MISSION, VALUES, & BELIEFS

VISION / MISSION:

Our church is a gospel-centered, disciple-making, multi-ethnic church. The church envisions networking with 10 churches in our city for prayer and worship. The church has a vision to conduct 100 prayer gatherings and 1,000 discipleship relationships within the next three years.

VALUES:

The Gospel

What is the Gospel? Simply stated it is the good news about Jesus Christ. It is all the work that Jesus has done and is continuing to do in our lives. It is the reality that he came to earth, fully-God and fully-man as our redeemer.

While we were living in a state of active rebellion and passive indifference toward him, he initiated on our behalf. He rescued us and continually rescues us even as followers of Christ from the ways we continually rebel against him.

The gospel is the means to a relationship with God which is a free gift given from his generous heart. A relationship with him is not something we can earn through a moral life or by doing good things. This free gift of a relationship with God through the work of Jesus is the gospel.

The gospel also shapes all things in our lives as followers of Jesus. In fact, in Colossians chapter 1, Paul describes the gospel as, “Constantly bearing fruit and growing in the whole world.” For the believer, the gospel continually connects us to God and gives us the capacity to grow spiritually and invest in the growth of others.

How our value of the Gospel translates into daily life:

• 1. a.Whether a particular sermon series is topical or through a book of the Bible, we aim to preach Christ as the Hero always.
  2. b.In our Kids’ Ministry (Fellowship Kids) and Student Ministry (FSM), we teach from this shape gospel-centered perspective.
  3. c.We seek to build community through groups and relationships that authenticity and transparency over pretending and performing because in Christ we are already accepted.

Pursuing Christ

Unfortunately, we live in a time in church history in our country, where people can try to “do church” but not genuinely follow Christ. Attending church and following Jesus are two vastly different things. This reality is amplified here in Memphis - a place which some have called the “buckle of the bible belt.” It is quite possible to be committed to church, committed to social change, committed to becoming a better person, but not be committed to Christ.

So, we want to articulate very clearly that our church is pursuing the living Christ. That is true of us individually and corporately as a church. We want our lives to constantly be pursuing the personal, present, and ruling Jesus who is alive today.

Jesus is the hero of the story - not us, not our ministries, and not our church. Pursuing Jesus as the object of our worship and affection is critical for our lives.

Aligning Biblically

We believe that the Bible is the very word of God and therefore hold it in highest esteem. The Bible is our textbook, playbook, and love letter directly from God. God’s word gives shape to our Sunday mornings, small groups, and next-generation ministries.

Our prayer is that we will continually submit and align our lives to it. Because it is God’s word, the Bible holds an authoritative position over our lives and over our church.

Our desire is to be men and women who honor it, read, study, memorize, meditate, and apply it.

If you are with us for any length of time, we would hope that you would grow in your understanding and application of the Bible.

Making Disciples

Discipleship is simply reproducing the life of Jesus in another person's life. We want to be a church that reproduces reproducing followers of Jesus. Making disciples is not just a “job description” for our Pastors and staff, but rather a command that Jesus gave to every believer (Matthew 28). In our teaching, our equipping, and throughout our various ministries, discipleship is our bulls-eye. We want to reproduce the life of Jesus into our lives and others.

Discipleship is not a “program” in our church. In many ways, our church emerges from the discipleship we are living. We want to equip our church to make other disciples in our daily lives.

Being a disciple-making church also has implications on our investment in the city and around the world (missions). In the Great Commission, Jesus included “the ends of the earth.” We believe that disciple-making is a command and not a suggestion.

Loving Others

This value is very broad in its application. In fact, Jesus boiled down the whole thrust of his commandments to this: "Love God and love your neighbor." What does this look like in the life of our church?

We often describe this value of loving others in 3 specific ways:

Social Responsibility - Generous Living - Racial Reconciliation.

• • • Social Responsibility
      • We love our city. We believe Memphis should be a better place through the blessing of God’s people living on mission. We’ve even asked the question - if for some reason God chose to take FM off the map, would the people of Memphis would feel that?
      • We want to be people who are deeply investing in loving our city for the sake of the gospel. We also believe that the fullest manifestation of God’s kingdom here in Memphis is shown through both Good News and Good Deeds. The two in combination are very powerful.
      • So for us, mission includes both serving others and sharing the gospel. What does this look like? Our people are engaged all over the map to seek the welfare of our city. This is happening in places and in ways we could never even quantify.
    • Generous Living
      • Jesus is our ultimate example in this. He traded eternal, perfect fellowship with God in heaven to become a man. He gave up his “rights” to give completely, sacrificially and generously to us.
      • As Christ-followers, we believe we should do that same - giving freely, generously, hilariously to the world around us because we have been given everything in Christ. This propels us to love one another in community, to love our enemies and pray for them, to serve without ever asking for anything in return, to care about our brothers and sisters in Christ all over the globe, to love the orphan, the widow and the least of these.
      • So, we dream about planting churches, serving “the least of these”, going on mission trips, tutoring in schools, loving others in our Fellowship groups and serving with the love of Christ wherever we are.
    • Racial Reconciliation
      • In coming to Memphis, those in that original core group, made up of Memphians and non-Memphians, dreamt of a church that would reflect the beautiful diversity of the city of Memphis. This was the dream despite the reality that we live in the second most segregated city in America. We are not naive to the challenges of this. We recognized from very early on we were talking about this type of church within miles of where Dr. King was assassinated.Our dream is not just for a diverse congregation of Sundays (the Grizzlies and the Tigers can gather a racially and culturally diverse crowd under the same roof). We want to see diverse dinner tables, birthday parties, and deep friendships which go way beyond just Sundays.
      • In pursuing racial reconciliation and a multi-ethnic church, we do it because it is the right thing to do. We also want to model this for others so that we can remove that excuse from every other city. If God can do this in Memphis, to his glory, he can do that anywhere. By his grace he is doing that in us.
      • This value means loving others who may be unlike us culturally or racially. It calls all of us to lay down our preferences for the sake of the bigger whole. Honestly, most of us have never been a part of a church like this. We continue to learn as we go. We must all be willing to lay down our preferences for the sake of the mission.
      • In God’s word from Genesis to Revelation you see a God of all people - every tribe, tongue, people, nation. Heaven is going to be multi-ethnic, so we ought to go ahead and start living in that reality here on earth. In that moment, the object of our worship will be our focus, not our personal preferences which become secondary. We will all be challenged to lay down our preferences to experience a broader, fuller expression of who God is.
      • We are not trying to create a church where everyone loves and appreciates everything. Living in a racially diverse church we should all be feeling some “discomfort.” But this also provides us new glimpses into God’s unique design of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

BELIEFS/DOCTRINAL STATEMENT:

GOD

We believe that there is only one living and true God, who exists in three distinct persons- God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These three, the Trinity, are equal in essence and distinct in function (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19).

THE FATHER

The first person of the Trinity orders and directs all things according to his purpose and pleasure. He has created humanity to bring him glory and honor, through his grace. While he is transcendent, he is also actively involved in his creation- offering an eternal relationship with us through his Son Jesus Christ (Matthew 6:9; John 5:19-24; Ephesians 1:3-6; 2:1-10).

THE SON

Jesus Christ is both the eternal Son of God and virgin-born Son of man. Fully God, fully man, He surrendered nothing of His deity during His earthly life. His sinless, sacrificial offering on the cross satisfied the Father’s justice, offering atonement for all of humanity’s sins, for all time. We believe in his bodily resurrection, His physical ascension, and His visible return back to earth to establish His earthly kingdom (John 1:14-18; I Corinthians 15; Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 2:9; Revelation 20:11-15).

THE HOLY SPIRIT

The third person of the Trinity executes the will of God in this world through humanity, by leading, guiding, filling, teaching and convicting. The Holy Spirit is not merely an impersonal force, but is a person, displaying the qualities of personhood (intellect, emotions and will). He equips believers upon conversion by giving them gifts to be used for the building up of the church, and by bearing fruit through their yielded lives (John 16:5-16; I Corinthians 12; Ephesians 2:10; John 3:1-8; Ephesians 1:1; Galatians 5:16-25).

HUMANITY

We were created in the image of God, destined to enjoy an intimate relationship with God, fulfilling his will here on earth. But because of Adam and Eve’s willful sin in the garden sin entered into the world, and has infected all of humanity. Therefore, because of our inherent sinful nature received from our father Adam, we are all separated from God, spiritually dead, and destined for physical death and an eternity removed from God (Genesis 1-3; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 3; Romans 5; Ephesians 2:1-3).

SALVATION

We believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins as the only sufficient sacrifice, offering the atonement of sins for all mankind through his death, burial and resurrection. While salvation is available to all, it is only experienced by those who respond to his gracious gift by faith apart from works.

For those who do respond, we are regenerated and baptized by the Holy Spirit, becoming children of God, given a new nature, and placed into the universal body of Christ, making us eternally secure in Him.

As a result of our new relationship with God through His Son Jesus, we are now called to a life of submission to the Holy Spirit, manifesting spiritual fruit, and walking in good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to do (John 14:6; Titus 3:4-7; Acts 4:12; John 1:12; Romans 3:21-26; Ephesians 1:7, 2:8-9; Hebrews 10:10-12; I John 5:11-13; Galatians 3:26; John 3:16).

THE SCRIPTURES

We believe that every word in the original writings is inspired by God and is without error. The Word of God reveals God’s nature and will for all of humanity, and because of this it is to be the foundation of faith and practice. We affirm that while the Scriptures are accurate in all matters it was never given to be an end in and of itself, but rather a means to a relationship with God. Because of this the authority and teaching of Scriptures will have a preeminent place in our church (II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:20-21; Hebrews 4:12; John 17:17).

THE CHURCH

For all who have placed their faith in God through His Son Jesus Christ, they are a part of the universal body of believers known as the church. This placement of the believer into the universal church requires an association of the believer with other followers of Christ in a local assembly. The purpose of the local church is to lead people to Christ and to bring them to maturity in Christ.

The members of the local church are to live their lives in humble submission to other Spirit-led believers, and to the God-appointed leaders of the church. Fellowship Bible Church Memphis is an autonomous local assembly that is led by Jesus Christ, who gives direction as the head of this body through a body of appointed elders (Hebrews 10:24-25; Acts 2:41-47; I Corinthians 12-14; Matthew 28-18-20; Ephesians 2:19-22; I Thessalonians 4:15-17).

THE FUTURE

We believe that the next great event in human history will be the return of Jesus Christ for his children. This is the blessed hope for all followers of Jesus Christ. While this event is a prophetic truth of Scripture, we acknowledge that the point of Christ’s return is not for the believer to passively await this event, but to labor with all of our might in the power of the Spirit to fulfill his will in our lives through righteous living, evangelism, and discipleship. After the return of Christ, those who accepted God’s gracious gift of salvation will worship God forever in heaven. Those who did not will spend an eternity separated from Him in hell. (Matthew 24:36; I Thessalonians 4:15-17; John 14:1-3; Matthew 24-25).

NON-ESSENTIALS

We affirm that the doctrines of the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and salvation by grace through faith make up the essential, distinctive nature of Christianity. In regards to these essential doctrines, there can be no conflicting opinions of those who call themselves true followers of Christ. However, we do acknowledge that there are peripheral, or non-essential doctrines, that are important, but not critical to the follower of Christ as it relates to our salvation.

Some of these doctrines include the specific functions of women in ministry, the exact timing and nature of the rapture, the extent and use of certain spiritual gifts, the relationship between election and free will in salvation, etc. While our church will be diligent to establish positions as it relates to these non-essentials we will not allow these peripheral doctrines to cause division within the church. We will accept into our body those who have differing views on the non-essential doctrines, but will not allow those of a different opinion to fracture the church. While we celebrate diversity along all lines (racial and theological), we will ultimately pursue the unity of the church.