Here is what we are all about!

Delighting in Jesus Together for the JOY of Ankeny!

GOSPEL

We strive to make JESUS and his Gospel the greatest delight of our heart and life. Who JESUS is for us in his death, resurrection, and in his work of new creation is the orienting principle of our Church and that which we delight in most! We believe that God is most glorified in us when we are most delighted in him! JESUS and his Gospel are our highest value at Emmaus. JESUS is not just our starting point, he is the goal, the prize, our soul’s eternal delight.

GROW

We confess that our DELIGHT is not always in Jesus, and so we fight to grow our DELIGHT in him together. We do this by entering into deep and intentional discipleship so that our heads, hearts, and hands would be fully overcome with DELIGHT in Jesus. We do this by practicing liturgy, the Spiritual Disciplines, and entering into robust Christian community. The Gospel defines us as righteous in Jesus, and in the hope of the Gospel we strive to become who we are in Jesus. We value Gospel empowered discipleship as we grow our DELIGHT in Jesus.

GATHER

We actively pursue to gather TOGETHER as our delight in Jesus is not a lonely or isolated experience. God created us to thrive in community and the Gospel ushers us into deep communal joy as we delight ourselves in Christ. Emmaus gathers TOGETHER for Sunday Worship, Community Group, in our Journey Groups, and in informal hang-outs. We value gathering TOGETHER because it increases our delight in Jesus!

GO!

We long to be so delighted in Jesus that our joy overflows for the flourishing and JOY OF ANKENY and beyond. Jesus delighted himself in being on mission to the world and we join him in that endeavor by being faithful servants to our neighbors and by endeavoring to be a Church that Plants Churches! We join Jesus in valuing being a go-ing Church!

Goals

Emmaus has three goals that we believe are the measure of what our Church would look like as we live out our vision and values. These goals give direction and help define what it looks like for us to take our vision and values seriously.

  • In Jesus there is fullness of joy and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). It is our goal to so delight in Jesus that we become known as a people who possess a joy that transcends all circumstances, pains, and sorrows - an indomitable joy.

  • If Emmaus is delighting in Jesus together for the joy of Ankeny our gatherings will begin to feel like Heaven has invaded Ankeny. We want to be known as the place where God dwells, the place where people can find a taste of heaven where there is joy in Jesus and peace among one another.

  • We aim to be so delighted in Jesus that the overflow of our joy would lead us to living on mission to Ankeny and the Des Moines metro area in our personal lives, and also in mobilizing our Church to equip, support, and send out new Church Plants that we might fulfill God’s call to take the joy of Jesus to the ends of the Earth.