The off Ramp is one voice of a small missional community meeting in San Dimas, California. We are as new as the dew in the morning, and at this point we're just hoping we can last that long. Officially (for the feds and state) we are known as Community of Faith -San Dimas. We were birthed in February of 2003 from the hopes, dreams and hearts of two former Vineyard pastors who left their respective positions on full time staff, at a Vineyard in Southern California. They took this off ramp hoping to help their families and friends escape the normal consumer driven, programs based freeway that has become so much of the identity of the church in America. As they leave their comfortable church positions to go "back into the world" they dream of finding a more effective model of being church; a way of living that might actually be more successful at producing true "Christians" - or as the name literally implies: little Christ's. In doing so they join with millions around the world who are sensing the move of God and wondering in awe as this new/old way of being the church emerges before their eyes. What follows is a simple summary, a kind of vision statement, if you will, of what we hope to embody as we discover who we are, how we should live and what we, as the church, should look like for our times; for the sake of the world.

The Off Ramp staff

UPDATE: Several of us in the community have started a small wedding video business in Southern Cailformia, doing our best to take this life into the world. If you live in the Southern California area and need an event video company, you'll find us here. Thanks!

You can check out our community photo album <here>

Simple Summary

God is on a revolutionary mission, bringing his kingdom (his goodness, love, righteousness, peace and joy) to earth as it perfectly exists in heaven. His mission is to offer humanity this vastly superior life of harmonious living with God, each other and creation in such a way that it transforms how and where we live.

God also invites humanity to participate in his mission. Jesus came modeling how humankind can participate in God’s mission by embodying (incarnating) the reality of God’s fullness (John 14:9; Colossians 1:15, 19; 2:9) and reign (John 4:34).

At the end of his time on earth, Jesus commissioned his first group of students to continue what he had started. He said in John 20:21, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” In other words, Jesus commissions all of his followers to learn how to become the kind of human being Jesus was – people who can naturally, easily and routinely embody, demonstrate and announce God’s fullness and reign in our daily lives.

Our primary objective as a community is to help people become the kind of people who can participate in God’s mission like Jesus did. We desire to order the normal aspects of our lives around a constant missionary encounter with the world as God’s special “sent people.” In other words, this community is like a missionary movement. Each member dedicates himself or herself to become a participating partner as Jesus’ full-time apprentice and ambassador.

To accomplish this, our missional community engages in a three-fold journey of spiritual formation.

First is the INWARD JOURNEY of inner transformation as Jesus apprentices. Here we learn how to reorganize our lives through a lifestyle of spiritual disciplines so that we learn from Jesus how to be like Jesus from the inside-out. We are becoming by grace what Jesus is by nature.

Second is the OUTWARD JOURNEY of loving people as Jesus’ ambassadors. Here we are learning to engage our daily world with love, mercy and justice. We are becoming cooperative friends of Jesus, living constant lives of creative goodness right where we live.

Third is the CORPORATE JOURNEY of supporting one another through loving community as we learn how to be Jesus’ apprentices and ambassadors together. We are becoming a community of prayerful love through the character and power of the Spirit, spurring one another on toward ever-increasing love and goodness.