Our Vision
A vision is an inspiring picture of our mission being accomplished in the future
as it can be and must be.
We are guided by our
vision to become a
“Spiritual Oasis for a Thirsty World”.
A
Spiritual Oasis is a
redeemed community living as salt and light so that a
lost world becomes
thirsty for the living water. The problem with the metaphor of a
Spiritual Oasis is
that it does not resonate in this culture. Few people have ever actually seen a
desert, and even fewer have experienced the desperate thirst of being in a
desert. Therefore, for clarity, we have embraced a new Vision Statement; “We
are becoming a
World
Changing Church.” In
Matthew 28:19, Jesus said: “Go therefore and make disciples of
all the nations…” We
believe this new vision statement closely matches our overarching goal of “making
disciples of all the nations.”
The vision will be evident as we become radically changed people, living
radically changed lives, such that others are motivated to become radically
changed people living radically changed lives.
Our Purpose
From the book of Acts, we can
see that a few committed believers turned the world upside down for Christ, and
we are persuaded that for us to do less is to be less than the church.
When Jesus Christ prepared to leave
the work of winning the world to a small group of His followers, He expressed in
clear and unambiguous language why the church exists when He said, "Therefore go
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," (Matthew 28:19).
Our
4-E Purpose is the
reason we exist. We become a
World
Changing Church as we
1) Exalt the Savior, 2) Equip and Encourage the Saints, and 3) Evangelize the
Sinner.
Our Strategy
Our strategy, to accomplish
the goal of making disciples of all the nations, is founded on the principle of
multiplication over addition. It is a
church planting movement
where we replicate ourselves in communities at home and abroad. These new
churches, in turn, replicate themselves resulting in the spread of the gospel at
home and to all the nations of the world.
Our Core Values
In Matthew 6:21, Jesus states... "For where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also." In the context of this verse, Jesus
was teaching about material possessions, but we believe that He has put forth a
generally applicable principle. In other words, Jesus is saying that what you
value will invariably turn your heart. Using this principle, NDCBF has very
deliberately chosen its core values because we know they will turn our hearts.
These core values, expressed separately, are as follows:
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We value worship. We belong to Christ and He deserves
our worship.
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We value teaching.
We are called to make disciples and teaching is an essential aspect of
disciple-making.
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We value prayer.
We are called to live our lives in complete dependence upon God.
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We value relationship. We are a community that is
brought together by the love of Christ and held together by our love for one
another.
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We value compassion.
When one hurts we all hurt and when one rejoices we all rejoice.
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We value commitment.
Christ committed everything for us and we can do no less for Him.
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We value fellowship.
We are admonished not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
