A cairn is a pile of mismatched rocks stacked up along the side of a trail marking the path for those seeking the summit of a mountain, by those who have gone before. (notice the picture above) In the backcountry a cairn serves the dual purpose of both marking the way ahead as well as being a marker for where you have been.
“The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LROD and called on the name of the LORD.” (Genesis 12:7-8)
Our Mission:
The cairn is a group of people journeying together through life. We are passionate about following Jesus as He leads us to become more like Him. We aren’t perfect, we are messy and screwed up. But we proclaim, trust and rest in grace. The cairn is committed to engaging in honest and sincere relationships that ultimately seek to both worship God and gravitationally point others towards Jesus as we navigate the trails of life.
Our Vision:
Our vision is to see our generation move from being forgotten bystanders to active participants in God’s redemptive work in our culture, city, nation and world.
Our Values:
Grace – The message of the gospel is grace. Ephesians 2:8 says that we are saved by grace through faith. Through the sacrificial death of Jesus, grace is ours to proclaim. In everything we do we claim grace, recognizing that without it we are lost and hopeless, and in the grace of Jesus the fullness of life is found.
Truth – Truth is not something that is relative, chic or to be taken lightly. In our culture, truth has become all of these things, but at the cairn, the truth is that Jesus took on human form to pay the price for our sins, thus reconciling fallen humanity with the God of universe. (Romans 3:23-25) In this truth we find our meaning, purpose and reason for living. It is timeless, universal and life transforming.
Community - In a culture in which we are starved for relationships, at the cairn we seek to develop and live out God-honoring community. Community is messy, it is hard and it takes work. But without community we miss out one of the central reasons God created us in His image, so that we can experience the beauty of community (1 Cor. 12).
Service - As followers of Jesus, we must seek to live like Jesus and do as He did. This means breaking out of our comfort zones and engaging the world around us with servant hearts and hands. (Matt. 25: 34-40)
Life is worship…learn to live.
