Gospel-Centered Vision
The word “gospel” means good news. The good news begins with who God is and what He has done for each of us. The good news is that God did not leave us in our sinful, lost, broken state, but intentionally provided salvation at a great cost to Himself. The gospel tells us that because of our sin, we hide from God, but it is God who loves us, pursues us, removes our fig leaves of self-righteousness and clothes us with His righteousness. The gospel tells us that it is God who “lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died”. He did for us what we could never do for ourselves. He saved us. And that is why He is our Savior. Yes, God saves. Therefore, the Gospel saves us. But it doesn’t end there, that’s just the beginning. The Gospel not only SAVES us, but the more we understand it and to the degree we cling to it, it GROWS us and KEEPS us. So, we like to say that the Gospel not only Saves us, but Keeps us and Grows us, because it is God who saves us and keeps us and grows us! And because it all begins and ends with God, His gospel, His good news, Legacy Bible Church wants our Vision & Mission (Discipleship Process) to reflect that very thing.
Our VISION is to be Gospel-Centered in every aspect of ministry within our church. Our MISSION (Discipleship PROCESS) is called the 4 E’s:
EMBRACE the Gospel
EMBODY the Gospel
ENTRUST the Gospel
ENGAGE the culture with the Gospel
Gospel-Centered Process
Embrace
Because God has EMBRACED us (Luke 15:20), we are to intentionally Embrace Him. For us this includes our daily relationship with God, as well as Sunday morning worship, where we desire everyone to Give & Receive. (We Receive the gospel in worship & we Give the gospel thru service).
Embody
Because God has made us into the Body of Christ as believers through the gospel, with Jesus Christ as our head, we are to intentionally EMBODY the life of Jesus as we Serve within our gifting in ministries (Mark 10:45), pursue authentic community in Life Groups (Acts 2:42) and go deeper in our understanding of God’s Word in Focus Groups (Matt. 4:4). In every aspect of life, we are called to walk in line with the gospel (Gal. 2:14), and as a result grow into the likeness of Jesus in our relationship with God and each other. (Col. 1:28 & Eph. 4:12-16)
Entrust
Because God has ENTRUSTED us with the Gospel (1 Thess. 2:4), we are to Entrust it to others. This is all about intentional Discipleship (1 Pet. 2:11, 12). We are to pursue being discipled and called to disciple others, either in 1-on-1 or small-sized group relationships by an intentional discipleship program (1 Thess. 2:8). In Jesus’ final words before leaving earth, He gave us the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18) and calls us to “make disciples”. Paul describes what it should look like in 2 Tim. 2:2. We are to Entrust the gospel to others as it’s been entrusted to us! We use our 7 Core Values as a guide for intentional discipleship.
Here are our 7 Core Values:
A Life of Worship
Biblical Authority
Dependance upon Prayer
Authentic Community
Serve within your Gifting
Radical Generosity
Proclamation of the Gospel
Engage
Because of all that God has done for us, He calls us to go and intentionally ENGAGE the culture around us with the gospel. We have been sent by Jesus into the world (John 17:18) to live on mission (Mark 1:14,15). We are to live and seek the good of the city (Jer. 29:7) We believe we should do this all the time, as we are going through life seeking opportunities to share the gospel and live on mission at home, at work, in our neighborhoods, at our school and ultimately in every aspect of life.