“WHY WE EXIST”
Bates Memorial is on a mission. Our Church mission statement reads: “The mission of Bates Memorial Baptist Church is to worship God in Jesus Christ, save the lost, mature the saved, provide fellowship, and compassionately minister to human need and to transform society.” This lesson is designed to teach the nature of our mission. The lesson is structured in the form of goals. Goals help us determine who we are and where we are going. It is important to know where you are going. A church without goals is like a ship without a rudder – we have nothing to guide us. 

WE EXIST:

I.   TO WORSHIP GOD ( JOHN 4:21-24; REVELATION 5:11-12 )
The God we worship is the God who revealed God’s self in the person of Jesus Christ. God has put within each one of us the natural desire to worship. Unfortunately, many people do not realize that it is God that we are to worship and not power, prestige, cars, clothes, cash or human heroes. God has made us to worship God’s self. We worship God because God and God alone is worthy of our utmost praise and adoration. We worship god as a response to God’s mercies and love towards us. God is creator and caretaker of all humankind. God has been good to all men and women and deserves our adoration. Worship is expressed with praise, prayer, preaching, giving of tithes and offering, art, dance, ordinances and a host of other special ways that the human soul expresses adoration. Worship should include preparation (Exodus 19:10-11); participation (Psalms 34:1-3); and practice (Isaiah 6:1-8). God is worthy to be praised!

II.    TO SAVE THE LOST ( LUKE 15:1-24; LUKE 19:1-9 )
As the Church of Jesus Christ, we are sent to win, to God through Christ, those who have lost their spiritual way. We know that personal sin is a devastating reality which separates God and humankind. And it is our duty, calling, privilege to tell all those of every hue, tongue and nation that God loves them and wants to establish a personal relationship with them through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are called to tell the world that real life is theirs in Christ Jesus.

III.    TO MATURE THE SAVED (MATTHEW 28:19-20)
Spiritual maturity does not roll in on wheels of inevitability. Once we are successful in leading a person into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, our task is not over. Those who are newly converted are still spiritual babes and need to be taught and nurtured into spiritual maturity. It is the task of the Church to help saints to grow up spiritually so that they can enjoy a close relationship with God and the Church, and join in the struggle to bring salvation, justice, freedom, love, peace, wholeness and unity to the race, community and the world.

IV.    TO PROVIDE FELLOWSHIP (Psalm 133:1; Romans 15:1; Galatians 6:1-2; Hebrews 10:24-25)
John Dunn said “No man is an island. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” We need one another! No one is a Christian by themselves. We are Christians in community. And in a world like ours, it is good, important and imperative that the church be a fellowship of faith where saints can come together to be together. You have heard it said that this is a cold world in which we live. The Church is a community where we can come and experience the joy of human warmth and compassion. The church is a community where believers can come and experience love, fun, encouragement and a feeling of family togetherness.

V.  TO COMPASSIONATELY MINISTER TO HUMAN NEED ( Matthew 25:31-46; Luke 10:25-37 )
There is a lot of pain in the world. There are many who, for one reason or another, are depressed, oppressed, battered, bleeding, unemployed, unskilled, unloved, homeless, hungry, naked and in need of help. If our community cannot turn to the church for help, to whom can they turn? We exist to be God’s hands of comfort and to express God’s heart of love. What a powerful witness we can have if we would dare to minister to human need in the Name of Jesus Christ.

VI.    TO TRANSFORM SOCIETY ( Matthew 5:13-16; Ephesians 1:22-23 )
The world God made is good. The world humankind has made is in trouble. The only way to transform society is that it be challenged by people who Dr. Martin Luther King referred to as “transformed non-conformists” (Romans 12:2a). Jesus said to his disciples, “You are the salt of the Earth (Matthew 5:13), and “You are the light of the world"   (Matthew 5:14). No one who has been touched by the life of God can be satisfied with the world the way it is today. We must realize that God’s plan of liberation and freedom involves more than just salvation from personal sin. God has called us to be advocates of justice and freedom. God has called us, in the tradition of the prophets of old and Jesus our Lord, to fight racism, sexism, oppression, hunger, homelessness, and poverty. We must remember that as a Church, it is our task to save our children from drugs, illiteracy, and poor self-images. We cannot be silent in the midst of economic oppression, political regression and racial genocide. As citizens of the Kingdom of God, we cannot be satisfied with merely getting people into Heaven when they die. God wants people to know life before they get to Heaven. We must keep in mind that Christ can save us from our personal sin and from those ungodly systems of power and prejudices that sin produces. If we are to be true to our calling as Christians and true to our mission as the Church, we must participate with God in transforming society.