Our Purpose
We exist to elevate God above everything else, by loving Him with a ‘crazy’ love so profound, that we live together as fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, who love each other and share God’s good news everywhere.
Our Vision
To achieve together, this purpose God has for us.
Our Goal
To live out our purpose in action, by:
- Loving – Living in unity as a family that loves each other self-sacrificially
- Witnessing – Proclaiming God’s message of salvation to the world
- Growing – Becoming more like Christ in speech and action
- Serving – Encouraging and selflessly helping others to grow in Christ
- Worshipping – Everyday, in everything, doing all things for God’s glory
Download the audio messages for more detail (right click – save target as), or continue reading for a longer explanation.
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Our Purpose (longer version)
Bellbowrie Community Church exists to bring glory to God in everything we do, because this is the ultimate purpose of His Church (1 Cor 10:31; Eph 1:4-12). Practically, this involves living lives that are fully devoted to God, through obedience to His instructions recorded in Scripture, no matter what the cost, because we love Him more than anything else.
In seeking to live devoted lives of obedience, we recognise the Greatest Commandments and the Great Commission, as two of the key instructions Jesus gave his followers.
The Greatest Commandments record Jesus teaching that all of Scripture can be summed up in two important mandates. Firstly, we are to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength – in other words, with every fibre of our being. This is the most important thing to do in life. The second is similar; we are to love other people as ourselves (Matt 22:36-40; Mark 12:28b-31).
The Great Commission is the very last instruction Jesus gave to Christians before He left to go back to the Father. Jesus told his followers that no one has greater authority than he, he is God, and so no one can override this instruction. With this authority Jesus tells Christians to witness to him, to make other followers, to baptise them, and to teach them to obey all God’s commands, wherever they are and everywhere they go throughout the world (Matt 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 1:8).
In summary, it is God’s intention that His glory be revealed, and that He be made known to the world through His Church (Eph 3:10-11). God is glorified most obviously as people recognise who He is, come to know Him intimately, begin the process of transformation into Christ’s image, and in all things live to exalt and honour Him.
Our Goal (longer version)
Our vision and goal at Bellbowrie Community Church is to fulfil our purpose and be the people God intends us to be. We confess we are not there yet, but we are on this journey together, striving toward this goal.
We recognise that loving God with a ‘crazy,’ profound love cannot be manufactured, or generated in our own strength. It is only possible as God enables through His Holy Spirit; and we love Him only because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). At the same time however, we are not robots; God has blessed us with free will, He does not make us love Him but desires that we choose to love Him. We need to continually make that choice, and strive to co-operate with God, allowing Him to work in us and transform us.
In practical terms, we believe that to live out our purpose we need to be people who are (in no particular order):
- Loving – Living together in unity as a family that values and loves one another self-sacrificially like Christ, looking to the interests of others before ourselves.
- Witnessing – Loving other people by proclaiming God’s great message of salvation to those who do not know Him, in speech and action, in the places we live our lives.
- Growing – Maturing in knowledge and love for God, and continuing to be transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ in speech and action.
- Serving – Selflessly serving each other, so that others also grow in Christ-likeness, and are encouraged and built up in the body.
- Worshipping – Giving God praise and honour, not just on Sunday morning, but every day in everything, seeking to exalt and glorify Him through lives of obedience and sacrifice as spiritual acts of worship.
We invite you to join with us on this journey as we strive to be fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. We believe that as we live together with self-sacrificial love and unity, as we take His message of salvation to those who are lost, as we grow and become more like Christ, as we serve and encourage others to grow, and as we worship in all things with our entire lives, it brings God glory. And we exist to bring Him glory.