Our Purpose

Global - Disciple Making



Love. Serve. Save.

The church's purpose is to reach the lost, disciple them, and send them back as missionaries into our community and the world. We strive to be simple and focused on that purpose.  

We do that by Loving God.  Loving People.  Serving God. Saving the World! 

What does this mean?  It means we have a 4 step process that we use to make disciples.  We realize that most people can only give 4 hours a week to the church, so the following is four simple steps a person can do every week to help them grow in their spiritual journey.  We also emphasize daily Bible study, daily quiet times, Bible memorization, and witnessing as spiritual disciplines essential to growing in our walk with God.
 
Step One:   Loving God = Worship Gatherings

Jesus said to Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  The first step in growing in your spiritual journey is to love God!  When a person loves God, he or she is actively participating in worship.  Worship is more than a worship service it is a lifestyle.  Jesus commands us to make disciples. The first step in becoming a disciple is actively participating in our worship gatherings. 

We desire the glory of God in Christ:
  • God orchestrates history to display His glory.
  • God ordains the church to enjoy His glory.
We glorify God as we become like Christ:
  • Following Christ and becoming like Him is the vision of every Christian and every church.
  • Through our worship gatherings, we exalt God in Christ as the only One who is:
    • Worthy of our worship.
    • Worthy of their worship.  
Step Two:  Loving People = Small Groups

Jesus said to Love your neighbor as yourself.  The second step in growing in your spiritual journey is to love people!  When a person is in a small group of believers and they are studying the Word of God and fellowshipping together, it is through that they begin to learn and actively love people. 

“...by making disciples...”

The four primary facets of disciple-making are:
  • Share the Word.
  • Show the Word.
  • Teach the Word.
  • Serve the World.
The question we are constantly asking at Bethel: How can we most effectively make disciples of all nations?

Small groups are:
  • The primary avenue for disciple-making to occur.
  • Approximately 10-20 believers sharing life together.
  • Growing inward by showing the Word and teaching the Word.
  • Growing outward by sharing the Word and serving the world.
We want to see small groups of disciple-makers all over the planet.
 
Step Three:  Serving God = Finding a Place to Serve

The purpose of the Church is to be the hands and feet of Jesus, to join with others who are “called out” in both the local and global realm to accomplish God’s purposes on the earth. While it is common today to define the success of the ministry of the people of God in terms of the number of those who are attending the church, the actual success of the ministry of those “called out” is best defined by whether they are actually “going” out (Matthew 28:16-20). 

Followers of Christ are uniquely gifted to minister in their circle of influence, putting hands and feet to the ministry of Jesus today. God’s workmanship becomes evident in the lives of Christians as they step out of their comfort zone and begin to function as the minister that God created them to be. The unique gifts, passions and abilities which are deposited in each believer are given to build up the church and encourage others. There are numerous opportunities to minister with the faith family.
 
Step Four: Saving the World = Short Term Missions

“...of all nations.” 

Everything we do at Bethel, we do ultimately for the sake of God’s glory in all nations. Through short-term missions, we encourage one another to give 2% of our time each year in contexts around the world in a way that transforms the other 98% of our time here in the process. We are investing in national disciple-makers and churches in other contexts and equipping them to go into the world with us. We are joining hands with faith families all around the world and together, through short-term missions, we are impacting the world.

The Win is World-Impacting Disciple-Makers:

We win when men and women are multiplying the Gospel by making disciples of all nations with their lives. We are a faith family full of world-impacting disciples who really believe that as a church we can shake the nations for His glory!

Can you imagine what a person would be like if they gave 4 hours a week to actively worship, to actively be involved in a small group studying the Bible, actively serving God, and an hour to a local mission opportunity?  
 
Our Values (Acts 2:42-47)
  • Biblical Proclamation (Acts 2:42)
  • Sacrificial Care (Acts 2:42)
  • Wholehearted Worship (Acts 2:42)
  • Desperate Prayer (Acts 2:42)
  • Exponential Multiplication (Acts 2:47)
  • Our Strategy
Biblical
  • We align all of our plans with the Word of God.
  • We are not asking God to bless our plans.
  • We are aligning with the plans He has already promised to bless.
     
Intentional
  • We purposefully equip people to make disciples of all nations.
  • Church leaders are equippers, not event planners.
  • Church leaders do not exist to provide services; they exist to serve people.
  • Church leaders are not program-driven; they are people-driven.
  • The success of our mission depends greatly on leadership development.
     
Reproducible

We organize our ministries and maximize our resources for rapid multiplication of the Gospel:
  • What if God chose to add 2,000 people to the Kingdom this year in Oakway?
  • Would we be ready to support such growth?
  • We are currently organized for routine addition.
  • We must be organized for rapid multiplication.
  • Bethel is not a place of ministry; Bethel is a base of ministry.
  • We must eliminate all references to the church as a building from our vocabularies!
     
Cross-Cultural

Everything we do at Bethel, we do ultimately for the sake of God’s glory in all nations:

We are intentional about penetrating various cultures with the Gospel through various means. In order to be effective in, and equipped for, cross-cultural ministry, we focus our energy here on Gospel ministry that transcends culture. At the same time, we wisely and responsibly contextualize ministry methods in view of the culture around us
 
Simple

We focus all our resources on a straightforward process aimed at producing world-impacting disciple-makers:

There are three primary activities in this process:
  • Worship Gatherings
  • Small Groups
  • Short-Term Missions
There are four primary levels of support in this process:
  • Assimilation
  • Administration
  • Communication
  • Education 
In this process, we set free the people of God in the power of the Spirit of God to accomplish the mission of God for the glory of God.
 
Radical

We are willing to risk everything to accomplish our mission: 
  • For the sake of the lost...
  • For the sake of the poor…
  • For the sake of the church…
  • Ultimately for the sake of Christ.
Impact The World!

A church with this vision, mission, goal, values, and strategy will produce world impacting disciple-makers.