Vision statement
To raise Jesus worshippers who will radically participate in God’s redemptive plan for Dayton and beyond.

This is the “how” answer to the “what are we doing” answer in the Vision Statement. Underneath each of the five components for becoming a spiritually healthy church are several practical ways in which to live out the philosophy of ministry.  They are not meant to be an exhaustive list.  They are merely ways to flesh out the abstract and make it concrete!

Specifics in the philosophy of ministry

Worshipping Jesus Christ

1. We find the center point of our worship in the person of Jesus, His work on the Cross and His resurrection.  (Ph. 2:5-11)
2. We learn an awe of the presence and glory of Father, Son and Spirit and submit our lives accordingly.  (Ph. 3:7-14; Rev. 5:11-14)
3. We realize that our worship is a declaration of war and an assault against our enemy, Satan.  (Rev. 12:10-12)
4. We worship with our songs and prayers, but also with our acts of mercy, our stewardship, our outreach and our inner-life.  (Amos 5:21-24; Mic. 6:6-8; Matt. 6:24)
5. We worship as individuals and as a community to build one another up in the faith.  (Col. 3:15-17; Heb. 10:25)

Rooted in Community

1. We encourage welcoming all people into deepening personal relationships that exhort, challenge, care and encourage what it means to live as a Christian among adults, students and children. (Rom. 12:4-16)
2. We actively pursue honesty, forgiveness, reconciliation, resolving conflict, bearing one another’s burdens, and confession to give other followers of Jesus access into one another’s lives.  (Gal. 6:1-2; Eph. 4:30-32)
3. We simplify life from the world’s many distractions to live as a community intended for God’s purposes.  (1 Tim. 6:6-12; 2 Tim. 2:4)
4. We actively pursue understanding and using the spiritual gifts we have been endowed with together for Christ’s purposes.  (1 Cor. 12:7-14; Eph. 4:11-16)
5. We celebrate together the sacraments of baptism and communion as symbols of our connectedness to Christ and each other.  (Matt. 3:13-17; 28:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-34)

Equipping through the Word

1. We teach the Bible as God’s perspective on the unfolding of His plan for redemption and how we fit into His story.  (2 Tim. 3:14-17)
2. We equip adults, students, and children to study the Bible for themselves and to learn how to apply it’s teachings to conform thoughts, motives, deeds and goals to better serve Jesus.  (Ps. 19:7-9; Heb. 4:12)
3. We study the Word of God to become equipped for relationships, ministry and worship.  (Ps. 1:1-3)
4. We encounter God Himself as the Holy Spirit opens up God’s word to us through preaching, teaching or group study of the Bible.  (1 Cor. 2:10-13)

Cultivating the Inner Life

1. We employ the spiritual disciplines (e.g. fasting, solitude, silence, etc…) to grow in our submission to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives.  (1 Tim. 4:7-8)
2. We develop contemplative habits so that we can learn to recognize the voice and movement of the Spirit of God and follow to His leading.  (Heb. 5:14)
3. We allow the Spirit to form Christian virtues and character in us through the disciplines of community, Bible study, missional living, prayer and worship.  (1 Cor. 9:23-27)

Living the Missional Life

1. We live out the great commission of making worshipping disciples on local, national and global levels who will reproduce.  (Acts 1:8; 2 Tim. 2:2)
2. We strategically train and send people to evangelize unreached people groups throughout the world and to develop those churches to continue the work of global evangelization.  (Matt. 28:18-20)
3. We commit the stewardship of time, money and energy to reaching out with compassion to the marginalized and the poor through ministries of mercy.  (Deut. 15:7-8; Mic. 6:8; Luke 4:17-21)
4. We commit to a strategy of church and ministry planting that influences a comprehensive redemption of all creation.  (Rom. 8:18-23; 1 Cor. 15:23-27)
5. We engage in seeking justice for the poor and oppressed.  (Ps. 10:17-18; Isa. 1:17)