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.