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Our Ten Core Values
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Under each value, the philosophy underlying the core value is explained. In the second paragraph, the practical implications of this value are explained.
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1.
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God Exalting
Providence will seek as its all-encompassing goal to exalt God in everything. According to the Scripture, all of our life is to be spent in magnifying the excellencies of God (I Cor. 10:31). Jesus Christ will be our theme. He is our Creator and Redeemer. We believe in His substitutionary atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven, perpetual intercession for His people, and personal visible return to earth. He will be proclaimed as the exclusive way of salvation. The Holy Spirit convicts our community of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He regenerates, sanctifies, and empowers all who believe in Jesus Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Christ, and that He is an abiding helper, teacher and guide. We will strive to be dependent upon Him for empowering our lives to minister sacrificially in our community.
This value will be expressed in all that we do. Ministry will be evaluated based on whether or not it exalts our great God. This value will also be expressed in our public worship services. Our goal is that when people attend, they will walk out with a bigger picture of God than when they walked in. In our worship services, we will endeavor to show both sobriety and celebration in response to our great God. Our liturgy will contain the following elements: the public reading of Scripture, a pastoral prayer, responsive readings, recitation of historic creeds, corporate prayers of confession, preaching, and music. We will sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs that have lyrics that exalt God. Our music will be a blend of both contemporary and traditional styles all the while celebrating the various cultures within our community. God-centeredness, however, is not just expressed in a worship service. It should be a value that dominates every facet of our life. Romans 11:36 “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” |
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2.
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Scripture Saturated
Providence will strive to permeate all of the aspects of the ministry with the truth of God’s revealed Word. God lovingly chose to give us all that we need for life and godliness (II Peter 1:3) through the Scriptures. Because it is God’s revelation to us, we will seek to impress the importance of absolute submission to all it teaches. It is our belief that the public teaching of the Word should be in demonstration of the working of the Spirit of God and in the power of God (I Cor. 2:4-5). Our preaching will be expositional, Christ-centered, and God-exalting. For our public teaching ministry, we will use a variety of translations that reflect a conservative translation philosophy that value readability and accuracy. Such translations would be the New King James, English Standard Version, and the New American Standard.
Our hope is that this value will be evidenced in the public teaching ministry of the church whether in the ministry to children, teens, or adults. Because of the importance of the text in the lives of people, the Bible will be explained, illustrated, and applied with fervency in all teaching and preaching. Teaching, preaching, and Bible studies that work through books of the Bible will be valued. In our counseling, the Scriptures will be regarded as sufficient to handle the spiritual needs of people. In our ministries of mercy in the community, we will minister the Word of God to help with spiritual needs as we are assisting with physical needs. II Peter 1:3-4 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” |
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3.
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Gospel Centered
Providence believes the Gospel message is that Jesus Christ came to earth, died by giving Himself as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins, and rose again to conquer sin and death. An individual is saved by the power of Christ when he repents of his sin and puts his complete faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. The job of the church is to aggressively proclaim this good news to all the world (Mt. 28:19-20). Once someone is saved, he is to live a life that exemplifies what the Gospel has done in his life. The Gospel also unifies us as a local body as expressed in our church. However, we realize and value the fact that we are part of the universal body, the bride of Christ. The Gospel gives us wonderful ground for sweet unity. We desire to get the Gospel right not sliding into legalism which says that my works gain me acceptance with God and not going over to license which proclaims a Jesus that soothes with no need for repentance. On the one side you have burned out believers on the other hand, you have unbelievers.
We endeavor to emphasize this value by proclaiming the true Gospel message to every member of our community at least on an annual basis. We will budget 10% of all general fund offerings for this very purpose. We will seek every opportunity and use every appropriate method to proclaim the Gospel. For the believer, we will endeavor to show how the Gospel is lived out in every area of life thus affecting every facet of their life. We will celebrate and seek ways to display the glory of God through unity with other believers both inside and outside our congregation. Because of the serious nature with which the Scriptures address those who do not teach the true Gospel and threaten this unity, we will not fellowship with those who distort, downplay, or detract from the true Gospel message. Practically, we will expect all of our members to be involved in some outreach ministry into the community. I Cor. 1:30-31 “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”” |
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4.
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Life Building
Providence will place a major emphasis on encouraging and equipping believers to grow in their Christian life (II Tim. 2:2). We are not seeking to simply attract a crowd, but to make disciples. Following the model of the early church, we will endeavor to promote and honor the values that they evidenced: dedicated to Bible teaching, committed to fellowship, observing the Lord’s table, prayer, sharing of possessions, gathering with other believers, praise, and evangelism (Acts 2:42-47). We will provoke one another to love and good works (Heb. 10:24). We will place a strong emphasis on walking in the Spirit so as to bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
We will demonstrate this value by the creation of an intentional small group ministry. Through these small groups, we will endeavor to see true Christian community develop through Christ-honoring relationships. Groups will meet throughout the week. All members of the church will be required to be in a small group. These group times will be comprised of a time of studying the Bible, prayer, and fellowship and accountability. Individual discipleship will be offered and encouraged for all new members. II Timothy 2:2 “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” |
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Prayer Empowered
Providence will seek to show our dependence upon God for everything by having an intentional prayer focus. Jesus modeled for us the importance of prayer (Mt. 14:23). The prayer life of the New Testament church was vibrant. Prayer was part of the breath of the early saints (Rom. 12:12). Some individuals prayed night and day (I Tim. 5:5). They turned their anxieties into prayer and saw the guarding influence of the peace of God in their lives (Phil. 4:6). God tells us in His Word that He answers prayer (Luke 11:9-10).
We will seek to promote this value by having regular prayer meetings. Within one year of the church launch, our desire is to have a prayer meeting every day. We will seek to have one week each year devoted to intense prayer. Our desire is that every meeting of the church, whether for spiritual reasons or “business”, be bathed in prayer. Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” |
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6.
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Culturally Engaged
Providence realizes that God has called us to reach people in a certain culture. We view ourselves as missionaries within a culture. On the one hand, we do not seek to retreat from culture. On the other hand, we are not seeking to accommodate to the culture so that we lose our distinctiveness and our message. We realize that there are positive, neutral and negative aspects of all cultures and we will seek to engage the culture without compromise in its wholesome aspects. To promote this in our congregation, we will study the culture to better understand how people think, act, and live. Then, we will labor to show how Christ answers the questions that this culture has about life. We will follow the example of Paul in using culture where appropriate in communicating to people (Acts 17). We will seek to develop friendships and relationships with lost people in order to bring them to Christ (I Cor. 5:9-11). However, we do not advocate being part of the world system (I John 2:15-17), but will rather seek to be in the world, but not of the world (Jn. 17:14-15). We will encourage holy living amidst the culture, rejecting its sinful characteristics.
This value will be expressed in our public preaching and teaching ministry. We will confront the culture in its sinful aspects. At the same time, we will seek to provide venues where the questions being asked in culture can be debated and discussed. We will encourage all of our members to understand their culture and then use that knowledge to reach people with the Gospel of Christ. John 17:14-15 “14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” |
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7.
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Compassionately Serving
Providence places a high value on serving people in need and thus showing the love of Christ. Scripture regularly exhorts us to care for the poor (Prov. 19:17), to help the under-privileged, and to love the unlovely (Luke 6:31-36). We believe this is a necessary part of discipleship in the life of the believer. Our Lord said the greatest commands in Scripture are to love God and love our neighbors (Mt. 22:37-40). We know the depth of our love for God by the depth of our love for our neighbor. Our primary obligation lies in helping those within our congregation (Gal. 6:10). Our secondary focus will be to help our neighbors in the community. We are not motivated to do this because we feel it will usher in the Kingdom of God, because it will soften men’s hearts to the Gospel, or for a chance to evangelize people. We are simply motivated by the example and command of Jesus Christ.
We will seek to help as many people as we can who are spiritually and physically needy. We will set up a benevolence fund that will be administered by a team of people. This will help us to make sure we are helping individuals in the best way possible. Also, we will seek to create ministries that help the fatherless and widows in our community. These are truly people that we can help who have very little ability to help us back (James 1:26-27). As God opens up doors of opportunity or shows us needs in the community, we will endeavor to meet them in any way possible. Matthew 22:37-40 “37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” |
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8.
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Missions Focused
Providence places a high value on missions. When Christ left the earth, He commanded us to take His message to all people (Mt. 28:19-20). This mission was embraced by the apostles and continues to this day. We embrace the commission to spread the gospel to all people. We desire to be involved in planting churches locally, nationally, and internationally.
We desire to demonstrate this value in our financial priorities. We will encourage people to invest in supporting missions. We will also seek to show this in our calendar. We will take at least one missions trip per year to get our people on the mission fields of the world. We will take one week in the church calendar every year to highlight this value and to encourage our people to participate in the work of God around the world. Before Providence is five years old, we desire to plant another church in the Denver metro area. Matthew 28:19-20 “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” |
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9.
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Leader Guided
Providence places a high value on spiritual leadership. When God sought to accomplish His will on earth, He worked through godly men and women to work out His plan. Leadership is very important to God and so it is very important to us. Christ was the perfect example of leadership in showing that a true leader serves those he is placed over (John 13:1-17). God also gave clear guidelines as to what a leader should be and how a church should be run. Our church polity will be elder-led, deacon-served, congregationalism.
We desire to demonstrate this leadership value by encouraging the theological training of the elders (II Timothy 2:15). We also will seek to equip a team to accomplish the mission of the church (Acts 13). We will require that all elders and deacons meet biblical qualifications (I Timothy 3). Regarding the role of women, we take a complementarian position. Women will be encouraged to serve in any capacity permitted by Scripture. Realizing our depraved nature, we also believe in having high standards of accountability for those in leadership. We will spend serious time and energy in mentoring and equipping men to be leaders in their homes. Matthew 23:11-12 “11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” |
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10.
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People Embracing
Providence is a church where all people are loved and valued. The Gospel provides the way for unity amidst diversity (Gal. 3:27-28). Because every person has been created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), they have value from God. The Gospel tells us that in Christ, believers should dwell in racial harmony. Rich and poor people should feel welcome in the same congregation. Young and old should find a place to serve and worship God together. Providence believes that all life – including the elderly, the unborn, and the disabled – is to be protected and valued.
This value will be shown by the love that we have for each other as believers (Jn. 13:35). This testimony to an unbelieving world is the most powerful witness we can have. Regarding racial harmony, we will promote this in our ministry. We are committed to a multi-ethnic ministry which means we will have people from various ethnic groups on the leadership team. Also, our ministry style will reflect ethnic diversity. Regarding age, we will strive to have older men and women teach the younger how to live their lives, thus having an inter-generational ministry. For the children, we will invest significant resources into having a quality children’s ministry. Regarding economic diversity, we will seek to provide ministries that reach out to the wealthy and the poor striving to serve their unique needs. Galatians 3:25-29 “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.” |
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Providence Bible Church
|2400-B California Street|Denver, CO 80205|720-379-8500|jasonjanz@providencedenver.org
|2400-B California Street|Denver, CO 80205|720-379-8500|jasonjanz@providencedenver.org
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