locally-focused congregations in the Greater Boston area. 

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• Highrock Acton
• Highrock Arlington
• Highrock Brookline
• Highrock Cambridge
• Highrock Haverhill
• Highrock Lexington
• Highrock Malden
• Highrock MetroWest
• Highrock North Shore
• Highrock Quincy

All churches share the common call from God to fulfill the Great commandment (Matthew 22:36-40) and Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). In addition, Scripture offers models for the role of the Church in Ephesians 4:11-16, Acts 2:42-47, 1 Corinthians, and throughout the whole Bible. Beyond that general call, our Lord gives particular calls to churches and individuals to serve as certain parts of Christ's worldwide body, which He fills with His Spirit and through which He continues His work of serving, speaking, and suffering for the salvation of all creation. Highrock’s founders, leaders, and members have discerned God’s call to us as articulated in the following Vision Statement:

To see God transforming every neighborhood and institution in Greater Boston through locally-focused congregations who live and love in such a compelling and Christ-like way that our neighbors are challenged to seriously consider the claims of Christ, be reconciled to God, engage in Christian community, and serve others in the unique ways God designed them to, so that Boston becomes a “city on a hill” that will be a blessing to the world. 

Continually drawn by God's love, filled by God's Spirit, shaped by God's Word, and attentive to God's presence, we worship the living God with our hearts, minds, souls, and strength above all else and in all else. This includes practicing praise, prayer, obedience, sacraments, Sabbath, study, service, singing, silence, confession, celebration, fasting, feasting, forgiving, thanksgiving, and seeking God's presence, power, and purposes in every aspect of our lives.

Most of God's promises are made not to individuals, but to the collective Christian community called the Church, and apply to all who belong to her. In our uniqueness that results from diverse ethnicities, experiences, preferences, and perspectives, we are reconciled in Christ's one body by a love that compels us to confront, confess, comfort, counsel, and celebrate each other in God's name so that we might all grow in Christlikeness and reflect Christ to a world that longs to see Him still alive among them. We cannot love God, follow Christ, or fully preach the Gospel if we do not love one another, including our enemies. The primary context for individual spiritual growth and Gospel proclamation is Christian community. Through shared laughter, tears, prayers, experiences, and mutual submission, our relationships will become environments in which mutual dignity is protected, truth is shared, and forgiveness is sought, extended and received, resulting in repentance and reconciliation as we enter into the battle for each other's souls against the power of sin and death.

We continue God's work of creation and redemption of all creation in our worship, our work, and our relationships as we engage the world as servants of Christ, empowered, energized, and equipped even to suffer for the Gospel so that God's will "will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven," and in order to hasten the day when "every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the Glory of God the Father." As the body of Christ, we want God to do through our body the very kinds of things He did through Christ's body as we imitate our Lord's passion for the least, the lost, and the left out and the lonely. We have been created and called by God, and we want to use "whatever gifts we have received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." We pray for and invite those who are estranged from our Savior and His Church to experience His Spirit alive in our community. Seeing our love for them and one another that transcends our differences and sins, they will get to taste of our Lord's own love, and long to enter into community, initially with us and ultimately with God Himself.

God's grace is the sole basis of our salvation in this life and the next, leaving no room for shame, fear, boasting, or condemnation. We are all sinners who fall short of God’s intended design for us. Therefore, we strive for Highrock to be a place of safety for anyone and everyone who walks through our doors.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith --- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God --- not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

We are compelled by Christ's compassion and commands to share the Good News about God's love for sinners, which is most clearly evident in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and His invitation to reconciliation and new life that is only available through Christ. We do this through word and deed in ways that are proactive, practical, personal, prayerful, relevant, and respectful, and long to reach those who are estranged from God and His body on earth, the Church.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:18-20)

Though sin has isolated us, every individual is invited to be reconciled at once to God and to God's family on earth, which is the Church. God Himself is community: Father, Son, and Spirit, and we cannot have fellowship with, fully experience or reflect our Lord to the world unless we are in committed community with all who belong to Him. God saves us to and through Christian community.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By all this men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35)

Just as Jesus was during the incarnation, so we are the body of Christ, sent by God to suffer passionately for the salvation of the world. God created and called each of us to join Him as He continues His work of creation and redemption through us. Salvation includes restoration to our true purpose, and our lives become meaningful as we serve according to the gifts God has given us. The church is not a corporation that ministers to the members, but members ministering to God and others, both in and out of the congregation, in the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. By giving our lives in ministry that gives life to others, we will find true life ourselves.

Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are all parts of his body, and each of us has different works to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others. (Romans 12:4-5)

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

The task of local congregations in every age and every culture is to offer the unchanging Gospel in ways that are attractive, accessible, and allow people to respond to the whole truth of God's transforming love for sinners. Because culture is constantly changing, the Church must constantly contextualize God's Good News for the people they have been called to serve. For this reason, rather than looking for the "best" church model, we realize that all areas of our congregational life will have to be subject to reconsideration in order to continue reaching contemporary people with God's timeless truth. Therefore, we commit ourselves to careful but continual creativity, prayerful innovation, theological reflection, cultural sensitivity, and listening to God at each step.

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

We believe the Bible is the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct. The dynamic, transforming power of the word of God directs the church and the life of each Christian. This reliance on the Bible leads us to affirm both men and women as ordained ministers and at every level of leadership. It is the reason we pursue ethnic diversity in our church and is the inspiration for every act of compassion, mercy, and justice.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV). New birth in Christ means committing ourselves to him and receiving forgiveness, acceptance, and eternal life. It means being alive in Christ, and this life has the qualities of love and righteousness, joy and peace. New birth is only the beginning. Growing to maturity in Christ is a lifelong process for both individuals and communities of believers. God forms and transforms us—and it is through people transformed by Christ that God transforms the world.

At Highrock, we desire to carry out God’s mission both far and near. This includes evangelism, Christian formation, and ministries of compassion, mercy, and justice. We follow Christ’s two central calls. The Great Commission sends us out into all the world to make disciples. The Great Commandment calls us to love the Lord our God and our neighbors as ourselves.

Membership in Highrock is by confession of personal faith in Jesus Christ and is open to all believers. We observe baptism and Holy Communion as sacraments commanded by Jesus. We practice both infant and believer baptism. We believe in the priesthood of all believers—that is, we all share in the ministry of the church. We also affirm that God calls some men and women into professional, full-time ministry. The church is not an institution, organization, or building. It is a grace-filled fellowship of believers who participate in the life and mission of Jesus Christ. It is a family of equals: as the New Testament teaches that within Christian community there is to be neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).

Highrock affirms the Trinitarian understanding of one God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The New Testament tells us that the Holy Spirit works both within individuals and among them. We believe it is the Holy Spirit who instills in our hearts a desire to turn to Christ, and who assures us that Christ dwells within us. It is the Holy Spirit who enables our obedience to Christ and conforms us to his image, and it is the Spirit in us that enables us to continue Christ’s mission in the world. The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to us as individuals and binds us together as Christ’s body.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1, NIV). This freedom is a gift of God in Christ, and it manifests itself in a right relationship with God and others. It is not a private gift to be used selfishly, but is given to serve the community and the world. For Paul, this freedom means that we are set free from the power of those things that on their own tend to divide. United in Christ, we offer freedom to one another to differ on issues of belief or practice where the biblical and historical record seems to allow for a variety of interpretations of the will and purposes of God. At Highrock, we seek to focus on what unites us as followers of Christ, rather than on what divides us.