In August of 2008, Milestone Church opened its doors to a gathering of Christ followers stemming from a multitude of backgrounds. They longed to create a safe place where their friends who were distanced from the Church could connect with God and His people. Meeting in the auditorium of Carver Middle School in Springfield, Missouri a church was planted, and a community was born.
At Milestone, both our Sunday Gatherings and our house churches (Fusion) are expressions of the Body of Christ, visibly present on earth. This is what it means when we call ourselves “the church.” Through all of these expressions of church, we strive to be contextual, communal and missional.
We are striving to be authentic and culturally relevant followers of Christ: local, earthy, particular to a place, situated within its culture. The spiritual reality seems apparent: wherever it is located, Christ's community - the church - communicates Christ, for better or for worse. To quote R.E.M. from the late 1980s, "So, stand in the place where you live...."
We believe the Incarnation (God himself becoming flesh and bones in the person of Jesus) requires us to do just that: to stand in the place where we live. The Incarnation is not merely a historical event, but also a pattern to emulate as we breathe and live and move in this world. As you will hopefully see, this incarnational pattern of being the church in a particular place charts the course for all kinds of Milestone stuff: from our worship music to our emphasis on community to our way of engaging the people and culture of Springfield and our surrounding community.