Multiplying disciples
of Jesus
The mission of Sale Street Baptist Church is to glorify God by fulfilling the Great Commission through the transforming of people into fully-obedient disciples of Christ.
Matthew 28:18-20; John 17:3; Hebrews 8:11
Our Vision
Every member abiding in Christ
Every member connected in community
Every member caring for one another
Every member continuing toward maturity
Every member contributing towards the mission
Disciple-making at SSBC
To be a disciple you must first be born again. Evangelism resulting in biblical conversion is the essential first step in biblical discipleship. Disciples of Jesus are passionate about the Bible. As they hear, read, study, memorize, and meditate on it daily, it completely reshapes the way they think. The worldview of the Bible becomes their worldview. They approach the Bible with a pre-commitment to believe, understand, and obey everything it teaches. They learn the big picture of the Bible, and they interpret individual parts in the context of the whole. Disciples of Jesus grow to love what He loves, value what He values, and hate what He hates. Their affections are set on the things of God, and those affections grow to supersede the attractions of sin and the things of this world. They grow to obey God out of desire, not simply out of duty. Disciples of Jesus obey God by obeying everything His word teaches. They do not obey in order to make themselves right with God, or to add anything at all to the work of Christ, but out of the faith, hope and love that flow from the gospel. Disciples of Jesus love one another as Christ has loved them and love their neighbors as themselves. This love expresses itself practically in forgiveness and service, even to our enemies. Our love includes our church, our families, the global body of Christ, the lost, and the poor. Disciples of Jesus share the gospel, disciple other believers, and engage in the global spread of the gospel to all peoples.”
Zane Pratt, Six Marks of a Disciple of Christ, 2016
Model for Disciple Making
-
- teaching people on the mountainside in large gatherings
- living life with people in smaller discipleship communities
- spending time teaching one-on-one.
- meeting physical and practical needs.
- sending missionaries out to share the Gospel and plant churches.
-
- gathering the local church together for teaching, singing, giving, prayer, etc.
- living life together in smaller, diverse, connected, and committed communities.
- spending time teaching one-on-one.
- meeting physical and practical needs in their city and beyond.
- sending missionaries out to share the gospel and plant churches.
-
- gathering our church body together for teaching, singing, giving, prayer, etc.
- living life together in smaller, diverse, connected, and committed communities.
- spending time teaching one-on-one.
- meeting physical and practical needs in our city and beyond.
- sending missionaries out to share the gospel and plant churches.
Primary Practices & Functions
Sale Street Baptist Church is not our church, it is God’s church, with Jesus as the head (Ephesians 4:15). To fulfill our mission, we desire to do His will, His way, according to His word, for His glory.
-
God wants more for us than to just participate in religious practices and church activities. God delights in us knowing Him personally (Jeremiah 9:24). Through Christ, we have direct access to God (Hebrews 5:16) and can abide in Him daily (John 15:1-11). This is a top priority for disciples of Jesus and takes place in our individual lives.
-
Worship is a proper response to the glory of God and a common practice for all disciples of Jesus. We gather weekly to worship God, celebrate the Gospel, and encourage one another. As we pray, sing, proclaim God's Word, partake in the Lord's Supper, serve, and give, we stir up one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24). Our goal for corporate worship is not to put on a performance, but to create an environment to worship God as He desires — in spirit and truth (John 4:24).
-
Following the biblical example of the early Church in the first century, we not only gather together weekly for corporate worship, but we also gather in smaller groups throughout the week, called CORE Groups. Core Groups are microcosms of the church and are central in our pursuit of having every member of the church abiding in Christ, connected in community, caring for one another, continuing toward maturity, and contributing to the mission.
-
A meaningful and effective way to equip and empower church members to abide in Christ is through one-on- one discipling relationships. Those in discipling relationships (men with men and women with women) meet together regularly to process their spiritual formation in close proximity and maintain a commitment to ongoing transformation. Through teaching, prayer, modeling, testimonies, and resourcing, we encourage and equip one another to know God by experience through obedience, everyday.
-
Disciples are spiritually-gifted by Jesus and equipped by church leaders to do to the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12). To provide ongoing opportunities for us to use our gifts and advance the Kingdom of God, we facilitate a variety of ministries, ranging from helping to alleviate hunger among students in local schools to going on overseas mission trips. We also support and partner with other like-minded churches and ministry organizations in a spirit of unity among the global Church (John 17:20-23). We are intentional about being good stewards of our resources so we can give generously to those in need and support the advancement of the Gospel.
-
To provide more content-focused, subject-driven instruction, Equipping Classes are primarily held on Wednesday nights and are limited to specific time frames. Equipping Classes are for receiving supplemental instruction, not for replacing participation in a CORE Group.
Distributed and Decentralized Leadership
In the New Testament, the church was decentralized away from a primary place and a primary priest. Connected by common elder oversight, the church distributed leadership to care for diverse discipleship communities. The discipleship communities had doctrinal, behavioral, and missional accountability. They shared a common mission to share the gospel and make disciples. We shouldn’t see the church as “the pastors” or “a place,” but as the people of God united in a spiritual family.
Our church is united under the headship of Jesus. Under Him, we are lead by one eldership body. Elders serve to manage and care for the church (1 Timothy 3:5), providing spiritual oversight (Acts 20:28), determining church policy (Acts 15:22), teaching and preaching (1 Timothy 5:17), holding firm to sound doctrine (Titus 1:9), and setting an example for all (1 Peter 5:1-3). With elder oversight, our church is also decentralized into CORE Groups, each with distributed leadership.
