This thesis finds support in a theological principle stating that the church is the household of God existing primarily for the sake of reaching and redeeming the community. The church exists to nurture its members for the purpose of equipping them to serve the larger community, The Mt. Rubidoux SDA Church is challenged with reframing their congregational identity in order to facilitate a meaningful ministry to its new local community. The church must transition to become a more inclusive and outwardly focused congregation while dealing with major successive changes involving its location, membership, and leadership. This inquiry will include a study of contemporary sources that will help the church to understand its grief and sense of loss as a result adjusting to a new context. This thesis will look at Biblical perspectives that will illumine an approach to being the church for and with the larger community as well as historical and denominational features of the local church that point to a need for this change. The image of church as family will be examined as a limiting model for the church while the image of the household of God will prove to be more helpful in understanding the church's call to ministry. This study will also document the various challenges to the process of reframing identity and how the church struggles to become a new community within a new community. The significance of this inquiry is that the church is in danger of becoming an irrelevant institution without relationship to its larger community unless it makes a major transition in its identity and mission. The thesis project will be ultimately evaluated by the response of the congregation's ministry leaders as well as the overall direction of the church's programming and attitude towards their new community.
