Click here to download a PDF copy of our Strategic Plan

History of Rincon Mountain Presbyterian Church

In the spring of 2000, Catalina Foothills Church started looking into the possibility of planting a church on the east side of Tucson and formed a steering committee.  After much planning and prayer, and by God’s provision, on January 7, 2001, Rincon Mountain Presbyterian Church (RMPC) held its first worship service at Magee Middle School.  Approximately one year later, on January 6, 2002, the church became a particular church in the Presbyterian Church of America.  On October 9, 2004, RMPC held a groundbreaking service at the current location on Tanque Verde Road.  We moved into the place God has provided for this church family on September 11, 2005.  Our prayer was and continues to be that God will use this place to bless the east side of Tucson, that the doors of this church would always be open to all who are spiritually weak and seek rest, to all who mourn and long for comfort, to all who struggle and desire victory, to all who need a Savior, to all who are strangers and want fellowship, and to all who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Strategic Intent

RMPC is a medium-size church of approximately 250 members with an average attendance of 300 at Sunday morning worship services.  Over the last two years, RMPC has seen a 20% growth in church attendance.  This church attendance growth trend indicates the membership is transitioning from those who were part of the original church plant in 2001.  Because of this, the Session determined it is important to communicate who we are and where we want to go as a church to this evolving membership.  They also determined these things need to be written down in order to carry through generations of leaders.

Additionally, the strategic direction, organizational structure, and operations of a church influence the church ministry's effectiveness.  Lord willing, this campus is going to be our center of worship for the next 50+ years; thus, we need to be good stewards of it and make long-term investments with the goal of the full development of this facility and in mission/planting. With limited resources, we can start with smaller efforts that will last and have an immediate impact and then over time spiral out to larger efforts.  We need to consider the effect on our mission and how the efforts bring health to culture, develop healthy families, and impact our broader church family.

This strategic plan will accomplish those goals, and as such, it will support RMPC in furthering God’s work in our community. It will explain how the church is responding to God’s call to his people in this community at this time. Specifically, the plan will:

    1. Articulate our vision of how RMPC fulfills the mission of the church, and our core values which shape us as an individual church
    2. Enable us to focus our energy and resources on our agreed priorities
    3. Outline the major strategies we will undertake to achieve goals and remain faithful stewards
    4. Identify the measures by which we will know if we are remaining faithful to our mission, vision, values, and priorities

Foundational Conviction

The eternal Triune God has revealed himself through Scripture. The word of God is our final authority. The theme of the Scriptures is God’s saving grace to sinners solely through the person and work of God the Son, Jesus Christ.  Thus, we believe that through the proclamation of Jesus Christ, God redeems sinners, renews believers, and receives glory.

Distinctives

Gospel-centered — We believe everything we teach or do should point people to the Lord Jesus Christ. We want people to say of Rincon, “Rincon is a church where I am told what I really need: Jesus Christ the Savior of all.”

Relational pastoral ministry — The body of Christ is a place where making disciples takes place in the context of relationship. Such relationships, modeled by the elders, range from formal to informal. These are fostered in the contexts of Life Groups, Bible studies, informal gatherings and one-on-one meetings that focus on the care of the soul. We want people to say, “Rincon is a church where I do not just attend but I am known, accepted, and grow.”

Multi-generational — We believe the church serves all generations and all generations are to serve each other. This includes whole families worshiping and serving together. We are one covenant family, young, middle-aged, and older. We want people to say, “Rincon is a church where everyone fits.”

Presbyterian — We believe that churches should be connected to each other. We also believe that the leaders of the church are its elders (presbyters). Congregations select men to serve in this governing role.

Confessional — We stand with other churches in confessing a common set of beliefs that summarize Scripture. This includes the major creeds of the church (the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed) and the Westminster Confession of Faith and its catechisms. Being confessional binds us to other churches and commits us to a form of teaching. While we believe Scripture is our final authority, we want people to know what to expect when they are part of Rincon.

Orthodox — Christians in all places and at all times share a common faith. The center of Christian faith is the good news of the life, sacrificial death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We also stand with the church in affirming a triune God, the deity of Jesus Christ, the virgin birth, the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, the certain return of Jesus Christ, and the inerrancy and absolute authority of the Bible for godly living.

Liturgical — We believe that when the church gathers for worship, there should be a plan and order that walks the congregation through the truth of the Gospel again. From start to finish the order of worship is about the gospel. We also believe it is not our service to design. God has told us what we are to do: reading and proclaiming the Word of God, singing, prayer, confession, and the sacraments.

Reformed — We believe that God brought a major reform (tectonic shift?) to the church in the 16th century. It has been called the Reformation. The leaders of the Reformation clarified the essence of the Good News using five phrases. We fully affirm these:

    1. Scripture Alone – The Bible alone is our highest authority and faithful rule of life.
    2. Faith Alone – We are saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
    3. Grace Alone – We are saved by the grace of God alone.
    4. Christ Alone – Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Savior, and King.
    5. God’s Glory Alone – We live for the glory of God alone.

Vision

Rincon Mountain Presbyterian Church is faithful to the Scriptures and exists to know, live, and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to multiply disciples and churches in Him.

Values

Our values can be summarized by the statement:

Firmly grounded, fully engaged

We are firmly grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The news of his saving work through his life, death, and resurrection is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16) and eternal life with God (John 17:3). The gospel frees us from our sin and makes us new (2 Corinthians 5:17). The gospel is good news for all people.

We are fully engaged with the world around us in gospel-centered living. Jesus Christ did not come to be served but to serve. Knowing we are loved by God in Jesus Christ frees us to forget ourselves and to serve one another, our community, and our city. Our outward focus is the fruit of resting in God’s grace and love for us in Jesus Christ. Constrained by the love of God in Jesus Christ, we evangelize, plant churches in and around Tucson, and send and support missionaries around the world.

To be firmly grounded and fully engaged means that we seek to be a church marked by:

  • Faith that leads to worship — God invites us to come as we are to trust Jesus Christ. We live our lives by faith in him and through him become worshipers of God.  Glorifying God and enjoying him becomes the driving force for all we do.

No matter who we were before trusting Jesus Christ, we know God fully accepts us solely through Christ’s finished work on the cross. No matter our circumstances, we live in his acceptance and trust his leading. Our hope is not in ourselves but in Jesus Christ.

 Through the gospel, we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and become worshipers of God. Individually, we worship God in every aspect of our lives.  Corporately, God calls us to worship with gratitude through singing, praying, giving, and responding to his preached Word.

  • Hospitality that leads to acceptance — We welcome each person as they are so they might meet Jesus Christ and be redeemed. Everything we do provides an open door to learn about Jesus Christ and what he has done for us.

Jesus Christ came to seek the lost, irreligious, and religious alike, to redeem them. He neither lectured people nor called them to self-improvement. Rather, he came to do for us what we cannot do — to rescue us from sin and make us acceptable to God. He welcomed everyone to come to him as Savior.

 Only through redemption in Jesus Christ can we know God, be accepted by God, and live in the freedom of God’s will. All this is ours through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

  • Acceptance that leads to maturity — God accepts us that he might make us new in every way. Therefore, we accept all followers of Jesus Christ that together God might grow us into maturity.    

When God accepts us in Jesus Christ, he makes us disciples of Jesus Christ. Throughout the rest of our lives, the Holy Spirit works to make us new so that we now live as God designed us: in relationship with him and others as holy people (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).  

 The Holy Spirit does this by growing us in faith and holiness, which is Christian maturity. This is a lifelong process. We are confident God will complete this work of maturing us (Philippians 1:6). This certainty leads us to strengthen and encourage each other with love in the gospel (Acts 14:22).

  • Maturity that leads to multiplication — Jesus accepts us to mature us, and he matures us to be fruitful and multiply. He designed all of us to be part of calling others to be disciples of Jesus. He designed every church to be fruitful and replicate itself by starting new churches.

Maturity in Jesus Christ looks like a complete remaking of our lives. No one ever gets there in this life. But as with the rest of life, mature people serve others and help others mature. This is what Jesus designs for us. He died and rose for us to bring us to complete maturity.

 As we mature, we multiply disciples by passing on our faith to our families, neighbors, friends, and coworkers (Deuteronomy 6:4-7; Psalm 145:3-4; Matthew 28:18-20). As Jesus Christ multiplies disciples, we plant new churches in Tucson, within our Presbytery, and globally.