Rusk Bible Church Vision
The Purpose for Rusk Bible Church: To Glorify God.
The Vision for Rusk Bible Church:
- To Know and Love The LORD*
- Know and Love One Another
- Know and Love the Lost and Broken
-OR- - Know and Love the LORD*, One Another, and the Lost and Broken.
An easy-to-remember vision statement that emphasizes a committed relationship, up with the LORD, in with the church body, and out with the lost and broken.
Know and love the Lord (UP)
a) John 8:31-32 “31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are
truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.””
b) Phil 2:12-13 “12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my
presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it
is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
c) Deut 6:5 “5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
might.”
d) John 15:9-10 “9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my
commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in
his love.”
e) Mt 22:36-39 “36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 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.”
f) See also John 15:4-5
Know and love one another (IN)
a) Acts 2:42 “42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
b) John 13:35 “35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””
c) John 17:20-23 “20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their
word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved
me.”
d) 1 Peter 2:4-5 “4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
e) Mt 22:36-39 “36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 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.”
f) See also John 15:12-15; Eph 2:13-21; 1 Peter 1:22-23
Know and love the lost and broken (OUT)
a) Rom 10:9 “9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
b) Rom 10:13-14 “13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”
c) Matt 28:18-20 “18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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.””
d) John 15:16 “16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
e) Deut 6:5-7 “5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
f) Matt 22:36-39 “36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 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.”
g) See also Gen 1:28; Deut 10:17-19; Mic 6:7-8; Jer 5:28-29; Isa 58:6-7; Mt 9:35-38; Mt 23:2-4; Mt 25:34-
40
*I capitalize LORD as our English Bible translates the Hebrew word, Yahweh. Yahweh is the personal name of God for those in a covenant relationship with him, and that is who we are as believers and fits well with the emphasis on a committed knowledge and loving personal relationship with the triune God.
The Mission for Rusk Bible Church:
ESCORT People to Christ
ESTABLISH People in Truth
EQUIP People for Ministry
Our church’s mission is to make disciples by ESCORTING people to Christ, ESTABLISHING them in truth, and
EQUIPPING them for ministry.
Paul is clear in this text that it is the role of the pastor teacher to use his gifts that God has given him to equip believers to use their gifts for the purpose of ministry—for the purpose of building up the body of Christ—for the purpose of growing people up in Christ. He explains in Ephesians 4 that the church is the place where you come to know Christ, where you come to grow in your knowledge of him and where you get equipped to use the gifts God has given you for ministry.
