Second City Church is a community that exists to worship the Triune God and to celebrate, in word and deed, the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Harrisburg. We are first a community of people that have been bound together by the love of God. He has redeemed us, broken sinners, to himself and has bound us together in his perfect love. We come from different backgrounds, but we come together as a people who know the grace of the Lord Jesus, the Love of God the Father and fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We don’t believe that we are a perfect community. We don’t have it altogether. We’re messy. We are a people of faith and of doubt, of the convinced and the unconvinced. We are a people from different backgrounds – different ethnic backgrounds, different educational backgrounds, different economic background, but we are a people who are bound together in community because of the love of the Father, Son and Spirit.We believe that we exist to worship, that worship is at the center of human life. As David Foster Wallace said, “There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.” Worship is the right response to God’s work of creation and redemption. Worship exist to worship the God who made us, redeems us and creates in us new life.
We believe that we exist to celebrate the gospel of Jesus. We believe that celebrating this gospel starts as we gather together every week around God’s table, but this celebration pushes out into our world as we are scattered and sent with the good news. Sunday after Sunday we celebrate and remember the saving acts of God in and through Jesus. We celebrate his loyal love and are renewed in our hope of redemption, but then we bring that with us out into our work places, our homes, our friendships. Our celebration extends to our everyday lives. If our celebration of Jesus’ good news is authentic we believe it will continue beyond the wall of our sanctuary and our homes and into the lives of our neighbors. We “re-enact” the gospel through committed, generous and holistic words of grace and deeds of care in the city of Harrisburg.
We believe that place matters, that Harrisburg matters. We believe that God has called us to this place, to celebrate the gospel here, in Harrisburg. We believe that this will shape the words we speak, the music we play, the events we share, the ways we reach out to our neighbors in love.
Second City Church is a community that exists to worship the Triune God and to celebrate, in word and deed, the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Harrisburg. Our celebration begins when we gather at God’s table every Sunday. Here we remember the saving acts of God in and through Jesus Christ. Here we praise God for his loyal love, and we are renewed in our hope of redemption.
Our celebration extends into our everyday lives as it continues in community groups that meet in homes in our neighborhoods throughout the week. These groups create space and time for us to pray, learn and eat together. They foster Christian friendship and help us meet one another’s needs in the context of personal relationships.
If our our celebration of Jesus’ good news is authentic we believe it will continue beyond the walls of our sanctuary and our homes and into the lives of our neighbors. That’s why we seek to ‘re-enact’ the gospel through committed, generous and holistic words of grace and deeds of care in our city.
Our heart is to be a church where we can share our brokenness, clinging to the hope of the Gospel, that Christ saves sinners like us. We want to tap into the historic church practices and yet see those applied to our current city and time. We don’t have it all figured out. We like messiness and conversation. We tell stories of rescue as we see them and experience them. Some of those stories are just beginning, and some of them feel pretty dark and filled with unbelief. Still we love and meet. Still we sing and wonder. Still we hope.
