Our Mission, Vision, Values

 Mission

 As a Christ-centered community, our mission is to know Christ and make Him known.

Our Core Values:

 We value

1. intergenerational community

2. lifelong spiritual growth

3. personal and corporate worship and prayer

4. involvement in mission through evangelism and service

5. being a welcoming community who care for and serve one another

Our Vision

 Through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, our vision is to be a welcoming, intergenerational Christ-centered community who knows Christ and makes Him known, locally and beyond ourselves so that Christ might be glorified and the Kingdom of God advanced.

1. We have a vision to know Christ through:

1. lifelong spiritual growth

i.                     Corporately, we seek to grow a comprehensive discipleship ministry of small group and classes through which people of all ages and spiritual backgrounds can be nurtured in their faith and spiritually formed into growing disciples of Jesus. 

ii.                   Personally, we seek to encourage and equip people to grow in their personal knowledge of God’s Word and integration of Scripture into their daily lives. 

2. personal and corporate worship and prayer

i.                     Individually, we seek to encourage and help people discover how they can incorporate worship and prayer into their daily lives.

ii.                   Corporately, we seek to provide worship and prayer opportunities that lead the whole people of God, to glorify God and to be ministered to by His Spirit.

2. We have a vision to make Christ known through:

1. involvement in mission through evangelism and service

i.                     We seek to reach out and minister to nonbelieving and unchurched people in our community

ii.                   We seek to identify everyone’s God-given gifts, talents and abilities, and providing opportunities for them use their gifts.

iii.                 We seek to identify and provide for opportunities for people to serve within the church and community.

iv.                 We seek to provide opportunities for mission work outside our community – nationally and internationally.

2. being a welcoming community who care for and serve one another

i.                     We seek to be a community where people are welcomed, loved, cared for, encouraged, admonished, and built up in the name of Jesus.

ii.                   We seek to be a community where we practice authentic Christian relationships, seeking to live in fellowship with one another in Christ-honoring ways.

STATEMENT OF FAITH

 First Baptist Church affirms the following Statement of Faith as a summary of our basic beliefs. (adapted from the Statement of Faith of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, http://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca): 

1. The Holy Scriptures as originally given by God are divinely inspired, infallible, entirely trustworthy, and constitute the only supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.

2. There is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

3. Our Lord Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh; we affirm His virgin birth, sinless humanity, divine miracles, vicarious and atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension, ongoing mediatorial work, and personal return in power and glory.

4. The salvation of lost and sinful humanity is possible only through the merits of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, received by faith apart from works, and is characterized by regeneration by the Holy Spirit.

5. The Holy Spirit enables believers to live a holy life, to witness and work for the Lord Jesus Christ.

6. The Church, the body of Christ, consists of all true believers.

7. Ultimately Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all persons: either to an eternal presence with God or to an eternal separation from God.

8. There are two ordinances for the Church, regularly observed in the New Testament:
1. Believer’s Baptism by immersion.

2. The Lord’s Supper.