Christ commanded the church to teach, immerse, and teach as many individuals as possible, so we will emphasize evangelism and missions in our congregation.
We believe the truth must be taught in love. We believe in the eternal punishment of those who do not accept Christ as the scriptures teach, but this does not give us any personal satisfaction. Love is our motivation for proclaiming the gospel. We do not preach for selfish gain or to feel superior. On the other hand, we don’t really love the lost if we are afraid to proclaim the whole truth (Eph. 4:15 ).
We believe that only the teaching of God’s Word can convert the lost. Evangelism can be done in many ways, but it must always include a clear explanation of God’s Word. We will also seek to meet the physical and emotional needs of those around us. Through friendship and meeting people’s needs many may be drawn to Christ, but we will not use these things as leverage to manipulate the lost.
We believe we must be consistent in telling people what to do to be saved. We will be honest, upfront, and unashamed of God’s plan to redeem men. We will clearly show what the Bible commands us to do to be saved. Diminishing controversial parts of God’s plan may make us more acceptable to denominations, but definitely unacceptable to God.
We believe God’s word emphasizes that we are to be holy and this distinction will draw the lost to Christ. Things produced by our culture can at times be useful in helping a non-Christian better understand or connect with God’s Word. We believe this is what Jesus did with his parables, and what Paul did with the “Unknown God” (Acts 17:24-31 ). They used their culture simply to illustrate a point, but the heart of their message was always from God’s Word. They did not make use of perverse Greek plays which would have been popular in their day; neither should we use movies, songs, and literature from our culture to appear stylish, funny, or cool.
We believe that our zeal for evangelism should not be limited to our local area, so we will support faithful missionaries. In our country we are blessed with many churches which teach the truth. Bibles are readily available. In many places in this world the truth is totally unknown and the Bible is inaccessible (Rom. 10:14-15 ).
Evangelism Guidelines
- The whole plan of salvation will be included in each invitation and our visitor packets.
- Any literature, music, drama, etc. used in a class or service must obviously illustrate a specific Scriptural teaching. All questionable material must be approved by the elders and/or evangelists.
- A minimum of 10% of the church’s budget will go directly to missions.
< Prev Next >
Verse of the Day