Our mission at LVPC is: Love God. Love Others. Serve the World.

Love God

First and foremost, as Christians, we must love God (Deuteronomy 6:5). God himself establishes the ways he is to be loved in the Ten Commandments. Specifically, the first four commandments explain how God is to be loved. God must be sought above all else, be the only object of worship, be reverently feared and respected, and worshiped on the Lord's Day. Jesus summarizes these commandments by saying that the greatest commandment is to love God (Matthew 22:36–37). To read more about these commandments, see Questions 98–121 of the Westminster Larger Catechism. The "says

Love Others

Jesus also summarizes the second table of the law—the last six commandments—when he says that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:38). Loving neighbors looks like honoring those in an authority position, seeking the good of others, living lives of purity, being just and faithful in commerce, promoting the truth, and being content with our own condition while showing a charitable posture to our neighbors. To read more about our duty to love another, see Questions 122–148 of the Westminster Larger Catechism. 

Serve the World

As Christians, on top of loving God and love others, we must be people who serve, and Jesus explains just how his sheep are to serve. After his resurrection from the dead, Jesus told his disciples "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19–20). The controlling verb in this call to serve is "make disciples." Thus, the primary means Christians serve the world is by making disciples, and the other verbs establish the means by which Jesus has ordained to make disciples.

First, Christians are to "go". We cannot simply sit idle and pray for the making of disciples without actually doing something! Reformed Theology frequently gets a bad rap for evangelism: "If God has elected people, there's no need to go and evangelize." However, it's the exact opposite cause: because God has elected people to be saved, we must go and evangelize. The second and third aspects of serving the world through making disciples is by baptizing and teaching. As we serve the world, we have a mission. While seeking proximate goods should be part of one's service to the world, proximate goods are never the end. Christians must serve the world primarily through seeking the ultimate good of others coming to faith and knowing about Jesus Christ, the savior of his people.