In order to saturate a city with the gospel of Jesus, we can’t think small. We will set impossible goals, take bold steps of faith, and watch God move even if considered foolish to some.
Vision
Together, we’re building a thriving Jesus-proclaiming, Bible-preaching, Holy Spirit filled church in Massachusetts that brings people into right relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Mission
Our mission is to connect your story to God’s story so that God can take your story to new heights.
What We Believe
While we present a contemporary expression of church, we are inherently conservative. Below you’ll find our major statements of faith.
The Bible
God wrote a book to tell His story. The Bible is God’s Word to all people. It was written by human authors under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. Because it was inspired by God, the Bible is truth without any mixture of error and is completely relevant to our daily lives.
The Trinity
God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God has existed in relationship for all eternity. He exists as one God in three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Although each member of the Trinity serves different functions, they each possess equal power and authority.
The Father
We’re His sons and daughters. God is great: He is all powerful, all knowing, ever present, unchanging, completely worthy of our trust, and above all, holy. It is in Him that we live, move and exist. God is good: He is our Father. He is loving, compassionate, and faithful to His people and His promises.
The Son
God became man. Jesus Christ was completely human but, at the same time, completely God. He is the only plan for connecting people to a right relationship with God. He lived a perfect life, so that He could pay the penalty for humanity, who went against God and broke His laws. He defeated death in His resurrection so that we could have eternal life and a better life here on Earth; that’s what we call “taking a story to new heights”.
The Holy Spirit
God is always with us. His presence assures us of our relationship with Christ. He guides believers into all truth and exalts Christ. He convicts people of their sin, God’s righteousness, and the coming judgment. He comforts us, gives us spiritual gifts to build His Church, and empowers us to overcome temptation and say no to sin. He perfects us and makes us more like Christ.
Eternity
There is an afterlife. Man was created to exist forever. He will exist either eternally separated from God by sin or in relationship with God by forgiveness and salvation. To be eternally separated from God is Hell. To be eternally in union with Him is Heaven. Heaven and Hell are places of eternal existence.
Man
We were made to reflect God. Man is made in the image of God and is the supreme object of His creation. Man was created to have fellowship with God but became separated in that relationship through sinful disobedience. As a result, man cannot attain a right relationship with God through his own effort. Every human personality is uniquely created, possesses dignity, and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
Salvation
The only way. The blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross, provides the only way of salvation through the forgiveness of sin. Salvation occurs when people believe in their hearts and confess with their mouth that Jesus is their Savior. Salvation is a gift from God that must be accepted, and it cannot be earned through our own efforts. The natural effect of salvation is a daily desire and decision to turn from sin and live life according to the Bible’s instructions and in a way that pleases God.
The Church
God’s design for community. The Church is a local community of baptized believers unified through faith in Christ. It is committed to the teachings of the Bible and Jesus Christ, obeying all of His commands, and it seeks to bring God’s story to the world. As the hope of the World, the Church works together in love and unity, intent on the ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ. The responsibility to care and steward the Church is placed on every believer. We’re to assume our God-given role, and contribute our time, talent, treasure and touch to God’s House. In this, the Church prevails against the powers of Hell and darkness, and provides a healing place for a hurting world.
Our Plot
What God is doing in and with StoryHeights is nothing short of a miracle. The only explanation is God’s faithfulness to people who had the foolish faith and tenacity to follow God to New England when most believed church planting in Boston was too hard. We’re in the habit of telling and retelling our story to everyone who comes in contact with our church. And in order to preserve our original storyline, we’ve developed 15 points that ensure our story unfolds with the Author’s original vision. We call it our plot.
WE PUT GOD FIRST
God’s house, God’s heart, and God’s ways are more important than our schedules, preferences, and concerns, and we will live and make decisions in such a way that honors God as first place in our lives.
WE TELL THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD
We will keep the story of Jesus Christ central and simple in all we do, refusing to dilute His story with religious ego and religious duty. We will use our platform for proclaiming salvation through Jesus and not for condemning others. This Church revolves around, exists for, and worships no one else besides Jesus Christ. Everything we do must make Him famous.
WE ACT IN FOOLISH FAITH
WE LOVE PEOPLE
Because people matter to God, we will love people even at their worst. We will hold to God’s truth in love, but we will be known for what we’re for and not for what we’re against.
WE CATCH FISH, NOT FATTEN SHEEP
We will not cater to personal preference in our mission to reach this city. We preach, teach, and disciple for the purpose of going after the lost. Obtaining spiritual growth and biblical knowledge serves to fuel our passion to reach out to people who need Jesus. We fill up so that we can be poured out.
WE GIVE SACRIFICIALLY AND GENEROUSLY
Our church will go over and above to give sacrificially and generously to the work of God in our city.
WE ARE NOT AN INSTITUTION OF HIGHER LEARNING, BUT OF HIGHER YEARNING
We are intentionally simple in our teaching, reaching the one who feels forgotten or abandoned, but we refuse to water down God’s Word. We will not fluff our teaching in order to impress or tickle ears, but we will give people the truth of God’s Word in order to whet their appetite so they’ll yearn for more of Him every single day.
WE ARE A HOSPITAL FOR THE HURTING, NOT A SOCIAL CLUB FOR THE RELIGIOUS
We will stop our lives to help people, even if means inconvenience and getting nothing back in return. We serve by meeting practical needs in practical ways, showing the practical love of a God who cares about the broken, forgotten, and hurting. We ask God for the one nobody wants, and we will show the love of Jesus, not just preach about it. We will not cater to the religiously prideful and those who serve with their own hidden agendas. We do whatever it takes to see lives healed and restored and connected to God’s story.
WE ARE UNITED UNDER ONE VISION
StoryHeights is built on the vision God gave Pastors Tyler and Crystal Tullos to build a Jesus Christ, Bible-preaching, Spirit-filled church in the heart of Massachusetts. We aggressively defend our unity and that vision and operate submitted to one another under our lead pastors’ Godly authority in reverence to God.
Being united, we submit our political and social affiliations to the Cross of Jesus Christ and find commonality with our brothers and sisters in Christ, regardless of earthly backgrounds, as people saved and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven first and foremost, and we do not adjust our message, mission, and church culture in order to keep up with the ever-changing cultural and political pressures of our age.
WE AIM FOR EXCELLENCE
Because we believe God and people deserve the best, “good enough” will never be good enough. We place a high value on creating excellent environments that boldly celebrate Jesus and connect people to His story. We will continually look for holes within our structure in order to increase our capacity to care well for people. We won’t settle with what we have, but will always be looking for ways to move forward, striving to reach more people.
WE WILL CONTRIBUTE WHILE CONSUMING
People who have been saved by the grace of Jesus must follow Jesus in his mission to reach people and to be about our Father’s business. While there is always room for people to come in and consume, rest and heal within our body for a season, we are unapologetic in encouraging everyone to grow into mature believers and live out their love for Christ by serving and building God’s House by contributing their time, talent, touch, and treasure to reach more people and serve the body of Christ.
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS OUR FRIEND AND HE IS NOT WEIRD
We believe in all three persons of the Trinity, including the person of the Holy Spirit. We believe Holy Spirit is a person, not a thing, and has existed in the community with God, the Father, and Jesus the Son from the beginning, to empower every believer to live victoriously and righteously on Earth. We will allow the spirit of God room to make him known on the earth to those around us in need of the tangible presence of God. We do not put Holy Spirit in a cage, nor do we put him on the stage because He is our friend and He is not weird.
WE DO NOT DEAL IN DISCORD
In a worldly culture that is constantly pressuring us to hold fast to anger and offense, we instead choose to lay our feelings at the feet of Jesus, trading our offenses for mercy and anger for compassion and empathy. We are not people that stir up trouble in our spheres of influence and deal in discord. Instead, we give those who offend us the benefit of the doubt, seek to understand one another, and grant forgiveness as quickly and as thoroughly as Jesus gave to us. We realize, even if an apology is never given and if justice will never be fully delivered on this side of Heaven, this is the way of Jesus Christ, and we submit to it. We quickly deal with division among us so that the Holy Spirit can flow freely in our midst.
THE CHURCH IS ESSENTIAL AND GATHERING TOGETHER IS SACRED
The church of Jesus Christ will never be extinguished and is essential to the fabric of society. Regardless of the circumstances of the world, the church must be alive, active, and open to deliver hope. We will not shut our doors when the world needs us the most. As the day of the return of Jesus approaches, we will not forsake meeting together in person because gathering with the Saints is sacred and must be of high priority to every believer in the age of isolation and disconnection. We reject the idea that you can love Jesus but dislike His church because the Church is Jesus’ Bride. Spiritual health is directly related to the connectedness to the Body of Christ; therefore, even in this age of technology and “online church,” watching church must always stay secondary to being present and known in the Church. We will follow the example of the Biblical first-century believers by prioritizing meeting together on the first day of the week for prayer and Biblical teaching.
PRAYER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE DO
Prayer and communion with God is our only source of power to do anything of significance. The act of crying out to Heaven for change here on Earth is our first priority, not our last resort. God is the only one who can save souls so we position ourselves corporately as intercessors in His House of prayer. Seeking the Lord, waiting upon Him and believing in faith for Him to act is not something we just preach about; we believe it with every fiber of our collective DNA. We cry out to a God who still hears, who still moves, who still does miracles, who heals the sick, who raises the dead, who awakens sleeping souls. If we don’t pray corporately, we do nothing of any eternal value. Our sole existence is found in communing in His presence and begging the Lord to bring the plans of Heaven here on Earth.