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Philosophy of methods and principles

All that we do as a church and as individual believers is aimed at bringing glory to God.

  • We believe that evangelism ( including pre-evangelism) is the starting point and indispensible catalyst to all disciple making and will keep evangelism as a high priority in our disciple making process.
  • Our evangelism will focus on multiple Specific groups rather than using a generic approach.
  • We believe we are to be an equipping church, Therefore, the majority of our thrust will be toward developing and maturing Christians. This will be done through teaching , apprentice and accountability, booth formally and informally.
  • Families will be prepared to pass on the essence of Christ like relationships from generation to generation and family to family. The equipping process will be both preventative and restorative, focusing on family life issues
  • Children’s and youth ministries will offer Biblically based instruction that is appropriate to each level and that challenges them to maturity in Christ.
  • We believe that evangelism ( including pre-evangelism) is the starting point and indispensible catalyst to all disciple making and will keep evangelism as a high priority in our disciple making process.
  • We will promote the belief that the church’s most important identity and ministry takes place while it is decentralized.
  • Our organization structure and leadership styles will flex and change as we move through our life cycle as a church.
  • This philosophy of ministry will be pursued with grace during the first 12 months and will take full effect on 1 October 2018.
  • This philosophy of ministry will be as binding as our bye laws and can be mended in the same way as our bye  laws.

Philosophy of church programs

The purpose of every activity of our church must be to produce and further develop disciples. We will evaluate every activity by its effectiveness in producing disciples, and will modify or discontinue activities that ineffectively do this.

  • We will intentionally and primarily make disciples through congregations and small groups, mot as a random process between individuals. Our primary methods of disciple making are apprenticeship and modeling.
  • Small groups will be developed to provide relevant Bible study, caring relationship, and outreach that leads to personal accountability and develops sequential growth for disciples.
  • The primary purpose of every small group in our church is to encourage, coach and equip individuals to develop behavioral ( habits, character, virtues, ministry skills) elements of the image of Christ and to grow to the next level of spiritual maturity as directed by our recipe for disciple making. Groups not doing this will be allowed to continue only on exceptional basis as approved by our ministry community leaders.
  • Every ABF in our church will adopt and strive to accomplish the purposes of stimulating fellowship, assimilating newcomers, reaching out to and winning the unsaved and teaching the entire bible to the entire congregation.
  • While making all our ministries warm and accepting of newcomers, the primary function of our worship services will be true worship and proclaiming the word.
  • The primary purpose of our church council will be to set broad policies, macro manage the church and keep all ministries in line with the doctrinal statement, constitution, and philosophy of ministry and to oversee church discipline. They will not micro manage the staff and other lay leaders.
  • The micro management of all ministries will be delegated to leaders of those ministries, and accountability will be maintained through our Ministry Community and normal disciple making channel.
  •  The purpose of our ministry community will be vision casting, leaders training, discipling our disciple makers  and establishing planning, training and accountability for every ministry in our church

Philosophy of staff and leaders

The role of our pastors is  to give direction, train leaders, teach the Word, and be models in the discipleship process. They should seldom perform ministries lay leaders could do unless it is absolutely necessary for them to do so. The role of other staff members is the same as that of the  pastors within that staff member’s area of ministry.

  •  Should our present pastors or any present staff member leave, our church will admit only other pastors or staff members who agree without reservation to:
  • Our church’s doctrinal statement
  • Our church’s single purpose-Making disciples
  • This philosophy of ministry of how disciples are made in our church.

The role of our lay leaders is to model discipleship, to grow in their own ministry skills , and to equip the rest of the congregation for ministry by discipling them too.

  • All staff, policy makers, and any committee members and group leaders must be growing disciples committed to the church’s doctrinal statement and philosophy of ministry.
  • Leaders will be recognized by considering both character and giftedness.
  • All leaders of worship services, ABF’s, small groups and all board members will agree and take part in ongoing leader training and their own personal discipleship at least twice a month to constantly grow spiritually and improve the gifts God has given them. For most this will occur in the ministry community.
  • The church member’s role and commitment is to grow as a disciple, to be trained to use his/her gifts, and to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to directly minister to Christians and  pre-Christians, making other disciples. The church will encourage and empower gifted individuals to be creative , pro- active, need oriented, and decentralized in disciple making and will grant permission and give resources whenever possible.
  • We will recognize servant gifts as being equally important as leadership gifts in building a healthy, disciple making church.