Parkway Baptist Church exists to glorify God by making disciples. Jesus’ earthly ministry maintained a single purpose and a dominant strategy. His purpose was to glorify the Father by establishing and expanding His kingdom. His strategy was to make disciples by investing in individuals who would join this kingdom and live radically committed to continuing its expansion. Following this example, our
ministry operates along complementary, intertwined themes: worship and discipleship. We invite, call, and lead people to value God supremely and to follow Jesus absolutely. Thus, all our ministry – and by ministry we mean everything from preaching to children’s ministry programming to short-term mission trips to fellowship meals to Sunday School curriculum to baby dedication to kids’ camp to student fellowship activities to administration to staff leadership to community involvement to small group Bible studies to pastoral counseling – aims for this goal. Again, our mission is to glorify God by making disciples. To this end, we work to create an atmosphere of spiritual multiplication. Even Jesus didn’t do the entire ministry himself. Instead, he focused primarily on investing intentionally in twelve men who would carry-out the ministry with him and after he was gone. He preached to the masses, healed diseases, and performed miracles, but he spent the bulk of his time and energy multiplying himself in a few ordinary men. Thus, our strategy is to lead each member to become a multiplying disciple. This strategy flows from the description of the church in Acts 2:42-47 and is expressed succinctly in what we call our vision statement. We lead members to grow and multiply in:
- FELLOWSHIP. [every member in community]
- OBEDIENCE. [every member obeying God’s Word]
- SERVICE. [every member using his/her gifts]
- MISSIONS. [every member sharing the gospel]
In fellowship, we connect each person to the church through relationships. From membership to Sunday School and beyond, we want each member to build lasting relationships with others and multiply those relationships by leading others to join. In obedience, we teach God’s word and model obedience to lead each person toward spiritual maturity. Our goal is not increased knowledge, but transformed living that God will use to lead others to know and follow Christ. In service, we challenge each member to discover and use his/her gifts for the common good of the church. God uses our combined and diverse service to meet the church’s needs, grow individual believers, and lead others to follow Christ. In missions, we seek to make the gospel known in every corner of the world through the collective voices of our members. From Bardstown to Balgue, Nicaragua, from Springfield Road to Spring Lake, NC, from Cox’s Creek to Columbia in South America from south of the blue bridge to south Asia from Quick Stop to Quito, Ecuador from Maywood to Missoula, MT, we equip and exhort each member to share the gospel.
