If you’re reading this, you might be exploring what we’re about—perhaps as part of our new members class or simply out of curiosity. My family and I joined North Wake years ago as ordinary members, drawn to the kind of church we hoped to one day serve in. We never imagined God would lead us here to lead, but it has been a rich blessing and a true home for us.
North Wake is far from perfect. Like every church, we are a family of broken, sinful people—myself included—who are clinging to a perfect Savior, Jesus Christ. Yet our deepest desire is to center everything we do on the good news of His love for us.
Our church’s mission captures this in a simple statement:
North Wake is a family of faith that exists to know the love of God in Jesus Christ,
to grow in love for one another,
and to go in love to reach our neighbors near and far.
Everything we are and do flows from the first part—*knowing* the love God has poured out on us in His Son. As 1 John 4:10 declares, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
We often call these our “three great loves”:
– Knowing and receiving God’s love for us in Christ
– Growing in love for one another as His family
– Going in love to share the good news with neighbors both near and far
These reflect the timeless calling of the church: worship, discipleship, and mission.
The Gospel: The True Story of God’s Love
The gospel is not merely good advice for living better; it is *good news* about what God has done for us in Christ—something we could never do for ourselves. At its core, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, is this: “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”
This good news is the grand storyline of the Bible—a story of love that begins and ends with God Himself.
1. God Is an Eternal Community of Love
Before creation, before anything existed, God was not solitary. He has always existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—an eternal, joyful community of perfect love.
Jesus prays in John 17:24, “Father… you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
We are commanded to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
Paul closes a letter with, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
As C.S. Lewis observed, the statement “God is love” only makes sense if God is more than one person. Love requires relationship. From eternity, the Father has delighted in the Son through the Spirit, and the Son has delighted in the Father. God is inherently others-centered—a beautiful, eternal dance of love.
2. God Created Us to Share in His Glory and Love
Out of this overflowing love, God created the world and humanity to reflect His glory and enjoy His love. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). In Genesis 1:26–27, God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” And He declared everything “very good” (Genesis 1:31).
We are not accidents of chance. We are image-bearers of a loving, relational God, designed for fellowship with Him and with one another.
3. Sin Broke the Harmony
Tragically, humanity chose mistrust over trust. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, rejecting God’s good rule and seeking to define good and evil on their own terms. Their disobedience fractured the relationship with God for which we were made.
This rebellion continues in every human heart. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). Separated from the source of life and love, we deserve God’s righteous judgment (Romans 2:5).
4. Christ Came to Restore Us
Yet God did not abandon us. In the greatest act of love imaginable, He entered our story. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Jesus, the eternal Son, lived the perfect life we failed to live, died the death we deserved, and rose victorious on the third day—just as Scripture promised.
This is love: “not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
5. We Are Saved by Grace through Faith
How do we receive this rescue? By turning from our sin and self-reliance and trusting in Jesus alone as Savior and Lord.
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
God promises, “I will give you a new heart… and cause you to walk in my statutes” (Ezekiel 36:26–27).
We become children of God (1 John 3:1), rooted and grounded in Christ’s immeasurable love (Ephesians 3:17–19).
Faith is not mere intellectual agreement; it is personal trust—climbing onto Christ’s back and letting Him carry us across the chasm we could never cross ourselves. The strength of our salvation lies not in the perfection of our faith, but in the perfection of its object: Jesus.
The Starting Point of Everything
This gospel is the heartbeat of North Wake Church. Every act of worship, every step of growth in community, every effort to reach our neighbors flows from the astonishing love God has shown us in Jesus Christ—a love we did nothing to earn and everything to receive.
If these truths are new to you, or if you have questions, I’d love to talk. The gospel is too wonderful to keep to ourselves, and it’s the foundation of all we aspire to be.
Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!
