VISION
In everything we do we desire and strive to exalt God, edify believers, and evangelize the lost. We believe these are the three pillars that hold up the church of Jesus Christ and are in concordance with Scripture.
Exalt God: The continuous call of Scripture is to exalt, praise, and glory in the God of heaven and earth. We find our deepest purpose of existence in glorifying God by enjoying Him forever.
Edify Believers: The church is the only institution God ever promised to bless. Our goal is to equip believers with the powerful, life-altering truth of the Word to produce fruitful laborers in God’s vineyard. Edification is the pathway towards seeing the beautiful glory of God and repelling the deceitfulness of sin.
Evangelize the Lost: The sole purpose of the church today is to spread the greatest news ever heard in the surrounding community and help those on their quest of satisfaction to find Living waters. Christ’s final plea was to make disciples, and that’s what we are about.
Philosophy of Ministry
The vision of exalting God, edifying believers, and evangelizing the lost extends to our philosophy of disciple–making. These specific ways of making disciples is Biblical, Christological, and God-glorifying.
Bible Centered
Just as Jesus said that “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” our desire is to reflect that model. We know that the word of God always produces fruit and never comes back void, but accomplishes that which God purposes. Only the word of God is the sword that is able to pierce, and purify and produce long term change by the Spirit. This is essential aspect as a believer is called to produce fruit and be sanctified. The Scripture as the inspired word of God is the ultimate authority on any subject matter or methodology.
People Specific
As Christ focused His ministry on people, coming to serve rather than to be served, our goal is likewise. Christ spent time with his disciples equipping them to serve and glorify God; He taught them principles of prayer, marriage, relationships, and various other topics. The church about the people that comprise it and our desire is to focus on the people and not programs.
Depth Focused
Our focus is about bring people to maturity in Christ. Christ took twelve disciples and focused his teaching specifically with them, producing men who would be equipped for ministry through the Holy Spirit. The gospel is to continue to bear fruit and grow in every believer and we believe that through small groups, personal discipleship and corporate worship, this is achievable. We strongly believe that God is the one who adds to the church as we strive to equip every individual to maturity in Him. If we take care of the depth of our ministry, God will surely take care of the breadth of it.
Gospel Advancing
As the gospel call goes forth in our life through personal evangelism and community outreach, we desire not only to grow in number but multiply in breadth. The apostle Paul’s ambition was to “preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named,” and our ambition is to do likewise. There are areas of our city where Christ is not known and established, and our desire is to be church-planting church. Statistics prove true. According to the article, “90 percent of all churches reach their peak in attendance, outreach, and giving by their twelfth birthday.” It is time for more churches to become mothers, instead of remaining on birth control; and our goal is to be one of those churches.
How It Works
Our disciple making structure is the practical aspect of our vision. It is a framework for how we exalt God, edify believers, and evangelize the lost on a weekly basis.
Worship Services
Worship services are gatherings of the local body of Christ for mutual edification through hearing of the word of God, and unified exaltation of God through singing hymns. These services are meant to unite believers both in place and spirit to worship the one true God. The focus of this time will be dedicated to seeing Christ through the word, as we hear it, read it, sing it and meditate on it. Two main sections comprise services: first, corporate worship through song; and second, corporate worship of the exalted word.
Small Group Communities
The local body of believers in the church will be divided in number, but not in spirit. These groups will comprise of 8-10 people, including one who is a leader of each group. Geographically, these groups will cover various areas of our community, gathering on various nights of the week. Small groups cover a variety of necessary needs that will lead us to be disciples that observe all that Christ has commanded us.
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Fellowship. This time is given for believers to discuss life, fellowship with one another, and serve one another. It is a time to build meaningful relationships through bearing each other’s burdens, serving one another, encourage one another in the faith, learning hospitality, and building up one another. This is an opportunity to share intimacy in the body, and the need for each other as members of the body of Christ.
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Bible Study. This time is for the studying of God’s word that calls us to align our will with His. This will be an in depth study of Sunday’s sermon or parallel material that helps in being obedient to the Lord and walking in the Spirit.
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Prayer. This time is given for believers to pray together about church needs, personal problems displaying our dependence on the one without whom we can do nothing. This is also a time to thank God for the work He is doing, intercede for those who need it, and petition for the lost souls of the community.
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Evangelical. Small group communities are opportunities for unbelievers to join in a bible study and see the life of the church.
Personal Discipleship
Personal discipleship is an opportunity to fulfill 2 Timothy 2 where the church is called to pass down the truth from one generation to another. God instituted and formed the church in which various age groups and cultures appear, through which much opportunity is given for the older in the faith to teach the younger. We believe this happens on every level. The goal is to find someone who knows a little more than you, and someone who knows a little less, and become a channel through which God can use you. Older men are to teach younger men, and older women are to teach younger woman, so that once again, the body of Christ is equipped and built up to grow into maturity. This occurs in various meeting places and at various times in the week.
Outreach Ministry
We believe that the church is the salt and light of the world. In so being, fulfillment of the great commission is imperative. Outreach ministries could take various forms. A believer should be kingdom minded at all times, whether at work, school, or just having fun, there is always an opportunity to be the light in the community. Outreach ministry could be as simple as having an evening dedicated to sports of various kinds, to open evangelism in the streets, to helping out a local non-profit. These are simply way to get plugged into the community, meet new people and invite them to a small group of worship service. This is the arm of evangelizing the lost, which is a great part of our vision of making disciples.
Short-Term And Long-Term Missions
Our goal is to build up every believer in the faith to maturity. Through following the voice of God in His word, every believer is led to serve others. As a church whose mission is to be a church planting church, our desire is to build up leaders who would go on long-term and short-term missions. This gives the local church an opportunity to reach abroad and fulfill the call of making disciples of every tongue, tribe and nation. The process always begins with prayer. We do not know who God would send, or where he would lead in regards to missions: whether that is local or abroad and for how long. Our goal is to equip any area we would send missionaries to. The support of the whole church is necessary financially to expand the kingdom of God and the vision of our church.