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Purpose - Hayden Bible Fellowship

Our Purpose

WE EXIST TO EXALT GOD, EDIFY BELIEVERS, AND EVANGELIZE THE WORLD.

The foremost purpose of mankind is to glorify God, treasuring him in all things. As a church, this purpose should guide our lives together in three directions: upward, as we exalt God; inward, as we edify one another; and outward, as we evangelize the world.

UPWARD EXALTATION

The first and most important aspect of the church’s purpose is in our exaltation of God. Everything else we do serves and flows out of this. God created us to be worshippers, so that we would worship him above all things (Matt 22:37; 1 Cor 10:31).

True worship flows from a proper knowledge of who God is and what he has done (Jer 9:23-24), and is the expression of one’s love for him in all of life. A person who values God in this way will seek to live in accordance with his will, in the hope of his promises, and in dependence on his grace.

We express our worship of God as a church body when we gather together for that purpose, declaring with one voice his greatness and our commitment to him. Our congregational worship is an important aspect of the life of the church and is to be shaped in God-honoring ways, where biblical truths inform the mind and where outlets are provided for the heart to respond accordingly. The principles we strive to uphold in our corporate worship include the following:

  • God-centered and God-directed. Our focus should be on God, as the object of our worship, and we must seek to exalt him, not the people who lead us nor the worshippers themselves.
  • Bible-based and Bible-saturated. The content of our singing, praying, and preaching must conform to biblical truth. God’s word must be the ground of all appeals to authority and should therefore be woven through all that is done.
  • Head and heart. The affections should be stirred toward God by appealing to clear biblical truth, rather than by appealing to people’s emotions apart from truth.
  • Prayer and thanksgiving. The church depends on God for everything and so should regularly call on him in prayer and thank him for his grace (Col 4:2-3; Phil 4:6).
  • Authentic and sincere. The gathering of the church is not to be an atmosphere of mere artistic performance but of corporate, heartfelt worship to God (Col 3:16). Therefore, our gatherings should not be marked by any trite or flippant attitude, but instead communicate reverence and passion, and the leaders themselves should put off all hypocrisy, affectation, or posturing.
  • Historic and contemporary. The music selected should mingle old and new, showing the continuity of the truths of the Christian faith throughout history.

INWARD EDIFICATION

Right worship is expressed in the life of the church not only in its upward exaltation, but also as its members serve one another in love, each one seeking to grow as disciples in likeness to Christ and helping others do the same (Matt 28:19-20; Eph 4:11-13; Col 1:28-29). A disciple of Jesus is one who abides in his word (John 8:31-32), loves his people (John 13:34-35), and bears fruit (John 15:8), having been given new spiritual life by his Spirit; a disciple submits to the Lord as the determiner of right and wrong, ever-seeking to grow in conformity to his holy character. Therefore, we see discipleship as basic to the very nature of the church. As a church, this emphasis on discipleship should involve the following:

  • Qualified leadership. The elders of the church should meet the biblical qualifications for the office (1 Tim 3:2-7; Titus 1:5-9) and, with servants’ hearts, competently shepherd the people by God’s grace according to his ways (1 Pet 5:1-4).
  • Every-believer mentality. Whereas the pastors are responsible to prayerfully lead the church, every believer is responsible to grow and to help each other grow as Christians, according to God’s grace in their lives (1 Cor 12:7, 11; 1 Pet 4:10). The pastors should strive to build up the entire body to maturity in Christ, equipping them to serve and then seeking to involve them in the ministry of the church (Eph 4:11-12; Col 1:28). The church should be gently intolerant of a “consumer” mindset toward the Christian life among its members.
  • Unity, humility and love. As there is only one God (Deut 6:4), and the church is built upon its one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, being indwelt by his one Spirit (1 Cor 12:12-13; Eph 4:4-6), so also should each member not think too highly of himself or pursue his own selfish agenda, but rather give of himself for the sake of others (Rom 15:1-3; Phil 2:1-5) and approach corporate worship with a commitment to learn and grow together in the Christian faith (Heb 10:24-25).
  • Biblical instruction. The church should teach the truths and implications of the gospel (1 Cor 15:1-4; 1 Pet 3:15-16), of Christ’s commandments (Matt 28:20), and, indeed, of the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) through various word-based ministries, including expositional preaching, biblical training, and one-on-one discipleship (Col 1:28; 2 Tim 2:2; 4:2).
  • Practical application. The church should encourage the personal application of biblical principles in all areas of life and encourage people to live with an eternal perspective.
  • Personal modeling. The more mature Christians should provide examples to the newer believers of what it looks like to live out the Christian faith (1 Cor 4:16; 11:1; Phil 3:17).
  • Church discipline. Driven by a desire to follow Christ, every believer should embrace the loving hand of discipline in their lives, which comes through the ministry of the word, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and the involvement of God’s people. The church should strive to be formative in helping its members pursue holiness and also provide corrective discipline towards sinning members, to see them restored and to protect the purity of the church (Heb 12:6-11; Matt 18:15-17; 1 Cor 5:1-13; 2 Thess 3:6-15; Gal 6:1).
  • The ordinances. The church should baptize new converts (Matt 28:19; 1 Pet 3:21) and celebrate the Lord’s Supper together (1 Cor 11:23-24), as symbols of our life in Christ and his grace to us.

OUTWARD EVANGELIZATION

During the present age, God intends for his people to glorify him in the world by telling of his goodness and calling others to be reconciled to him through faith in Christ (2 Cor 5:18-21), thereby making disciples (Matt 28:18-19). The way for those alienated from God to thus turn in faith to Christ is through the proclamation of the gospel by those already redeemed, who adorn the gospel with holy lives, personal humility, and love for one another (Matt 5:16; John 13:34-35; Rom 10:14; 1 Pet 2:12).

This outward purpose is accomplished in conjunction with the inward and upward purposes. As the church gathers to worship and be built up in the faith, the members are prepared and then sent out to proclaim the gospel. This outward purpose should work out both locally and in foreign missions. 

Local Evangelism

Jesus calls us as his disciples to make disciples (Matt 28:18-19), thus drawing every believer into the work of evangelistic outreach. As we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to those whom God places in our lives, we trust him to use our efforts in fulfilling his purpose to make a people for himself. Our focus as a church on local outreach should include the following:

  • Evangelistic preaching. The regular proclamation of the gospel from the pulpit will serve both to evangelize the lost among us, as well as reinforce the centrality of the gospel for believers.
  • Evangelism-training. The members of the church should be equipped and encouraged to accurately and boldly articulate the gospel in their own personal relationships.
  • Evangel-shaped lifestyle. The members should live as a testimony of God’s grace before a watching world, joyfully helping their neighbors and, according to their ability, showing mercy to those in need (Matt 22:39; Luke 10:33; Gal 6:10; Tit 3:14; 1 Pet 2:11-12).

Evangelism among the Nations

Jesus’ intention in his call for discipleship was to make a people for himself from every nation. Whereas not all believers will be able to leave their homes to travel to other places, as a church we should still be active and generous in sending and supporting missionaries for this purpose. Our focus as a church on making disciples of the nations should include the following:

  • Missions-mindedness. The church should actively participate in missions by generously partnering with missionaries through prayer and financial support. The pastors should regularly teach the congregation about foreign missions, as well as update them on the status of the missionaries the church supports.
  • Personal involvement. The church should be involved in the lives and ministries of its missionaries by reading their newsletters, occasional correspondence, and personal visits, where appropriate. For any missionaries sent directly by the church, the level of involvement should be even higher, including personal accountability.
  • Missionary criteria. The elders should define the criteria for selecting missionaries to support, in order to be good stewards of the church’s resources, and they should clearly explain this vision, so the congregation is informed, unified, and enthusiastic of its support of its missionaries.
    • The missionaries with which the church will partner must be theologically like-minded, agreeing broadly with the church’s doctrinal statement and philosophy of ministry.
    • The church’s missionaries must be closely connected to the work of making disciples.
    • The most appropriate context for making disciples is the local church. Therefore, the church’s missionaries must work toward either the establishment or edification of the local church, such as in church planting or leadership training.
    • In general, it should be the goal of any church-planting or church-strengthening endeavor, ultimately, to raise up local leadership and establish the church to be self-supporting, self-governing, and self-reproducing.
  • Periodic evaluation. The church should periodically evaluate its missionaries, in light of these principles, and make adjustments as necessary.

SUMMARY

These three overarching purposes of the church – upward, inward, and outward – serve one another. As we seek to glorify God and treasure him together, we will become more like Christ and more effective in our evangelistic impact on the world.