Philosophy-of-Ministry11x6_edited-4Evangelical

Christ Church of Dubuque enthusiastically embraces the basic tenants of the Christian faith (please see our Statement of Faith).  We are evangelical in the best sense to the word – we adhere to the Bible as the inerrant and supremely authoritative word of God.

Expositional

Because we believe that the Bible is “the inerrant and supremely authoritative word of God”, we have purposed to preach and teach its message as it was given to us in the Bible. We believe that the Bible has a single message from the first book of the Bible, Genesis, to the last book of the Bible, Revelation. It is a narrative of God’s plans to redeem a people for himself through Jesus Christ so that they may proclaim his excellences and it is from this narrative that we preach and teach.  Technically this is called expositional preaching and teaching from a biblical-theological or redemptive-historical perspective. 

Vision

We strive to strike a biblical balance between our upward (worship), inward (edification) and outward (missions/evangelism) ministry thrusts. 

Partnership

We have deliberately chosen the term partnership as opposed to membership because the New Testament talks about Christians being not only members of the body of Christ, but also partners in the ministry of the gospel.  In his letter to the Philippians, Paul wrote: “I thank my God for all your remembrance of me. In all my prayers for all of you I intercede with joy, grateful for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. ”(Philippians 1:3-6)

The Philippians were more than converts of the apostle Paul – and more than members of the church – he and they were partners in the gospel working together in its proclamation.  They were co-laborers in the gospel mission together, working in a variety of ways as they sought both to defend and confirm the gospel.  The term partner implied an active involvement in this ministry.  Their partnership did not consist of a collection of names on a roll who did nothing together, rather it was group of followers of Christ who labored together in the common cause of building the church and assisting in the proclamation of the gospel.  Partnership meant sharing in the world mission (Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:18-20) using the varied gifts God had given to each of them for this purpose.

Download Partnership Agreement

Constitution

If you are interested in learning more about our philosophy of ministry, please see our constitution.