Our Faith & Distinctives
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Theological Distinctives
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Ministry Philosophy
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Ministry Strategy
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Preaching Philosophy
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The Sufficiency of Scripture
We are committed to a high view of Scripture. Not only do we believe that Scripture is inspired, inerrant, authoritative, but we also believe that it is absolutely sufficient to bring about justification and sanctification (2 Timothy 3:16-17). This confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture drives our passion for expository preaching.
The Centrality of the Local Church
We believe a committed life in the church is necessary for three reasons: (1) Christ ordained it and said it will never fail. (2) The local church is the context in which God sanctifies His people (Eph. 4:16). Therefore, integration of the believer into the local church is a requisite for his/her growth. (3) The local church is the vehicle by which God intends to make and mature disciples in this community and around the world.
The Lordship of Christ
We believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all. Consequently, everyone born from above will bear good fruit and the one who does not bear good fruit evidences that he/she has never been born from above. Thus, while works have no part in justification, they do reveal the validity of one’s faith.
The Power of the Gospel
We believe that the gospel is the life giving source by which the Holy Spirit regenerates those who are spiritually dead (Romans 1: 16). For this reason, we believe that our responsibility in evangelism is to present the gospel clearly and then call the unredeemed to repentance and faith in Christ.
This statement provides the framework for ongoing ministry opportunities. This philosophy of ministry is ordered in such a way as to make the connection between theology and ministry philosophy as clear as possible. Once we have clarified our philosophy, then we will apply these commitments to various ministry opportunities to determine ministry practice.
1. Because the Scriptures are the inspired, inerrant, authoritative Word of God, therefore our church must be Word-Driven. (Heb. 4:12; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21)
2. Because there is one living and true God, an infinite, all knowing Spirit, perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three persons- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, therefore our church must be engaged in God-centered worship. (Deut. 6:4; John 4:24; Ps. 90:2; Col. 3:16-17)
3. Because the purpose of the church is to glorify God by building up itself in faith, by instruction of the Word, by fellowship, and by keeping the ordinances, therefore our church must be committed to equipping the saints for service. (2 Tim. 4:1-2; Eph. 4:11-13)
4. Because every aspect of salvation is wholly of God's grace and those who are justified will grow in sanctification and ultimately be glorified, therefore our church must be gospel focused. (Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 1:6; 1 Cor. 2:2)
5. Because the biblical teaching requires the appointment of elders in every church and congregational responsibility to recognize its leaders, therefore our church will be committed to Biblical congregationalism led by a plurality of servant leaders. (Titus 1:5-9)
6. Because one of the commands given to the church is proclamation of the gospel to the world, therefore our church must be making and maturing disciples through personal and corporate evangelism focused on planting new assemblies. (Matthew 28:18-20)
7. Because Jesus Christ is the God-man and possesses all the Divine attributes and His death and resurrection secure our salvation, therefore we must proclaim Him as both Savior and Lord. (Col. 2:9; Luke 9:23-27)
8. Because Scripture places a high priority on the training of the next generation of leaders through the teaching of the full counsel of God, therefore we will be committed to equipping the Saints as fellow laborers, through scriptural education, a multi-generational approach, and training faithful men for ministry. (2 Tim. 2:2; Titus 2:1-8)
9. Because God has ordained the family as one of the primary ways His gospel is carried from generation to generation, therefore we must be committed to gospel-centered families. (Eph. 5:22-23; 6:4)
Think of the theological distinctives as the foundation for everything that happens in the church. These pillars support everything we do and influence how we approach every ministry opportunity in the future. Once we have established the foundation we need to build on it with an intentional strategy for ministry. What will the ministry direction look like?
We’ve chosen to summarize our ministry strategy using four participles. This shows that these four actions are never fully completed, but we continue to build and work until Christ returns. This is our missions mandate and everything we do must be geared toward fulfilling this mandate.
1. Being
Being a healthy church means fulfilling the commands and directives given to the church in the Scriptures. Ephesians 4:11-16 provides the blueprint for what church ministry should look like. God has given the church the gift of pastors/teachers. The primary function of a pastor is the equipping of the saints. Pastors are to give themselves to prayer and the study of the Word so that they can equip the saints for Word-based ministry. Ministry happens as one believer brings God’s Word to bear on the life of another. Christians should speak God’s Word to one another and help one another live out and apply God’s Word. When this happens the body will grow to maturity.
2. Making
Making disciples of Jesus Christ and maturing them will only happen when our church is healthy. This means that evangelism is not the end goal. The great commission found in Matthew 28:18-20 does not end with evangelism. The single command given in the passage is “make disciples” and the going, baptizing, and teaching explain how we go about making disciples. Every believer bears the responsibility to be making disciples. A fully developed and mature disciple is one who makes and matures other disciples.
3. Training
2 Timothy 2:2 makes the priority of training future leaders abundantly clear. “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” There are four levels of training taking place in this verse. We have received the message from others, then we pass the message along to other faithful men who in turn give the message to others. The training of future leaders can only take place in a church that is healthy and which is making and maturing disciples.
4. Sending
Once these faithful men and future leaders have been trained in a healthy church environment, we send them out to pastor, plant, and train others. The goal is not to keep these individuals in our ministry but to fulfill the great commission by sending them to the ends of the earth. In the end, these people go out and plant indigenous, self perpetuating local churches and the circle is complete. We are not just about winning individuals or building institutions, we are about a disciple making missions movement.
We’ve chosen to summarize our ministry strategy using four participles. This shows that these four actions are never fully completed, but we continue to build and work until Christ returns. This is our missions mandate and everything we do must be geared toward fulfilling this mandate.
1. Being
Being a healthy church means fulfilling the commands and directives given to the church in the Scriptures. Ephesians 4:11-16 provides the blueprint for what church ministry should look like. God has given the church the gift of pastors/teachers. The primary function of a pastor is the equipping of the saints. Pastors are to give themselves to prayer and the study of the Word so that they can equip the saints for Word-based ministry. Ministry happens as one believer brings God’s Word to bear on the life of another. Christians should speak God’s Word to one another and help one another live out and apply God’s Word. When this happens the body will grow to maturity.
2. Making
Making disciples of Jesus Christ and maturing them will only happen when our church is healthy. This means that evangelism is not the end goal. The great commission found in Matthew 28:18-20 does not end with evangelism. The single command given in the passage is “make disciples” and the going, baptizing, and teaching explain how we go about making disciples. Every believer bears the responsibility to be making disciples. A fully developed and mature disciple is one who makes and matures other disciples.
3. Training
2 Timothy 2:2 makes the priority of training future leaders abundantly clear. “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” There are four levels of training taking place in this verse. We have received the message from others, then we pass the message along to other faithful men who in turn give the message to others. The training of future leaders can only take place in a church that is healthy and which is making and maturing disciples.
4. Sending
Once these faithful men and future leaders have been trained in a healthy church environment, we send them out to pastor, plant, and train others. The goal is not to keep these individuals in our ministry but to fulfill the great commission by sending them to the ends of the earth. In the end, these people go out and plant indigenous, self perpetuating local churches and the circle is complete. We are not just about winning individuals or building institutions, we are about a disciple making missions movement.
“What is Preaching?”
At Timberlake, the answer to that question is rooted in theology which instructs our practice. To understand the preaching philosophy we have, you must understand one very important doctrinal truth:
We believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
You must understand the nature of the Bible itself, but you also have to understand our position as those serving Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20 tells us we are ambassadors for Christ. We do not carry our own message or give our own ideas; we deliver the message of another.
If these three words accurately describe the Bible, and if we are nothing more than slaves of Christ serving as His messengers, then we must preach the Scriptures and only the Scriptures. This means we will have a text driven style of preaching. We draw the content of our messages from the text itself. We do not come up with an idea and then go to the Bible to find supporting verses. Instead we start with the text and let it determine the content of our message. Most often this means preaching through entire books of the Bible, paragraph by paragraph.
We do this through studying a passage in its given context and by closely examining the grammar of the given passage and the historical background in which it was written. Our goal is first to find out what the author intended to say to his original audience. What point was he trying to make, and how would the original readers have understood what the author wrote? Once we have determined the authors meaning to the original audience, then we are ready to make the jump from the ancient world to the modern and apply the passage to life and ministry today.
In a nutshell, our orders are to “preach the Word.” (2 Tim. 4:2) This means we tell people what God intended to say, not what we desire to say. God’s message is authoritative, not man’s.
At Timberlake, the answer to that question is rooted in theology which instructs our practice. To understand the preaching philosophy we have, you must understand one very important doctrinal truth:
We believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
- We say inspired because God breathes out the very words of Scripture. When you read the Bible, you are reading words brought directly from the mind of God.
- We say inerrant because the Scriptures are absolutely true and completely free from error. God is truth, and therefore the words He gives are true.
- We say authoritative because when God the creator speaks to us, His creation, the words He gives are totally binding and determine reality for us.
You must understand the nature of the Bible itself, but you also have to understand our position as those serving Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20 tells us we are ambassadors for Christ. We do not carry our own message or give our own ideas; we deliver the message of another.
If these three words accurately describe the Bible, and if we are nothing more than slaves of Christ serving as His messengers, then we must preach the Scriptures and only the Scriptures. This means we will have a text driven style of preaching. We draw the content of our messages from the text itself. We do not come up with an idea and then go to the Bible to find supporting verses. Instead we start with the text and let it determine the content of our message. Most often this means preaching through entire books of the Bible, paragraph by paragraph.
We do this through studying a passage in its given context and by closely examining the grammar of the given passage and the historical background in which it was written. Our goal is first to find out what the author intended to say to his original audience. What point was he trying to make, and how would the original readers have understood what the author wrote? Once we have determined the authors meaning to the original audience, then we are ready to make the jump from the ancient world to the modern and apply the passage to life and ministry today.
In a nutshell, our orders are to “preach the Word.” (2 Tim. 4:2) This means we tell people what God intended to say, not what we desire to say. God’s message is authoritative, not man’s.