Philosophy of Ministry

Know and Show God by Seeing, Embracing and Enjoying who he is

A church’s philosophy of ministry is the structured paradigm it uses to carry out its mission in order to fulfill its purpose in hopes of realizing its vision. In other words, it guides what we do and how we do it based on who we are and what we are about.

At Proclamation, our philosophy of ministry can be summed up with two simple words, know and show. Because we exist to proclaim the glories of God for the joy of all, we have to know who God is and then show who God is so people can see, embrace and enjoy who God is. Therefore, everything we do is both intentionally designed to know and show God and assessed by how effectively he is known and shown in its doing.

While “Know and Show” is the simple summary of what we do, SEEing is the greater set of objectives that phrase summarizes. SEE stands for See, Embrace and Enjoy. We believe that directing all of our activity, effort and intention by these three primary objectives will result in us experiencing the satisfaction of knowing and showing our God by aligning to and fulfilling his purpose.

Know and Show

Definitions

Know: to clearly see our triune God in such a way that his glory fills our understanding, forms our perspective and stirs our affections to live life embracing and enjoying all he is. (“this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17:3)

Show: to rightly and proactively represent the glory of God in everything he puts before us to do (“Then God said, ‘Let us make humanity in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.’” Genesis 1:26)

Filters

What must we do to know God?
- How does this have to be done?
  - How will we go about doing it?
- How can this be done?
  - Does doing this in this way rightly represent (show) what we know of who God is? If so, how?
  - Given our God-ordained context and resources, should we do this? If so, why and how?
  - How will we go about doing it?
What must we do to show God?
- How does this have to be done?
  - How will we go about doing it?
- How can this be done?
  - Does doing this in this way rightly represent (show) what we know of who God is? If so, how?
  - Given our God-ordained context and resources, should we do this? If so, why and how?
  - How will we go about doing it?
What could we do to know God?
- How can this be done?
  - Does doing this in this way rightly represent (show) what we know of who God is? If so, how?
  - Given our God-ordained context and resources, should we do this? If so, why and how?
  - How will we go about doing it?
What could we do to show God?
- How can this be done?
  - Does doing this in this way rightly represent (show) what we know of who God is? If so, how?
  - Given our God-ordained context and resources, should we do this? If so, why and how?
  - How will we go about doing it?

SEE Objectives

See

See God In Scripture:
- see God as He has revealed Himself in scripture
See God In One Another:
- see God in those He has made as His image
See God In Creation:
- see God in what He has created
See God In Providence:
- see God in how He providentially works all things for the display of his glory and joy of His people

Embrace

Embrace God by following Christ:
- Align our affections to God’s greatness
- Conform our living to God’s purpose
- Transform our thinking with God’s truth

Enjoy

Enjoy God by …
- Treasuring Him
- Proclaiming Him
- Representing Him