OUR MISSION

Lighthouse Bible Church exists to disciple and serve one another by God's Grace, with God's Word, for God's Glory. 


OUR VISION

Our vision is to be a community of Christ’s disciples who are in covenant with Christ and committed to one another, who come together to gather each Sunday morning as a church family and to group in smaller discipleship settings throughout the week, and who confess to all the gospel of Christ.

 

In Covenant with Christ

means we have personally repented and believe that Christ is our Savior and Lord. 

We picture that union with baptism.


Committed to One Another

means we are a unified membership that serves one another. We picture that unity with the Lord’s Table.


Coming Together to Gather

means we gather together each Sunday to worship Christ as we preach the Word, read the Word, pray the Word, sing the Word, see the Word in baptism and the Lord’s table, and give to spread the Word.


Coming Together to Group

means we come together to group throughout the week to disciple, to pray, and to encourage each other.


Confessing to all the Gospel

means we spread the message of Christ to our city, to our state, and around the world.

Our View of a Healthy Church

It is the role of pastors to shepherd the church toward spiritual health. Our evaluation of a healthy church is one that is spiritually alive for the glory of God. Below are some of the questions we use to regularly evaluate the health of Lighthouse Bible as a body of believers:

(Much of the following is based off of: 9 Marks of a Healthy Church; The Deliberate Church; and The Trellis and the Vine.)


Are we known as people who love one another?


Is our ministry gospel-driven?


Do we regularly practice intercessory prayer?


Are we vision-motivated?


Do we experience authentic worship?


Are the messages feeding the people with applicable expository messages?


Are the pastors and our people servant leaders?


Are our people engaging in personal mentoring?



Below are questions we use to help evaluate problems that might cause our church to become unhealthy:

Are we focused on numerical growth instead of spiritual growth?


Are we defending the status quo or our comfort instead of a biblical vision and agape-sacrifice?


Are we bound by traditionalism or contemporary innovation instead of strategic, intentional, doxological biblicism?


Are we presenting mixed agendas?


Are we exclusive in our relationship within the church or do we invite into our fellowship believers from all backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, generations, and social classes?


Are we imbalanced in any way?


Our View of Congregational Music

We sing a blend of lyrically rich songs both recent and historic. Those of us who are comfortable with music from one particular era have discovered that we come to enjoy other songs we had not previously encountered. We sing congregationally, which emphasizes the gathered body enthusiastically singing praise to God with one voice. 


Here are some distinctives of our musical selections. Specifically, our music is:


Centered on God

Congregational singing is a corporate expression of delight in God’s character and work. Therefore, all corporate singing must seek to bring glory to God as we sing about God (Ex 15:1, 21; Ps 115:1; Ps 100).


Be Filled with the Word

Singing is a way for the church to sing the truths of the Word corporately as a spiritually united body. Therefore, worship songs should never contradict the Word, and, more importantly, must accurately communicate truth and be saturated with the Word (Ps 95-96; Col 3:16).


Point to Redemption

The response of the redeemed is to sing of that redemption and of their Redeemer, which we see in the songs of Moses, Deborah, David, Israel, and the believers in heaven. Therefore, singing in the church must focus on communicating and celebrating the gospel (Ps 95-96; Col 3:16).


Unite Text with a Complementing Tune

Musical worship should not aim for professionalism or be haphazard, but the musical team should have an appropriate level of proficiency and be sufficiently prepared to lead the church in worship. A song’s tune should not distract from worship but support and enhance the message of the song. Therefore, the musicians should aim, with the text, the tune, and the presentation, to create an environment that draws the congregation’s attention to the Lord and His work (1 Chron 15:22; 1 Cor 14:15).


Incorporate Appropriate Diversity

Worship must not aim for traditionalism or contemporary innovation, but it should aim to glorify God and to edify believers in consideration of the cultural diversity of the church. Therefore, musical worship should incorporate songs that magnify the glory of God and reflect the cultural diversity of the local church and of the surrounding community (Eph 5:19; 1 Cor 10:31).


Stir the Inner Man

Congregational singing should help each disciple experience a range of feelings from contemplation to thanksgiving to sorrow to comfort to awe—as we see in the Psalms. Singing should not aim for emotionalism but the truth in song should cause an appropriate, emotional response. Therefore, singing and instrumentation should stir the heart of each believer to enjoy the Lord in an emotionally, Christ-focused way (John 4, Eph 5:19; Col 3:16).