MALVERN BAPTIST CHURCH

Statement of Faith

Bible                                                                                                      

 We believe the Bible to be the complete Word of God; that the sixty‑six books, as originally written, comprising the Old and New Testaments were fully inspired by the Spirit of God and therefore infallible; that the Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice and the true basis of Christian union.

 

God                                                                                                                        

We believe in one God, Creator of all, holy, sovereign, eternal, existing in three equal Persons ‑ the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

 

Christ                                                                                                    

We believe in the absolute and essential deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, in His eternal existence with the Father in preincarnate glory, in His virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, triumphant ascension, mediatorial ministry and personal return.

 

The Holy Spirit                                                                    

We believe in the absolute and essential deity and personality of the Holy Spirit, who convinces of sin, of righteousness and of judgement; who regenerates, sanctifies, illuminates, indwells and comforts those who believe in Jesus Christ.

 

Man                                                                                                                   

 We believe that man was divinely created in the image of God; that he sinned, becoming guilty before God, resulting in total depravity, thereby incurring physical and spiritual death.

 

Salvation                                                                                              

We believe that salvation is by the sovereign, electing grace of God that by the appointment of the Father, Christ voluntarily suffered a vicarious, expiatory and propitiatory death; that justification is by faith alone in the all sufficient sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Future Things                                                                      

We believe in the personal bodily and glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ; in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust; in the eternal blessedness of the redeemed and in the judgement and eternal conscious punishment of the wicked.

 

The Local Church                                                                               

We believe that a church is a company of baptised believers, called out from the world, separated unto the Lord Jesus, voluntarily associated for the ministry of the Word, the mutual edification of its members, the propagation of the faith and the observance of the ordinances.  We believe it is a sovereign, independent body, exercising its own divinely awarded gifts, precepts and privileges under the Lordship of Christ, the Great Head of the Church.

 

Ordinances                                                                           

We believe that there are only two ordinances the Church regularly observed in the New Testament, in the following order:

  • Baptism which is the immersion of the believer in water, whereby he obeys Christ's command and sets forth his identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.
  • The Lord's Supper which is the memorial wherein the believer partakes of the two elements, bread and wine, which symbolise the Lord's body and shed blood, proclaiming His death until He comes.

 

Marriage

 The Church believes that marriage is a life long commitment between one male and one female, to the exclusion of other spouses, before God till death parts them; and that marriage exists for the glory of God.

Philosophy of Ministry

The purpose of MBC is to glorify God.  We seek to fulfil this through worship and the observance of the divinely instituted ordinances, the proclamation of the Gospel at home and abroad to bring people to personal acceptance and confession of the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, the edification and nurture of our members so that they can be built up in the faith and love, the building of a Christian fellowship, the stewardship of resources entrusted to us, and the uniting of our efforts in Christian service.

 

  1. We are goal or vision/strategy oriented rather than event or maintenance/activity oriented.  We will at all times have an intentional strategy to accomplish each aspect of our purpose.
  2. We are a Bible church, not a tradition church.  We believe structure follows ministry, not ministry follows structure.  We try to hold a healthy balance between being traditional and contemporary in our worship and music.
  3. The church is people, not a building.  We are an evangelistic church, but not an evangelistic meeting place church.  We do not bring the world into the church buildings to be saved, but we send the saved into the world to evangelize.  We believe in "we'll go to you" more than "come to us".  We thus place more emphasis on exhorting the household of faith than on being "market-driven" in our worship, while trying to be sensitive to the needs of the seeker.
  4. The purpose of every activity of our church is to produce and further develop disciples.  We define a disciple as a believer who is becoming more like Christ by obediently growing in character, ability to minister to others, and in helping to make more disciples.
  5. We are committed to the principle of multiplication of ourselves by evangelizing, discipling, training, and delegating ministry to others who are faithful.  We will multiply ourselves and train others using the method of apprenticeship.
  6. We will primarily make disciples as a team, not just a collection of independent individuals.  The primary method of making disciples is the small group.  Reasonable accountability is an indispensable method in making disciples.
  7. We are a lay ministry church, not a staff-centred church.  We believe every member is a minister, not a spectator.  The ultimate work of the church in the world is to be done by the saints.  The pastor's role and commitment is primarily to inspire, give guidance, to train leaders, and be a model disciple.
  8. We aspire to be a reproducing church, not a mega church.  We aim to reproduce locally and worldwide.  We aim to plant new churches.  Each branch of MBC will reach to its own community.