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Our Purpose statement says, "As a Church we honour God by challenging people to become committed followers of Jesus"
Honouring or glorifying God was Christ's ultimate purpose for coming to earth. Jesus confirmed this in His High Priestly prayer in John 17. In addition, Jesus also said that, "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples" (John 15:8). The fruit is Christ-likeness therefore; bearing fruit allows believers to reflect Jesus. The result is bringing glory to the Father.
Challenging people to become followers of Christ involves living out the life of Christ. This means that we as believers must be actively obeying the Great Commandment of Jesus (Mt. 22:36-40). Our goal is to live in right relationships, which includes our relationship with God, self, and others. As disciples of Jesus, we are to love God passionately (with all our heart, soul and mind) and to then love others compassionately (to love our neighbour as ourselves)!
Encouraging commitment to Christ involves directing others to live out the a Christ centered life. This is where a believer is actively fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus (Mt. 28:19-20). In Jesus' commission, He gave us one command: make disciples - and with this command comes three responsibilities:
1. Making disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching.
2. Teaching, or leading others to become Disciples of Christ, is building disciples.
3. The goal of the Great Commission is to make disciples of all the nations—all people groups! That is why we in Armagh Baptist Church support the work of mission, both in all of Ireland and internationally as well. We participate in missions by praying, giving, going and sending.
Our purpose is further clarified by our core values, which are Worship, Discipleship, Fellowship, Ministry and Evangelism.
WORSHIP... Worship is more than just singing in church on Sunday mornings, it is all that we do with respect to the Lord. It is our act of surrender to him. Until we are in touch with God we cannot effectively minister to one another. We passionately love God and seek intimacy with Him; therefore we desire to lead believers to be authentic, passionate worshippers. It has been said that, "the point of worship is relationship and the point of relationship is worship." Without a personal, growing, intimate relationship with God one cannot worship. Worship is the result of a disciple growing in their love relationship with God. The more one comes to know God, the more they will love God and in turn the more they will worship God. Worship then becomes more than just a service on Sunday...worship becomes a lifestyle. This principle is taught by Paul when he writes, "I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Romans 12:1). We long for believers to passionately love God and thereby worship Him with their lips and with their life.
FELLOWSHIP... Once we have established the vertical relationship with the Lord through worship, we can begin to develop the horizontal relationship of fellowship, reaching out to one another. We seek to strengthen each other through developing authentic friendships. In Acts 2:42; we see the word fellowship, which comes from the Greek word, koinonia. The word means: "to share in," "to come into communion," and "to come into fellowship." When koinonia appears in the New Testament, it always has togetherness in mind—sharing something together or sharing in something together. When we receive Jesus Christ we become part of a living fellowship of believers. We are placed by the Father into His family and are given new brothers and sisters in Christ for all eternity. As believers, we share a unique bond in Christ. The church was never meant to be a set of buildings where people come, sit, listen, learn, and leave. Rather, we believe the church is a community of believers in Jesus Christ who demonstrate real concern for one another.
DISCIPLESHIP... As we begin to develop relationships with one another we realize that we don’t know it all. There are areas in our life that could use a little development. That is where discipleship comes in. We seek to equip members to grow and mature in their faith. Jesus instructed believers to "go and make disciples" (Mt. 28:19). This included going, baptizing and teaching. Once a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ it is our responsibility to come alongside of them and help them grow and mature in their faith. This means that we must not stop at evangelism but must heed the words of Jesus in "teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matt. 28:20). Through discipleship we lay the foundation necessary to accomplish God's will for expanding His Kingdom because it is through discipleship that believers begin to think and behave like Christ. Discipleship is a lifelong learning process that requires action, not just learning from one another, but also applying what we learn. It is both our privilege and our duty. It is our desire that we will make it a lifetime pursuit to faithfully and consistently seek to become mature believers and in turn lovingly lead others to join with us in knowing and entering into a personal, intimate, love relationship with the our God
MINISTRY...we use our spiritual gifts and personal resources to advance the kingdom of God. God has blessed each believer with spiritual gifts and resources to advance His Kingdom. According to the Apostle Paul every believer has been given at least one gift by the Holy Spirit to fulfil a function in the church (1 Cor. 12). We believe that effective ministry requires believers working together, using their God-given gifts for His glory. In his letter to the church at Ephesus, the apostle Paul mentions "the work of ministry" which is our spiritual service (Eph. 4:12). In other words, it is using our spiritual gifts in a spiritual way serving Jesus Christ. The apostle Peter exhorts us with these words; "As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Pet. 4:10). In addition to our spiritual gifts, God has blessed us with resources, including our bodies, time, abilities and money. As disciples we must manage these God-given resources, using them for God's glory in the local church, understanding that everything we have is not our own. It is on loan to us by our loving Father. In addition to ministry inside the local church, believers are called to ministry outside the church, ministering to non-believers. Jesus spent His time on earth ministering to non-believers, meeting their needs where they were, and He has commissioned us to do the same.
EVANGELISM... When we have been in the presence of God through worship, as we have grown in fellowship with one another, as we have developed a hunger for his word through discipleship and as we seek to use our spiritual gifts, the natural result of this is that we would want to share it with others. we compassionately love others and therefore passionately share the Gospel, thereby being His witnesses. Jesus commanded believers to be His "witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). The term evangelism means, "to bring or announce good news." It is clear from a careful study of the New Testament that evangelism is the activity by which we communicate the Good News of the Gospel. We understand that it is both our responsibility and privilege to share the message of Salvation; therefore we seek to train and mobilize believers to share the good news of Jesus Christ both at home and across the world. True evangelism is when we take the opportunity to share the good news of the gospel and our faith in Christ Jesus with those who do not know Him as their Lord and Saviour.
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