Mission statement:

The purpose of Anaheim church is “to BRING non-Christians into a Biblical community, to BUILD maturity and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and to SERVE as His ministers for His glory.”

Philosophical Principles:

1. Every activity of the church is to produce and further develop disciples of Jesus Christ.

We define a disciple as a believer who is becoming more like Christ

• in character of life and priority of purpose by obediently growing in the Word,
• in ability to serve, and
• in commitment to make more disciples.

Our ministry’s aim is to turn an unbeliever into a committed follower of Christ who can in turns serve to make other disciples.

We will evaluate every activity by its effectiveness in producing disciples and will modify or discontinue any activity found unproductive or inefficient for this purpose.

We will, at all times, have an intentional strategy to accomplish each aspect of our mission, namely, to Bring, to Build and to Serve.

Scripture references: Matt 28:19-20; Mk 3:14; 16:15-18; Lk 9:1-2; 24:45-49; Jh 17:18; 20:21; Acts 1:8; 9:26-30

2. Evangelism is the starting point and indispensable catalyst to all disciple making

We will cultivate connections and friendship with non-Christians with the expressed intention of introducing them to Christ.

We will actively assist conversion through clear and precise presentation of the Gospel.

Our approach to evangelism will focus on multiple specific groups rather than using a generic method.

• Peer-and-friendship approach is our primary method of evangelism.

We will create and maintain a loving relational environment conducive to the communication of the Gospel to non-believers.

Scripture references: Matt 4:19; Mk 1:17, 38; Lk 4:18-19; 15:4; 19:10; Acts 10:36-43; Rom 1:16-17; 10:13-15; 2Pet 3:15; Col 4:5-6; 1Thes 4:12

3. Disciple making is a church enterprise

We will primarily make disciples as a team, as a church, and not just as a collection of independent individuals.

We will offer nurturing and equipping ministries at multiple commitment levels to develop sequential growth for disciples.

The primary vehicle for making disciples is the decentralized small group.

• One-to-one and big event approaches are valid, sometimes necessary, but only as secondary method.

Scripture references: Eph 6:19; Phil 1:5, 7, 27; 4:3; Col 1:6; 1Thes 1:4-10; 1Tim 3:7; 1Cor 14:23-25

4. Each and every disciple is a servant of Christ and a minister of His Kingdom.

The church member’s role and commitment is

• to grow as a disciple,
• to be trained to use their gifts and
• to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to directly minister to others.

We, as the church, will encourage and empower gifted individuals to be creative, proactive in disciple making and will confirm and provide resources whenever possible.

We will teach, promote and maintain the New Testament structure of ministry by the people through spiritual gifts distributed by the Holy Spirit.

We recognize servant gifts as being equally important as leadership and teaching gifts in building a healthy, disciple-making church.

Scripture references: Eph 4:11-16; 6:15; Rom 12:1-8; 1Cor 12:7-30

5. Disciple making is a process guided by godly leadership on Biblical principles

The commitments and role of the senior pastor is primarily to give direction, train leaders, teach the Word and be a model disciple.

• He should seldom perform ministries belong to other leaders and the people unless it is absolutely necessary.

All staff, policy makers, group leaders must be growing disciples committed to the church’s philosophy of ministry.

Leaders will be recognized by both character and giftedness.

We are committed to the principle of discipleship multiplication by evangelizing, discipling, training and delegating ministry to faithful leaders and workers.

We believe reasonable accountability is an indispensable component of disciple making and will require it as part of disciple development.

Our organization structure and leadership styles will be flexible to maximize effectiveness of disciple making focus as we move through our life cycle as a church.

• The church’s organization structure is a function of its mission.

Scripture references: Mt 4:18-22;10:2-4; 1Cor 4:16; 11:1; Eph 4:11-13; Phil 2:22; 3:17; 1Thes 3:2; 2Thes 3:7, 9; 1Tim 4:7-11; 12-16; 2Tim 1:13-14; 2:2; Tit 1:5-16; 3:9-11