God is the holy One, the gracious One who comes down in order to lift us up! For as it is revealed in scripture, the Son of God descends into a world of darkness, by taking upon himself our sinful humanity (Phil. 2:6-9). He lives for us, dies on the cross, and rises again from the grave. In overcoming sin and death, therefore, he rescues us from the pit of our misery and raises us up to new life, whereby we with him are carried to the Father in his return of glorious ascent (John 14:23; Eph. 2:5; Heb. 7:25). Because of him, our communion with God has been restored (Eph. 3:12). And now, because he lives, the Spirit goes forth to fulfill in our lives all that Christ has accomplished (John 14:26), as he lifts us further up into God’s majestic presence, and ever renews our hearts in the love of our great Savior (Heb. 4:14-16; 2 Cor. 5:16-17). 

The name we bear signifies our abiding existence within this reality. And here at Ascent, we seek to attune ourselves to the wonder of God’s uplifting grace. Propelling us upward in its mission of uniting us with Christ – through word and sacrament, through prayer and table fellowship, and through the gift of our life together – we gather to receive its strength for the journey of our holy climb: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord” (Micah 4:2). Yet, in the manner of our Lord Christ Jesus, we do so not to escape the world, but with the gifts we’ve received to be sent forth into it, as we descend into broken places and take part in the Spirit’s activity of bearing witness to the gospel, within and beyond our beloved city (Matt. 5:14-16; 28:19-20). Thereby elevating others to a life with God, through service, hospitality, almsgiving, and disciple-making, our aim is for others to share in this great joy of knowing the risen Lord and of being made part of his holy people.

Indeed, through faith, we are joined to Christ, in whom we are caught up in this divine motion of ascending and descending love (John 3:13-14). Stated otherwise in terms of ‘love of God’ and ‘love of neighbor’, respectively, we must say that one does not conflict with the other, but that together they comprise the whole and highest end of loving God himself (Matt. 22:36-40; 1 John 4:20). In like fashion, it is the ascent of our worship (i.e. the pouring in of grace) and the descent of our missional witness (i.e. the outworking of grace) that make up the ultimate ascent of our drawing nearer to God and his own life (i.e. the telos of grace; John 12:26, 14:3). This is why we reject the oxymoron of static faith and lifeless Christianity (Rev. 3:15-18). For in all that we do, we as the church live to move up and ahead towards greater unity with Christ – and by our lives to bring glory to his name!