VALUES AND DOCTRINE
WHAT ARE OUR VALUES?
BIBLE CENTERD:
Disciple Making Ministries seeks to follow the New Testament model, method, mission and movement that Jesus started and commissioned followers to accomplish. (Matthew 28:18-20; 2 Timothy 2:2)
HOLY SPIRIT EMPOWERED:
Disciple Making Ministries seeks to listen and to walk in step with the Holy Spirit who convicts, corrects, teaches, guides, encourages, and empowers for obedience unto spiritual maturity in the fullness of Christ. (Acts 1:8; John 14:26; Romans 15:13; Titus 3:5; Romans 15:16)
MOTIVATED TO MULTIPLICATION:
Disciple Making Ministries seeks to motivate followers towards intentional methods of multiplication. We believe that Jesus was intentional and strategic about investing in a few who would be able to teach others also.
RELATIONAL, RELEVANT, REPRODUCIBLE:
Disciple Making Ministries seeks methods of ministry that are relational, relevant and reproducible. We believe that God has placed each believer into spheres of relationships to influence those nearby.
MODULAR ENTRY EXIT POINTS:
Disciple Making Ministries understands that followers are at various levels of spiritual maturity. We value their freedom to enter and exit the highway of the disciple making process according to their free will. We believe the spiritual growth process is not necessarily time dependent. Instead, spiritual growth and maturity advances on the timeline of obedience to the commands of Christ.
INEXPENSIVE WITH FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING:
Disciple Making Ministries seeks disciple making methods that are inexpensive to implement, flexible in schedule and easily reproducible. We avoid expensive buildings, formal education programs, having to fund professional staff, etc. Instead, we invest our lives into followers in natural ways.
ENGAGING, ESTABLISHING, EQUIPPING,
EMPOWERING:
Disciple Making Ministries seeks to intentionally engage, establish, equip and empower followers who are faithful, available, teachable, servant-leaders and obedient to the commands of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. We desire to focus our time, energy, resources on those who are able and willing to make more disciple makers. (2 Timothy 2:2)
WHAT IS OUR DOCTRINE?
BIBLIOLOGY:
We believe that Jesus Christ is the Word of God and the Bread of Life from whom are all things and through whom we exist. We believe that all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness and that the Holy Spirit moved certain men to speak and write the Word of God in the original manuscripts without error. We believe that the Scriptures are the final source of authority for doctrine and practice.
THEOLOGY PROPER:
We believe in one God who is Creator of heaven and earth, the fullness thereof, everything visible and invisible, who is both transcendent and immanent, and who demonstrates both incommunicable attributes (such as omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, etc.) and communicable attributes (such as love and holiness, etc.) We believe our Creator reveals Himself eternally in three persons of the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit, equal in nature but different regarding roles and responsibilities..
ANGEOLOGY:
We believe God created a company of spiritual beings known as angels to be His ministers. One of them named Lucifer became prideful and rebelled leading a third of angels into insurrection. In the Garden of Eden, the originator of sin, renamed Satan, deceived Eve who in turn convinced Adam, the first representative of man, to rebel against God. That resulted in the fall of humanity and the forfeiture of inheritance. But, while fallen angels are irredeemable, God had a plan to redeem humanity through His only begotten Son. Jesus Christ defeated Satan at the cross. Satan and unbelievers are destined for hell.
ANTHROPOLOGY:
We believe that God created humanity male and female in His image. We believe that God created the institutions of marriage and the family. We believe that the sin of the first Adam caused all humanity to fall short of the glory of God. We believe that God had a plan to redeem humanity. We believe that God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as the second Adam, to live the obedient life who would pay the atoning sacrifice for the sin of humanity through His death burial and resurrection. Those who would repent and trust in God’s grace through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ would receive eternal life and their inheritance in Christ.
SOTERIOLOGY:
We believe that restoration to a proper relationship with the Creator and entrance into the Kingdom of God require sinful humanity to be born again by the Holy Spirit. Redemption is accomplished by the grace of God through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. By placing our trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we become justified, we receive the indwelling Holy Spirit, we begin the process of sanctification moving toward maturity through discipleship and are moving towards the day of glorification at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
SANCTIFICATION:
We believe that God sets apart believers to reflect His communicable attributes of love and service and holiness. We believe that sanctification is a process and should be progressive as believers learn to walk in the Spirit and not according to the flesh. We believe that the indwelling Holy Spirit empower believers to produce spiritual fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. While believers will not reach perfection before glorification, we believe that followers are called to move towards maturity in Christ through a process of discipleship.
ECCLESIOLOGY:
We believe God the Father established His Son, Jesus Christ, as Head of the church, also called His bride, consisting of individual believers, local assemblies, and what is called the universal body of Christ. We believe that the church is related to but distinct from the Old Testament people of God. We believe that when Jesus ascended, He gave to the church gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ. We believe the church has two offices of elders and deacons. We believe in two main ordinances of baptism and communion. We believe that the Holy Spirit manifests through gifts and that He produces the spiritual fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We believe the Great Commission is for the church to make disciples of Jesus Christ that every believe would become spiritually mature. We believe the church is called to love, to forgive, to serve, to encourage and to equip one another to be ambassadors of Christ to advance His Kingdom purposes. We believe God uses the church in this age to give Him glory.
ESCHATALOGY:
We believe that God sovereignly directs history for His purposes. God created everything visible and invisible. God was not surprised by the fall of some angels and the fall of humanity. God chose a covenant people through whom He would bring His only begotten Son into the world. God provided the sacrificial Lamb through whom believers would be saved. God established His New Covenant church through the resurrected Christ. God is moving humanity towards the Second Coming of Christ and His millennial rule over earth with a view towards eternity with the new heavens and new earth. Eschatology involves the systematic study of these end times.