Philosophy of Ministry

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.

If we have a distinctive, it is in our insistence on preaching and teaching the full counsel of God's word. We believe that the preaching of God's word is the preaching of his word! In other words, we seek to exposit, i.e. draw out from (vs. read into) the words of God from the context in which they were given. That context is twofold. First, it refers to the historical context of both the writer and recipients of any particular letter or book of the Bible. For instance, when the apostle Paul wrote his letters to the Corinthians, he was writing to a people whom he knew personally and about whom he had heard many disconcerting things. His great statement about love in chapter thirteen was a reproof for the fractured relationships within the Corinthian church caused by their pride and one-upmanship; it defines who they are not (read the letter through from beginning to end and you will see how just a conclusion this is!). Today, chapter 13 is rarely, if ever, used in full force as a reproof to those of us who tear down the church in similar ways as those of the Corinthians. It certainly works well enough for a marriage context (where we find it applied most today), but we would conclude that Ephesians 5.22ff is better suited for the marriage context since it was written specifically for such a context, providing an even more detailed picture of what love looks like within the marriage relationship than does 1 Corinthians.

Second, the context of any given passage is the single, unfolding story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It is the history of a loving God's redemptive plans for this fallen world. The story begins in the book of Genesis with God creating a good universe intended for the mutual enjoyment of man with himself and the fall of that creation through man's rebellion. The book of Genesis is followed by sixty-four other books, which more or less chronicle the unfolding story of God's redemption of this fallen creation. The story ends in the book of Revelation, which like a bookend to Genesis, anticipates a new and improved creation populated with the beneficiaries of his grace from every tribe and tongue and nation, and the rejection and judgment of those who have rejected him as their King. Thus, a book like Exodus must be understood in light of the overarching biblical story of God's redeeming a people for himself; it is not just a historical record of God saving a particular people, Israel, from its bondage to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Certainly we can learn about God's power and holiness and grace and glory from the book of Exodus, but it is much more than this. It is a prelude to the gospel – one chapter in an unfolding mystery of God's redemption of a people from their bondage to sin in order that they might serve and worship him through the Pascal lamb, Jesus Christ. This hermeneutic demands that the gospel, in its many faceted beauty, be preached even from the Old Testament. It was Jesus himself who gave this hermeneutic when he declared that all of the Scriptures are about Him (cf. Lk 24, etc.).

Thus, when we preach or teach we ask the following three questions of any given passage:

·         What did the passage mean to those who first received  it?

·         What does the passage mean in light of the rest of the story of the Bible?

·         What does the passage mean in application to us today?

These questions are designed to explore what the Bible actually says and help us to avoid what is called proof-texting. Proof-texting is when a person begins with a particular premise, e.g. God wants me to be materially blessed, and then goes to the Bible to find passages that on the surface "prove" his or her premise. Through proof-texting many a person has wittingly or unwittingly misrepresented God's word –all too often to the detriment of themselves and others.

We also believe that a commitment to teaching the entire Bible (the "full counsel of God") in this manner, over time, ensures that God's people will hear all that God wants them to hear and not just the special-interest topics generated by the pastor or teacher or driven by the desires of the pastor's audience. God desires to speak more to us than we, left to ourselves, would prefer to hear about, or of which, through sloth, we would remain ignorant. Preaching through books of the Bible forces us to take the context of the book seriously and forces us to preach or teach on subjects we might otherwise neglect. 

In short, we believe that the primary mark of a biblical church is that "all things are managed according to the pure word of God" (Heidelberg Catechism). Thus, when God's word is preached and taught in the manner described above, the foundation of the local church itself is secure (assuming, of course, both elders and lay people alike submit to its authority through the power of the Holy Spirit).

We also strive to strike a biblical balance between our upward (worship), inward (edification) and outward (missions/evangelism) ministry thrusts. All are important to a healthy church. Concerning the first, worship, we consider God's word to be the centerpiece of the service. Therefore, our services tend to be thematic. That is, they are modeled according to the main theme of the morning's passage, which is to be preached any given Sunday. This applies most notably to the music and prayers of the service. In choosing which songs to include in the service, the issue for us is not whether a song is old or contemporary, but rather whether is best captures the theme of the message.

Concerning our inward ministry thrust, it is our desire and goal to bring God's people to maturity through the word of God clearly presented and prayerfully applied by the Holy Spirit to God's people. To obtain this end, we believe it is the elder/pastors role to equip God's people for works of service. A well instructed people must be a well serving people and to this end we labor. We also believe that it is through service that each individual Christian practically advances in edification, maturity, and a fulfilling Christian life. It is for this reason that we have chosen to ask those who have committed themselves to this fellowship to sign a partnership agreement. We have chosen this terminology because it conveys what the agreement demands (based on Philippians 1.3-11) – a commitment to active participation within the context of this local church for the gospel enterprise.

Concerning our outward ministry thrust, we have three categories by which we define "outward". The first is missions. By "missions" we mean the propagation of the gospel outside of CCD's daily, local sphere of gospel ministry here in Dubuque. And by "propagation" we mean essentially the preaching of the gospel – including all other ministries that promote that preaching. We believe that the goal of missions is to establish local, indigenous churches for the purpose of carrying out upward, inward, and outward ministries based on the expositional preaching and teaching of God's word.

The second category by which we define "outward" is evangelism. By "evangelism", we mean the propagation of the gospel locally. As in missions, gospel propagation is primarily the preaching of the gospel and all that promotes that preaching. Our first priority will be to those evangelistic ministries/events which have a local church focus (either run by the local church or whose goal is to promote the local church), which stress participation in and discipleship by the local church, and which view the expositional preaching and teaching of God's word as critically important to the stability and growth of both the individual Christian and the local church as a whole.

The third category by which we define "outward" is outreach. By "outreach" we mean those ministries which are preliminary to or contemporaneous with the verbal proclamation of the gospel. These ministries serve to fulfill the social demands of gospel work by providing a means of meeting the immediate, temporal needs of men so they may be able to hear the message of the gospel and/or providing a concrete example of God's love upon which the truth of the gospel may be believed.

If you desire information about our specific ministries, please feel free to contact Pastor Gatto or Pastor Fogle.

 

© 2008 Christ Church of Dubuque, Dubuque, IA   

Phone: (563) 582-5014

Fax: (563) 588-1061

e-Mail: ccd@yousq.net