Welcome
We’re glad you’re here.
By opening this book, you’re beginning a transformational journey of knowing who God is, and how He designed you for incredible things. Over the coming weeks, we pray you move from a faith that might have been inherited to a faith that is truly your own; from knowing about Jesus to walking closely with Him; from a passive faith to boldly Going First.
Each of us comes to church with different experiences, backgrounds, and expectations. Some think of church as worship, sermons, small groups, or serving. Others remember fellowship halls and potlucks. Still others carry wounds from past experiences with a church. Whatever your story is, we’re grateful that God has brought you here.
At The Church at Rancho Bernardo, we believe our church exists for two core purposes:
Evangelism — helping people come to know Jesus.
Discipleship — helping people grow to become more like Him.
Everything we do flows from these two things.
Over the next eight weeks, our prayer is that you will encounter the story of God’s grace woven through every page of Scripture and every part of His creation, including you. As you do, you will come to know a God who has always Gone First, and you will see how He is inviting you to experience Him more deeply and find your place in His story.
What is Going First?
The contents of this book will lead us through the foundations of the Christian faith.
Together, we’ll read about the salvation God offers through the good news of the gospel, and come to know Him as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We will learn how to read and engage with God’s Word, and respond to Him in worship and prayer.
We will explore why we were made for community, and how Jesus came not to be served, but to serve — and we are called to do the same.
And finally we will discover how we are blessed to be a blessing with our resources, and how God has given each of us a story, and wants to use it to bring Him glory — drawing others to Him through evangelism.
Our Posture
As we begin, we encourage you to approach the coming pages slowly, with an open heart. While each chapter includes practical next steps, this book is about far more than completing a task and checking a box. These chapters are not topics to master; they are the foundation of our faith that God uses to shape who we are becoming.
Take serving, for example. The goal is not to simply do more for God. It is to become the kind of people who naturally live a life of service as the Holy Spirit continues to form us more and more into the likeness of Jesus. The same is true of prayer, generosity, community, and every other topic we encounter. As we seek Jesus first, He transforms us from the inside out.
When Jesus taught His disciples how to follow Him, He gave them this simple, yet powerful instruction:
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
- Matthew 6:33
Seek first. Then watch what God provides. That is the rhythm of grace that anchors the Christian life — and it is the posture of someone who Goes First.
Why is it called Going First?
With every page turn in the Scriptures, we find one consistent theme. God went first. God moved toward us while we were still sinners, still unwilling, still unaware. All the way to a cross (Romans 5:8). He went first, and everything in this book is a response to that.
We respond by Going First.
How to read this book
Each week, you’ll begin with a Main Reading designed to guide you deeper into the foundations of the Christian faith. Throughout the reading, you’ll find section titles with estimated reading times, along with Pause & Reflect moments to help you slow down, process, and engage with what you’ve read.
Our encouragement is that you would work through the Main Reading in the days leading up to your group gathering. Read it all at once, or move through it one section at a time. In budgeting time for your reading, plan to take 10 minutes during each Pause & Reflect moment to sit with what you’ve read, reflect on the questions provided, journal your thoughts, and allow God to shape you through His presence and truth.
As you read, you’ll notice verse references in parentheses throughout this book. You don’t have to look them up as you read; those references are pointing to the biblical backing behind the claims we are making. If a topic interests you and makes you want to go deeper, you can start by tapping that reference — every one of them opens the passage on Bible.com.
If you finish all of the Main Reading before your group meets and aren’t currently following a daily devotional plan, you’ll find five devotionals at the end of each section that you can go through each day, continuing to practice sitting in His presence. Memory verses are included in these devotionals. These verses are a way for you to build a regular rhythm of hiding His Word in your heart.
Our hope at the end of our eight weeks together is that you would understand more deeply the story of God, His heart for you, what The Church at Rancho Bernardo believes, and develop a lasting rhythm of engaging with God’s Word and being in His presence for 20 minutes or more each day.
If you prefer, there is an audio version of the Main Reading to go along with this book. You can read and listen at the same time, take it with you in the car, or put it on while you walk. Each of us learns and retains differently, and there is no wrong way to do this.
However it reaches you, our encouragement stays the same: let this content read over you as much as you read over it. This book is not written to simply give more information, it’s an invitation to the transformational work of the Holy Spirit in you, day by day.
Framework and Handles for your reading
As we prepare for the coming weeks, here are a few handles to help frame the reading.
01 – When the Bible stops talking, so should we
Scripture says a great deal, and it does not say everything. There are questions in this book that Scripture answers with clarity. There are questions where the text simply goes quiet. When it goes quiet, we go quiet with it. We would rather leave a question open than hand you an answer God never gave.
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.”
- Deuteronomy 29:29
02 – Every bit of mystery is an invitation to faith
The places where we run out of explanation are the places where faith begins. Paul wrote thirteen letters explaining the gospel and still ended up here:
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”
- Romans 11:33
03 – We don’t come to the Bible expecting it to answer our questions, we come asking what questions it is answering
The instinct is to approach Scripture with a list of questions we expect answers to. But the Bible is a story God is telling about Himself, and the more time we spend inside it, the more our questions take a backseat to the wonder of who God is. We often open our Bibles asking how to fix our problems or explain our questions. We invite you to open it and ask: “What question is God answering, and what mystery does He want to reveal to me today?”
04 – God is not nervous about our questions
Your questions are safe here — whether shared in a group, or in your own time of prayer. God is not nervous or fragile. He created you, sees you, and has a plan for you that will not be jeopardized by your fears, doubts, or questions.
05 – We don’t have to agree on everything to be family
You will read things in this book you are not sure about. That’s not a bad thing, we are all invited to work through our faith together, and our staff is here to walk through the questions and challenges that come up as you dive into God’s Word.
Our Three Buckets
Not every theological statement carries the same weight. Some statements are essential to the Christian faith itself. Some are important to a particular tradition’s understanding of Christianity. Some are matters of preference or practical wisdom.
At The Church at Rancho Bernardo, we sort them into three buckets. Learning which bucket something belongs in will change the way you read this book, and the way you talk with people who have landed somewhere else.
Convictions
Convictions are the non-negotiables. They are doctrines without which Christianity ceases to be Christianity. The deity of Jesus Christ. The bodily resurrection. Salvation by grace through faith. The authority of Scripture. These are the hills on which the Church has always been willing to die, because to surrender them is to surrender the faith itself.
Beliefs
Beliefs are the firmly held positions. Important, scripturally-rooted, defensible, but not the line between Christian and non-Christian. The way we do baptism is a belief. The understanding of communion is a belief. The structure of church government is a belief. The Church has differed on these for centuries without departing from the truth and power of the gospel. We hold them with an open hand, willing to fight for them, but understanding they are not issues of salvation.
Opinions
Opinions are matters of preference, practical wisdom, or personal application. The order of a Sunday service. The style of music. Whether wine or grape juice is used at the communion table. These are held lightly and privately. They are not preached as if they were beliefs or convictions.
Spiritual damage happens when opinions are shared with the weight of convictions.
Most of us know someone who walked away from church over something that belonged in the opinion bucket. A rule that was never a rule. A preference preached as a command. If that is somewhere in your story, we are sorry that happened to you. It should not have happened, and it is not what you will find here.
This book is built on that order. The first four weeks are convictions. The second four are beliefs, some opinions, based on convictions.
Scripture References
We use the New International Version (NIV) as the primary translation throughout this book. In certain places, for literary emphasis, The Message (MSG) and English Standard Version (ESV) are used.