We are on the JOURNEY with You!
Our Missional Vision
God has given us the vision to become a church centered around being disciples of Jesus who help others also become disciples of Jesus. Following Christ’s example, we intend to engage with people and live life with them, because that’s exactly where discipleship takes place.
We believe the church is God’s people, not a brick-and-mortar building. This campus is just where we meet corporately, celebrate what God has been doing, encourage each other, strive to become a family, equip ourselves for discipleship, and share those lessons with our children and anyone else who wants to engage in the conversation. Our challenge is to go and make disciples as Christ did, and that doesn’t only happen inside a church building.
Living as people sent by Jesus into the world is what we call Missional. For us that means we are less interested in numbers and much more interested in hearing stories about how God transforms people’s lives and sharing our faith and compassion with people wherever we are during the week.
Our strategy for being missional among our friends and neighbors is summed up in three words: UP, IN, and OUT. UP refers to our personal relationship with God, IN refers to our relationships among the church body, and OUT refers to our relationships with those outside our church body. We try to visualized this strategy in a triangle which depicts a balanced life, based on the example of Jesus’s time on earth.
Our Calling: This is our mission…
We have been called to be a loving family of Jesus’ disciples, empowered to reveal the beauty of the Kingdom of God.
It is very easy, in the pace we keep around the Miami Valley, to slip into thinking that church is a building, an event, or a program. But in the Bible, church is a movement, a loving family of Jesus’ disciples empowered to reveal the beauty of His Kingdom.
If we inspect this core statement up close we will begin see our calling unfold…
IN: We are a family – We have been called to be a loving family living by grace and truth as we care for and encourage each other. Life in God’s Kingdom is never meant to be isolated. In fact, in the Garden of Eden, God said that it was “not good” for Adam to be alone (Gen. 2:18). Jesus sent his disciples out two-by-two (Luke 10:1), and the early church in the New Testament was always seen doing life as a family (Acts 2:46). Family, however, is not always easy, because all of us have weak spots and brokenness even as we are learning to follow Jesus. We all need love from God and from one another as we learn to live in community — that is what real accountability looks like, full of grace and truth.
UP: Celebrate God and His work through Jesus Christ – We have been called to celebrate God and His work to restore all things through Jesus Christ. The Bible begins with a portrait of a world immersed in beauty before collapsing into darkness because the family God had created chose to walk away from Him. In spite of this, God has tenaciously pursued a people who would bear his Name and extend his reign. From the stories of Abraham to the nation of Israel to the practices of the early church, God has always been working to renew all things (Rom. 8:19-21, Is 66:22, Rev. 21:1). At BCC we are discovering ways He is renewing all things around us and love to tell those stories of adventure when we see them.
OUT: Empowered to reveal the beauty of God’s Kingdom – We have been Empowered to reveal the beauty of God’s Kingdom by living on mission. When God sent Jesus to the Earth, He lived in such a way that those around him could see and experience what God was truly like. Jesus came so all people, places, and things would be restored to a right relationship with God. Then, after his death and resurrection, Jesus told those gathered around him to “go and make disciples” who would do what He had been doing — restoring, redeeming and renewing all things. At BCC, we continue to take those words incredibly seriously by trying to live on mission in our every day lives (Matthew 28:18-20;1 Peter 2:5-9; Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:10).
Our Wants (Values): These are our priorities…
Thus, if our calling is to be a loving family of Jesus’ disciples empowered to reveal the beauty of His Kingdom, we are learning to want what Jesus wanted. Jesus’ number one question for people he met was, “What do you want?” Our hope is that, as we align ourselves with the Holy Spirit, our wants for BCC come in line with His. That means our calling reflects our wants (some people call these core values)…
We want…
We want to be a FAMILY, loving each other with grace and truth.
We want to EMPOWER people to live out their calling, sent by God’s Spirit into their world to restore all things to God through Jesus.
We want to be WORSHIPERS, loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, & strength.
We want to be NEIGHBORS, living intentionally & honorably with those around us.
We want to be LEARNERS, learning God’s word & doing what it says.
We want to be DISCIPLE(MAKERS), mentoring the next person to live like Jesus.
We want to be a SAFE PLACE, where people find healing for their brokenness.
We want to be known to value PEOPLE before institutions, always seeking ways to love above all things
Our Beliefs: These are things we hold tightly…
The Story We Find Ourselves In…
We are a community within an ongoing story. This true story is recounted in the Bible, which is the inspired word of God. It reveals the unfolding of God’s relationship with humanity and the world, centered on his son Jesus Christ. In the beginning, God created the world and made human beings for relationship with himself. But humanity turned away from God, damaging their relationship with him and bringing upon themselves the consequences of his judgment.
In spite of their rejection, out of his great love God continued to pursue humanity and embarked on a path to restore their relationship with him and their relationships with one another. This path began with Abraham and his family, continued with the nation of Israel, and climaxed with Jesus of Nazareth who both reconciled and is reconciling humanity and all of creation to God through his life, death, and resurrection.
Now God is working through those who accept his offer of reconciliation to restore his original intent for humanity and his entire creation. This will culminate in a renewed world when Jesus returns, in which God’s relationship with his people will finally be perfected.
Through Jesus we have been drawn into this unfolding narrative. In this we find our identity as individuals and as a church. It shapes how we see the world and how we live within it as a community of faith, hope, and love.
Eight Unifying Beliefs
From this narrative we discern eight foundational beliefs that we cling to “with a closed hand,” i.e. those doctrinal positions that the leadership of BCC recognize to be at the heart of the “faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (Jude 3). There are other beliefs that we hold “with an open hand,” i.e. those positions that good people of faith may disagree upon, but that should not be allowed to divide us. We firmly believe that upon these, anchored in the person of Jesus Christ, hope and unity can be found.
- There is one God who exists as three persons: the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19; John 14:15-20; 15:26; 16:13-15; Romans 1:1-4; 2 Corinthians 13:14
- The Bible is the Holy Spirit-inspired word of God, and as such it reveals himself, his purpose, and his ways as the ultimate authority for our lives. 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 4:12-13; 1 Peter 1:23-25; 2 Peter 1:20-21; John 10:35
- We are created in God’s image, but that image has been damaged by our sin. We are separated from God, experience death, and suffer eternal consequences if something does not change. Genesis 1:26-28; 3:1-24; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:1-3
- God has revealed himself supremely in the person of his son, Jesus of Nazareth, who is the promised Messiah of Israel and Lord of all. Jesus lived, died, was physically raised to life, and returned to the Father, all as the crux of God’s plan to restore the world to wholeness. John 1:1-4, 14; Hebrews 1:1-4; Acts 2:22-24, 36; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
- Our relationship with God is restored by trusting him and what he has done for us through the person and work of his son Jesus Christ, and we respond to this in repentance, baptism, and a desire to follow Jesus. This is all by God’s grace and received in faith apart from anything we could do to earn it. Acts 2:36-39; Romans 3:21-26; 5:9-11; 10:8-15; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Ephesians 2:1-10
- The Holy Spirit dwells within all believers to help us become like Jesus every day and do his work in the world. John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7, 13; Acts 2:38; Romans 8:9-11; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 12:4-7, 12-14; Ephesians 4:3-6
- The Church is the Holy Spirit-created community of all believers everywhere. Locally, as followers of Jesus together, we worship him, grow in relationship both to God and each other, and learn to love our neighbors and each other at the intersection of God’s kingdom and the world. Matthew 16:18; Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:19-22; Revelation 19:7
- Jesus will return to fully establish his kingdom in a renewed heaven and earth, and he will raise everyone to life, judge the world, and make all things right again, restoring everything to God’s intention from the beginning. Acts 1:9-11; 3:21; Matthew 6:10; 24:3; 25:31; Isaiah 65:17-25
“Open-Handed” Positions
We know that there are more detailed discussions we can have on a variety of subjects that are not included among these core convictions. Because women and men of good faith can and do disagree, we welcome the opportunity to discuss other beliefs and positions. Any beliefs we have not included among our our “unifying beliefs” are positions we hold “with an open hand,” in hopes of maintaining unity and peace in the body of Christ.
Any issues that we have prayerfully studied and, as a church taken a particular stand on, can be found here: “Open-handed” Positions
Our desire, as always, is that if you ever want to have a conversation about any positions we hold, please contact us via email at elders@beavercreekchristian.org.
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