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Philosophy of Ministry
Vision, Values, Views, Vehicles, Verifiers
By
Pastor Jim Daugherty
Valley Baptist Church Brawley, CA
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION 1 – VISION
SECTION 2 – VALUES
SECTION 3—VIEWS
SECTION 4—VEHICLES
SECTION 5—VERIFIERS
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VISION
When thinking about the vision of a church ministry, I believe Jesus should be the focus and vision of the Christian church. I believe what the Bible says in Proverbs 29:18, is that without vision the people perish. So the focus at church will be on Christ and making disciples of all nations. Jesus said to make believers as He gave his command but He also said to make disciples.
Ministry Slogan: “Jesus is life” Vision: J.E.S.U.S.
J ust to be in God’s presence -- Matthew 18:20.
E vangelize and Equip – Matthew 28:19-20.
S ee lives changed and transformed – 2. Corinthians 5:17.
U tilizing the God given spiritual gifts given to each youth – I. Corinthians 12.
S triving to be like Christ – Ephesians 5:1-2.
Ministry Theme Verse - 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Mission: Our Ministry will establish relationships between the family, youth group, children and the church and engage the community with the Gospel and make disciples as
Jesus commanded.
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I have created an acronym using the name of Jesus that communicates my vision that I will bring to this church. The J in Jesus, is just to be in God’s presence. It is important for the people of God to understand the presence of God and how we are to live in Christ every day. A
Christian cannot do anything of spiritual value without Jesus (John 15:5). We must learn from
God’s word how to live in the presence of God every day being led by the Holy Spirit.
The E in Jesus, is to evangelize the lost and equip the saints. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus commanded to go therefore into the entire world and preach the Gospel, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus commanded that we are to teach these new disciples to obey his commands and remember that He is with us until the end of the age. Jesus wants us to reach the lost as a church but also equip the saints with his Holy Word.
In Ephesians 4:11-13, God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for ministry and to exhort to live righteously. Equipping the saints through God’s
Word will be a priority but also training them how to evangelize, how to live out their life in
Jesus and how to duplicate and equip others.
“Preparing lay teachers in the church with the tools they need to effectively interpret and teach the Word of God”. [1] I want to teach you what the Bible teaches and why you should believe it. Our focus will be on showing people how to become Christians and how to grow in their relationship and foundation in Christ. I want to equip my core group of lay leaders to be able to effectively equip the saints.
We will be focusing on reaching every culture as Southern California is so diverse with different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. We will be focusing on every age group in the P a g e | 5 church and pray that God would rise up leaders within his church to reach more in the community and bring them to Christ.
Our aim will be to build relationship with the community and lead them to Christ. Paul became all things to all men that he could save some. It will be our desire at our church to become all things to all men in our community while not disregarding the law of Christ. It is my prayer, that we can connect with people from all walks of life and who come from a variety of backgrounds.
The S in Jesus, is to see lives changed and transformed by the Word of God. In 2
Corinthians 5:17, Paul said, to those who are in Christ are new creations, the old things are passed away and behold all things become new. We want to see lives changed and transformed as people meet Jesus Christ. “No healthy spiritual formation in Christ is possible apart from
Christ”. [2] We believe God can change anyone in Christ.
The U in Jesus, is to utilize the gifts that God has given to us in ministry. Every believer has a spiritual gift and talent that they can give unto the Lord and we want to see that take place in the body of Christ and within the church. The last S in Jesus, is to strive to be like Jesus Christ.
We do not depend on our own ability but depend solely on Jesus to live through us and empower us to live the Christian life.
CORE VALUES
This section will highlight some of the core values of our church. The first value that we want to see, are people growing in discipleship and get plugged into the Word of God. We believe that the Word of God will stand forever (Isaiah 40:8) and the Word of God is a two- P a g e | 6 edged sword that divides soul and spirit. We want to see people learn to fall in love with Jesus and follow his commands (John 14:15).
“Religious discipleship is the call to be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God, as is written in Paul's letter to the Romans” [3] Jesus desires his disciples to know the Bible and to understand how to communicate their faith with others. Jesus wants his disciples to be transformed by the Word of God and renewed in their minds every day with the Word of God and empowered by Christ.
“Mid-Week Interactive Small Groups” Description: These take place weekly for all age groups within the church body. Small group ministry breaks into groups after Bible study to enhance the understanding of God’s Word on every age level, to pray for each other and encourage one another. We will begin studying through the gospel of John at our Mid-Week
Bible Study.
Small Group Leader Responsibilities -
To take Pastor Jim’s Bible study outline and ask the questions to the small group as well as pray with the small group.
New Members/Believers Class is designed for those who make decisions for Christ on our Sunday morning service but also our Mid Week Bible Study. This new believer’s class will last only a few weeks but will give the believer foundations scripture as we obey the command of Christ to make Disciples.
(Pastor Jim has written several booklets that teach foundational truths from God’s Word.)
Children’s and Youth Ministries will have a focus on discipleship at the level. I would like to implement a plan to reach our next generation and work with our children’s and youth leaders for Bible study, outreach, discipleship and church involvement. I would love to see our students serving in our church. P a g e | 7
The second value to our church ministry will be to grow into prayerful people in our discipleship process. Jesus gave the greatest example of what a prayer life should look like and how we should see God’s direction and God’s will for every day in our life. Jesus often got up to pray in the morning and started his day out putting God first. I. Thessalonians 5:17, calls the
Christian to pray without ceasing and we want to pray for each other often (Ephesians 6:18).
Prayer is not talking to God and telling him what we are going to do and asking God to bless it. Prayer is actually asking God to take over our desires and to have his will over our will and desires. Jesus had a constant communication with his Father in heaven. Prayer will be a priority and is essential biblical teaching that is taught on a regular basis (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Prayer not only changes situations and circumstances but prayer changes us. God wants us to be a person of prayer and communicate with Him throughout the day (Matthew 7:7).
Our third value in our church body will be fellowship and relationship building within the body. In Acts 2:41-42, the early church broke bread together and fellowshipped together often and the Lord was adding to the church daily those who were being saved. It is the Lord’s desire that the church would not only grow spiritually but also in numerical number. Our focus will be on Christ and growing his church one person at a time.
Hebrews 10:25, speaks of not forsaking the assembly of coming together as some are doing but to come together often as that day approaches that Jesus is going to come back and judge the world. It is important for a church to meet regularly for fellowship, breaking of bread and relationship building. Fellowship can come in many different ways but essentially, is putting
Christ as the focus of that Fellowship.
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Relationship Building
Monthly Calendars/Church Newsletters - A monthly newsletter/calendar is encouraged to be sent out regular to our church members and should be updated on the church website monthly to keep our church members up to date on what is planned for the month and where they can plug in.
Church fellowships will be planned once or twice a month to build better relationships within the church for bonding, as well as, deeper connection.
A fourth value that will be of great importance is on our church’s evangelism outwardly in the community. "Transformation, and telling the story of that transformation to others becomes the heart of authentic evangelism” [4] A person evangelizing must first have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and have been born again by the spirit of God and transformed by
Christ before they can truly witness.
It is really hard for somebody, who has not received Christ, to tell somebody else how to know God when they themselves do not know God. Acts 1:8, is clear that when the Spirit of
God has come upon someone; that He will give us the power to witness in our Jerusalem, Judea,
Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.
Visitation/Witnessing Team- Witnessing team will go out witnessing in the surrounding community. The Witnessing Team educates, equips and encourages believers, who attend the church in their development to provide personal evangelism to those, who do not know Jesus Christ. Also, reaching out to non-believers with the sole purpose of bringing them to Christ and getting them plugged into the local church.
More Evangelism Ideas: Revival Sundays planned once a month where we can invite the lost to church and even have a special concert. Evangelism block parties in the church parking P a g e | 9 lot once every 3-4 months to connect with our community. Serving our community by going to the gasoline station to serve by pumping people’s gas while giving them a water, a gospel tract with our church address on it and sharing Jesus with them, praying with them and give out as many Bibles as possible with our church name stamped on it with church times and location.
The fifth value that will be of great importance to our church is worship. Jesus desires his church to worship him in spirit and in truth. Psalm 95:6-7, tells us to let us worship and bow down before the Lord and maker as He is our God and we are his people of his pasture. As
Pastor I love to worship God and desire to see our church become a church that worships Jesus and make Him known to our community and world. We will take the Lord’s Supper to remember our Lord’s death until He comes.
VIEWS
The church in the Scripture is known as a body of Christ. The apostle Paul wrote to the
Corinthian church in 1st Corinthians 12 and compared the body of Christ, the church to a human body. Every body part has a function, has a purpose and has been placed in the body for a role.
The members of the body must work together in unity or there will be dysfunction and the body will not function correctly.
The eye can never say to the foot that it is not needed and the arm can never say to the ear that it is not wanted. Every member of the human body is important just as much as every member of the body of Christ, the church is important. The music director should never say to the janitor that they are not needed in the church. The nursery worker should never say to the Sunday school worker that they are not important as we all work together as the body of Christ. P a g e | 10
The pastor is to be the Shepherd of the flock of God. The pastor is to be the overseer and meet the qualifications found in, 1st Timothy 3. I, as your pastor, meet the qualifications of 1st
Timothy 3 and will protect and shepherd the flock of God with the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. I, as Pastor, love to equip God’s people, help God’s people, reach the lost and build up the body of believers.
“Prayer is the biggest priority of pastoral leadership and should be given time and space, since fruitfulness results from heartfelt intercession for the people” [5] As your pastor, I will pray for you often and lift up your families in prayer. I live, as a man of prayer and believe in the power of prayer.
As pastor, I will lead our great church congregation into being a people of prayer that seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33). Prayer is essential.
As I am your leader, I will lead you by example and endeavor to point you to Christ always.
By God’s strength, I will pour into our church, leadership and developed leaders, that are authentic and their faith and passion are for God. Every leader in the church will be important to me as your pastor. My leadership style is empowering, encouraging, equipping, team oriented and loving.
Leading this great congregation, I promise to rightly divide the Word of truth as and teach
God’s truth Word upon Word and precept upon precept. I promise as a leader to be an everyday student of the Word of God and work hard on the sermons and Bible study outlines as I present them to you. I will lead my family with dignity, integrity and honesty and bring glory to God as they take care of my wife and my children. P a g e | 11
As I lead our adult fellowship into the study of God’s Word, I will also focus on our children and not forget the next generation desiring to equip them and build them up in their faith and understanding of God. I am a pastor that can be approached and a people person. I desire to put
God first in my life every day as I humble myself before his mighty shelter daily that He may lift me up and help me to pastor his saints daily.
I will focus on every disciple in our fellowship and pray for further growth in every believer’s life. “People may draw on sources of spiritual support, finding comfort from a pastor or other clergy” [6] I do not take my position or calling lightly and will do my best to be there for you as your pastor and train you in discipleship.
I will provide biblical curriculum resource to all of our ministries in the church that request assistance and will keep accountable every ministry to make sure that we are all preaching and teaching the Word of God and making disciples in excellence.
VEHICLES
Without vehicles it is hard for anyone to go a long distance. Without having vehicles, it is hard to get from place to place and location to location. Our church will use different vehicles to help us attain the goals of discipleship. The church and organizational structure will flow from the pastoral leadership, to the deacons, to the trustees, to the executive board and flow right into the church body.
The church will be very biblical in its ministry movement and within its business practices.
The church will endeavor to honor God with all the decisions that are made from a business level and a ministry level. We want to put God first in everything that we do in our church and we P a g e | 12 want to seek God’s direction through much prayer and fasting. An organizational chart will be formed and given to the church to see the flow of the body.
“The metaphor of the body expresses an ontological entity of the variety of members with different functions but of the same nature” [7] The church must move together in unity and look to have Christ in the driver’s seat of His church at all times. There are many functions but yet one body. The deacons have a function, the ushers have a function, the trustees have a function, the worship team has a function but all for the focus of Christ.
A ministry flowchart will be provided to the body of Christ where I will serve as pastor. This ministry flowchart will reveal different vehicles and ministries within the church unit. The ministry flowchart will give a picture of how a new believer will grow in our church and get plugged into serving God in ministry.
This ministry flowchart will be instrumental in allowing our church to flow in unity and work together. Jesus told us in the Scripture that a house divided will not stand.
Small group ministry will function on our midweek Bible studies as it will help in our discipleship making process. “Four small group factors showed a causal relationship to group growth: the prayer life of the group leader, an outreach focus, caring relationships between group members, and the empowering of group members in leadership and ministry” [8] Our mid week will focus on small group building and discipleship.
Calendar and events will be planned out a year in advance so we are planning our year in excellence to the Lord. There will be flexibility with the calendar as God leads our leadership with possible changes throughout the year. Someone once told me if you fail to plan that you P a g e | 13 will plan to fail. The Bible tells us that man plans his ways but it is the Lord that directs the steps. We will plan for the future and trust God for the details.
An event form must be filled out by every ministry to give to the church leadership to look over for approval. After prayerful consideration, if the event is approved then the event will be placed on the church calendar and planned further and will be budgeted for. There are some events that will require fundraising from different ministries as our yearly church budget will not permit us to spend further beyond our limits.
The budget personnel will receive budgets from all the ministries once a year and will determine a budget for each ministry. The budget personnel will make the final determination on how many funds are given out to each ministry and how much money is approved. Bible curriculum must be added in the budget for each ministry that will be using curriculum.
To help communicate our churches vision and future plans, a church newsletter will be created on a monthly basis to keep the church updated on our church ministry. Each ministry is asked to write a monthly report on what God is doing and this will be published monthly.
VERIFIERS
A church membership and new believer’s class will be offered on an, as needed basis for discipleship purposes. The church membership class will add members to the church by teaching them the foundations of faith and revealing places where the new believer can serve in our church. The church membership class will last a few weeks and for those that graduate will receive a certificate of recognition at the end. P a g e | 14
“Quality leadership, firmly rooted in prayer, self-sacrifice, praise, and gratitude, will have a lasting impact for present and future generations” [9] The pastor cannot disciple the whole church on his own but needs the support of the church flock. The pastor will lead the disciple making process but will empower others in our church to step up and help in the disciple making process within our small groups and church membership and educational classes.
Our plan will be to win people to Christ at church and in the community. To grow them in discipleship and understanding of whom Christ is and teach them how to have a personal walk with God. To follow the Lord’s command and making disciples after someone is saved, we will want to see them be obedient to the command of Christ and follow the Lord in believer’s baptism.
Baptism does not save someone as only Jesus is the one that saves but we will want the
Christian to be obedient to Christ in all the Lords commands. Baptism does not wash away sins or make someone right with God. Baptism is an outward expression of testimony to the world and the church of an inward change. Baptism is not essential for salvation but it is a step of obedience as a follower of Christ.
Our church will go to discipleship making conferences to help further equip our church family on how to make disciples. It is important for the church to be equipped to make disciples so that we can make healthy disciples. Our Sunday morning service, prayer groups, men’s and women’s ministries, children’s and youth departments and midweek Bible study and small groups play a vital role in discipleship making.
As each ministry is reporting every month on what God is doing within our church ministry, we will begin to see the discipleship plan and process take effect. I look forward to hearing P a g e | 15 about people getting saved, transformed, equipped, baptized and plugged in our church to serve
God and serve our community through Christ.
Our plan will be to grow not only spiritually but also in number. Jesus stepped out of mans tradition to reach the lost, “The consistent New Testament message embodied in this narrative, which we seem to have lost sight of over the centuries, is that God does the seeking and saving of humans, not the reverse”. [10] Jesus saved the woman at the well as she learned what living salvation from the living water is all about.
Growing our church will take much prayer, commitment and sacrifice. Growing our church, will take development, vision, a strategic plan and learning to meet the needs of our community.
Jesus said that he would build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. To grow this church, we will have to be in unity, committed to the Gospel and committed to making disciples of all nations.
We will commit to reaching our Jerusalem, Judaic and Samaria by obeying the command of
Christ. Jesus has called his church to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Let us not light our lamp and put it under a basket but let our light shine before men that they will see our good works and glorify God who is in heaven. Jesus will help us to build his church as we depend on him.
Satan will not want us to build the church of God and does not want to see people come into relationship with God. God is greater than any force or power, Jesus is greater than Satan and
Jesus is mighty to save anyone who will call upon his name (John 1:12). Anyone, who will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13) P a g e | 16
Jesus never told his church to sit in the church building and wait for people to come to church on their own but to go and make disciples of all nations. Jesus desires that his church be the church and go into our surrounding neighborhoods to share Christ. The church has a calling from God to make disciples and to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ without compromise. If the church does not go then false religions will.
A S.W.O.T. is a great way to create a strategic plan for a church ministry. By asking the ministries within the church to fill out a SWOT analysis, the church will find out STRENGTH areas, WEAKNESS areas, OPPORTUNITY areas and THREAT areas. All of these reports will help to formulate a strategic plan to go to the next level of ministry in the church.
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Bibliography
[1] Effective Bible teaching
Author(s):Jennifer Jagerson Source:Christian Education Journal. 10.2 (Fall 2013): p468. [2] Spiritual formation in Christ and mission with Christ
Author(s):M. Robert Mulholland Source:Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care. 6.1 (Spring 2013): p11.
[3] Debt, Disparity, and Discipleship
Foss, Ray V. Fellowship 76.10-12 (Winter 2011): 20-21.
[4] Transforming Evangelism Britton, Joseph . Anglican Theological Review 93.4 (Fall 2011): 716-717.
[5] Pastoral leadership is . . .: How to shepherd God's people with passion and confidence
Iheanyi-Igwe, Agametochukwu. Christian Education Journal 10.1 (Spring 2013): 242-245.
[6] The roles of the pastor in the interdisciplinary rehabilitation team
Easton, Kristen L; Andrews, Jonathan C. Rehabilitation Nursing 25.1 (Jan/Feb 2000): 10-2.
[7] The Church as the Body of Christ
Voulgaris, Christos S. Greek Orthodox Theological Review 43.1-4 (Spring 1998): 549-557.
[8] Factors that fuel small group growth
Author(s):Jim Egli and Wei Wang Source:Christian Education Journal. 11.1 (Spring 2014): p134.
[9] "Sing to the Lord": Key Themes in the Bishops' Document - Leadership, Discipleship, and Formation
Gokelman, Lena. Pastoral Music 32.4 (Apr 2008): 18-20.
[10] Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (Jn 4:1-42) in Africa P a g e | 18
Author(s):Teresa Okure Source:Theological Studies. 70.2 (June 2009): p401.