Our Vision Following God's will for His church
At Countryside we feel compelled to emphasize the regular teaching and preaching of scripture as the revelation of God and the communication of His will, and to pursue meaningful relationships that promote spiritual growth, providing a context for discipleship and biblical fellowship.
God has called us as the church to make disciples. As the body of Christ, He desires to use us as he draws men to Himself and accomplishes His purposes in this world: glorifying Himself and making His name known. In seeking to glorify Him and participate in making His name known, we hold several priorities that serve to guide our ministry:
The priority to be biblical in what we do
The Bible is our foundation. Countryside is a Bible-based, Christ-focused, people-oriented church. Our philosophy of ministry is built on the premise that the Bible dictates both what we do and how we are to do it. From our worship services to our children’s ministries, the Bible is central. Our commitment is that biblical exposition drives everything we do. This allows us to do God’s work, God’s way, regardless of the results because the ultimate aim is to glorify God.
The priority to get people “done”
We view people not as a commodity, but as a priority. Since Jesus died for people, it is our aim to reach others and then build them toward Christ-likeness. We believe that we are all still a “work in progress”. And since God uses maturing believers to do the work of ministry, the result is that everyone in the body matures. God doesn’t use people to get things done – He builds people to get people “done.”
The priority to minister
The ministries of our church are the vehicles that build believers and evangelize the lost. Our ministries fall into three basic areas:
- Ministries of exaltation, which enable us to be a center for worship
- Ministries of evangelization, which enable us to be a center for outreach
- Ministries of edification, which enable us to be a center for training
Since God uses people to do the work of ministry we are committed to help people discover, develop, and then deploy their spiritual gifts for service.
The priority to send
We understand our role both as individuals and as a body to be reproduction. This means that our corporate vision is to train up pastors and missionaries and leaders who will go out from us to reproduce like-minded ministries that will seek to uphold biblical doctrines and philosophy of ministry.