Why We Exist
Our vision is to glorify God…
God created us to glorify Him. The definition of glory is the manifestation of one’s essence. In other words, we are created to reflect His essence to others. This is man’s highest goal. Men reject this goal and attempt to “show off” their own accomplishments. However, bringing glory to self only leaves a hollow vacuum in the soul. We want to reveal God in His full essence to a world occupied with proclaiming their own worth.
…by building a New Testament Church…
We believe that God’s primary vehicle in this Dispensation, for His glory, is the local church. It is in the local assembly that His love, mercy, forgiveness, help, strength, conviction, etc., is most easily seen. As people are equipped, in the local assembly, they go into a dark and violent world to show the essence of God to those who don’t know Him.
…in order to assist its members…
The primary purpose of the Church in bringing glory to God is to equip it members to serve one another in the body as well as those outside the body. It is not the job of the vocational pastors and leaders to do all the work. Rather, the vocational ministers equip the non-vocational ministers (that’s everyone else) for their work of ministry.
…and other biblical churches…
Our service to the Body of Christ is not just confined to our campus. Our Pre-school, Academy, College, and Mission Board are all designed to serve others of a similar faith background. We hold strongly to the core doctrines of the Christian faith and are willing to struggle to maintain their purity. However, as God gives us grace, we will attempt to emulate the spirit of our Master, as we struggle to maintain purity, who when He was reviled did not revile in return.
…in the West…
We are a uniquely western ministry. We know that 80% of men minister within 500 miles of the last school they attended. This is the reason for our College. Very few mission boards are located west of the Mississippi. For western young people, who desire to go to the mission field, it is difficult to go to the East to find a mission board or college. Our vision is to serve these young people and their churches across the West by returning western young people to ministries in a culture they naturally understand.
…and around the world…
Our missions giving is in excess of 25% of our total budget every year. When one adds the specific designations every year to individual mission projects or missionaries this percentage grows to over 40%. We want the Kingdom of Jesus Christ to grow in every culture and language around the world.
…in fulfilling the Great Commission.
The Great Commission in its fullest understanding is God’s command to His Church to reproduce itself in every generation. This involves winning, teaching, mentoring, encouraging, rebuking, and loving every member to the point where they reproduce themselves in the life of another.
Our Vision is to glorify God by building a New Testament Church that assists its members and other biblical churches in the West and around the world in fulfilling the Great Commission.
Exalt…
Our first and most important activity is to allow God to have His rightful place of exaltation in our spirit. He has this position whether we allow Him to have this place in our lives or not. However, exalting God means that He is honored and preeminent in all we do. He is first in our thoughts and actions. We do nothing without considering His glory.
…the Triune God…
We believe that He is a trinity and that He exists as one God in three Persons. We believe this because Scripture teaches it, not because we can always understand it. He is God and we are not.
…through lifestyle worship…
Worship is the act of physical kneeling. Spiritually, we kneel in submission to everything that God tells us to do or be. Our whole life is an act of worship, as we understand worship to be a constant act of submission to His will and not simply the gathering as an assembly for an hour every week on Sunday.
Edify believers…
The second most important aspect of ministry is the equipping or building up of believers for their work of ministry. The primary mission of the vocational or paid pastors is to train and lead the non-vocational ministers into their acts of service. The vocational ministers do this by modeling, teaching, exhorting, mentoring, comforting, etc. Vocational ministers or pastors must always be actively involved in soul-winning and discipleship, but they do this as any other Christian should do these activities, not because they are a part of a paid staff.
…through correct doctrine…
Doctrine is the primary way we, as a body, are built up or edified. Many do not like sound doctrine. They say that doctrine divides. We agree that doctrine divides. Unfortunately, many have divided over non-essentials, thus giving doctrine a bad name. Scripture clearly teaches us that sound doctrine is very important. Correct doctrine is God’s way to bring glory to Himself. Sound doctrine is a picture of who God is. We never wish to distort the mosaic that God paints of Himself through faulty doctrine.
…discipleship…
We believe very strongly in not just winning people to Christ, but also helping them grow into Christ-likeness. Our mission is to help every member of His Body be conformed more and more to His image. We build people through one on one relationships with other, more mature believers.
…fellowship…
We believe relationships are the building blocks to authentic Christian community. We believe in building each member through close and transparent relationships with other believers. We do not believe this hinders the work of God, but rather enlarges it.
…unity…
Unity is a clear command in Scripture. In our desire for a pure church, we must never fall to the tyranny of divisiveness or isolation. God calls us to struggle to keep unity in our local church and among other churches. Often, unity is a struggle to those who take God’s commands for holiness and purity seriously, but we cannot give up Scriptural unity simply because it can be difficult to achieve.
Evangelize unbelievers…
The natural outworking of a proper position of God, exaltation, and a perfecting placement of believers, edification, will result in public professions, evangelization. This does not mean that we can expect people to just walk up and ask us about Christ. This may happen, but it is rare. We must plan to share Christ’s love. However, when we see God for who He is and we love our brothers and sisters, we will want to share our God with those in our circle of influence. Sharing Christ then moves from being an event we do once a week, as a Church, to a process that naturally flows out of a life dedicated to Christ. The Church-wide outreach once a week is very important, but sharing Christ should not only happen once a week. It should happen all the time.
…through prayer…
Prayer is the foundation of every witnessing opportunity God gives us. Anything done in God’s name, without God’s power is useless. Prayer is foundational to every salvation.
…and the proclamation of the gospel.
The clear sharing or confrontation of the gospel with the unbeliever is always necessary. Many hope to live a life of Christianity and expect people to just come running to find out why they live this way. While that does happen at times, it is not the normal way in which a person comes to Christ. It is every believer’s responsibility to build bridges to unbelievers so that Christ can be shared. The Church exists to reproduce.
Our Mission is to exalt the Triune God through lifestyle worship; Edify believers through correct doctrine, discipleship, fellowship, and unity; Evangelize unbelievers through prayer and the proclamation of the Gospel.
1. Integrity
This word derives from the Latin word describing the quality of the Roman soldier’s breastplate. Every morning the centurion would line up his men in full uniform and they would slap their breastplate and say, “integer”. The Roman soldier was asserting that his breastplate was strong and could withstand the difficulties of combat. Integrity means “wholeness” or “soundness”. Our ministry will, first and foremost, be a place of integrity. By God’s grace we will have integrity as we deal with people as well as problems and finances. Without true spiritual wholeness or soundness, no matter how large or great the ministry, all “spiritual” work will be burned at the Judgment Seat of Christ. It is in His presence we wish to be accepted. This is why integrity is such an important issue with us (II Corinthians 5:9-10).
2. Teamwork
Teamwork refers to our lack of “silos” or “fiefdoms” in the ministry at Tri-City. Fiefdoms occur when people narrowly focus on their own ministries, their own goals, their own systems. We are unique because of the various ministries that most churches do not have. In addition to “normal” ministries of a church such as the youth group, college group, ladies, men, etc., we are also the headquarters for a worldwide mission agency, a pre-school, a Christian academy, and a Bible college; thus it might be easy for our ministry to devolve into “protecting turf”. Jesus tells us in Mark 10:45 that He did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for all of us. He was not about “turf”. Again, in I Corinthians 12 we are told that we are many parts, but all one body. It is imperative that we live out a value system that respects the team’s achieving its goal of conforming people to Christ’s image and not elevating any one person or ministry as a superstar.
3. Brokenness
Psalm 51:17 beautifully portrays David’s brokenness; he records, after his sin with Bathsheba, that a broken and contrite heart will never be despised by God. Christ portrays this attitude in Matthew 5:3 when He bestows a blessing on those who are “poor in spirit”. Christ models this attitude when He washes the disciples feet in John 13, and Paul reinforces this spirit when he refers to himself as a “slave” of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:1). Both James and Peter declare that God resists the proud man, but gives grace to the humble man. A true humbleness and brokenness over sin and our own inability to please God will produce the graces of Christ-likeness in our lives.
4. Accountability
Paul talks about the handling of finances in II Corinthians 8. He is adamant that they be handled by many men of consequence to insure adequate accountability and transparency in the delivery of the money to Jerusalem. We are also encouraged to submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21), bear the burdens of others in the church (Galatians 6:2), and to confess our faults one to another (James 5:16). Many today wish to “do” church in their own way. They claim they have been hurt in other churches and do not want to commit themselves lest they be “hurt” again. Certainly, one should take the time to completely research a church before joining. For example, no matter how long a couple dates, or, sadly, even lives together, they still learn many things about each other after marriage. The same is true of joining a church. No marriage is perfect. No person is perfect. And certainly no church is perfect. But even with those imperfections, God commands us to be involved in accountability relationships with others in a local church. The real reason why most will not join a church is that they wish to avoid the accountability that church membership entails. We believe in accountability both to God and to others.
5. Compassion
Jude tells us that some who have compassion can make a difference (Jude 22). Christ repeatedly reflected on the fact that He had compassion on those around Him who were lost or hurting (Matthew 6:34). Any biblical ministry must follow the pattern of our Lord and be moved with compassion on those who are entangled in the ramifications of sin’s consequences. Our calling is to be moved with compassion on those around us who are like sheep without a shepherd. We are not fulfilling the example of the Master until we see those around as He saw them: people in need of a Savior (Luke 19:10). We are a people called to those who are hurting and in need of the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
Our Values are Integrity, Teamwork, Brokenness, Accountability, and Compassion
