Missio Dei Community began in October 2008, our mission to join God in God's work in the world: helping people, whatever their story, to live life to the full. We seek to be a holistic. missional. christian. community. where people experience and express the reality of God's love. At the center of our dream is a person, Jesus Christ. We believe he is the reality of God's love. When God revealed Godself to people who were broken and alienated from God, God did so through weakness -- coming as a man who lived and suffered and died. Jesus Christ is at the heart of our church. Without him, we would simply be another group of people with good intentions. With him at our core, we are an expression of his church, one of God's instruments for accomplishing God's purposes in the world.

We believe that any community calling itself a church lives in the tension between two realities. Our community is a part of the larger story of God's activity in the world. Our church revolves around the story of God and his people found in our scriptures, the Bible. We are biblical -- we live and struggle within the boundaries the scriptures give us. We are also authentic. We believe that God is honored and lives are transformed when people are honest, genuine, and real, exposing their brokenness to God and to others. We try not to wear masks. We believe that living the tension of being biblically-based and authentic is a challenge, but one that is incredibly exciting and life-giving.

What is the response of this community to God's reality present in our midst? We believe it is a two-fold response. We are invited to experience the reality of God's love for us in our own lives. We are invited to worship God, to grow in our knowledge and obedience to him, to experience his presence in our community. But it doesn't end there. God's life is not given for merely selfish reasons. We are also invited to express God's love in the world in real, tangible ways, and to share what we know about Jesus with those who do not know him. Christianity is a way of life that sends us into the world to serve God and our neighbors so that God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven. The church is never to be a withdrawn, isolated end user of the gospel of Jesus; rather, we receive it so that we may be sent into our communities to love our neighbors and serve "the least of these." In this sense, Missio Dei doesn't have a mission; it is mission.

In saying all that, we are trying to explore three essential relationships together:

• Our relationship to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We understand ourselves as being a group of people who are trying to live our lives oriented to God and his purposes in our world.
• Our relationships to each other and to people around us. We are committed to deep relationships and want to share our lives together. In the midst of that, we understand that part of our mission is to express love to the community around us in tangible ways.
• Our relationship to the past and to the future. We locate ourselves within the larger story of the Christian Church throughout the past 2000 years and are trying to learn from that history. We are excited by the richness of 2000+ years of Christian experience and are beginning to re-explore the ancient traditions of the church; renewing creeds and liturgy while at the same time enjoying modern forms of faith. We also look forward to, and are inspired by, God's vision of the future and we walk towards it with purpose and hope.

While we affirm that you cannot *really* know what a community believes without participating in the relationships that flesh out those ideas, we readily find agreement with the most ancient of creeds in historic Christian orthodoxy:

The Apostles' Creed (ca. ad 215)

We believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
We believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. AMEN.

Our Vision

Missio Dei seeks to be a simple pathway to God by helping people to be in communion with Jesus Christ, one another and the poor and suffering.

Our Mission

In downtown St. Petersburg, the surrounding neighborhoods and the world, Missio Dei will be a simple pathway to God by gathering together for the worship of God, setting aside time to grow in faith, seeking to find the tasks that God has for us to do, taking hold of Jesus, the Liberator, who sets us free to live in a new way of nonviolent love and freedom, and telling others of the Source of our new freedom.

JOE ESPOSITO
Co-Pastor
joe@themissiodei.com

Joe is passionate about creating space where people can meaningfully engage God in the way of Jesus Christ. He is the husband of Janelle and father of Emily and Isabella. He has a degree in Business Administration Management from MVNU and a Masters of Divinity from Nazarene Theological Seminary.

DOUG MCMAHON
Co-Pastor
doug@themissiodei.com

Doug is passionate about instigating community that understands itself to be in service to our neighborhood, city and world. Doug is married to Robin and they have two sons, Patrick and Robert. He has a degree in Biblical Studies from Asbury College, MA in Theology from Wheaton and a Masters of Divinity from MTS in Chicago. Doug has been an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA) since 1987.

GW Rolle
Pastor of Justice Ministries
gw@themissiodei.com

A tireless advocate for human dignity, G.W. is passionate about radical hospitality. He enjoys cooking at various functions and homeless gatherings. An ordained minister since 2008, he can often be found cooking breakfast or distributing coffee and sandwiches around the city while being briefed on issues of justice by those he seeks to serve.