Guiding Principles

The Purpose:

We will be a church that is joyfully sacrificial in supporting and participating in spreading the message of the gospel and making disciples of Jesus Christ in as many parts of the world as God enables us to reach.

Our involvement in gospel outreach must spread beyond our congregation and community. The concern we have for unbelievers should arouse a mission-minded awareness that God’s activity and our ministry participation are global as well as local. NBC will support our full-time missionaries with our finances and our prayers. Additional support for global ministry will be accomplished through short-term mission activities from our membership. The focus of these short-term missionaries will be evangelistic and primarily coming alongside the local missionaries to further their ministry, usually connected with various forms of practical service.

The Purpose of Evangelism Ministries:

We will be a church with a passion for building the kingdom of God through sharing the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. We will equip God’s people to know the gospel, to have confidence in God’s power and to nurture evangelistic relationships. We will encourage personal evangelism and we will provide and encourage participation in corporate evangelistic events.

The Purpose of Benevolence Ministries:

We will be a church that rejoices in God’s gracious provision by overflowing with God’s love to meet the needs of the poor and hurting in our church and community.

We want the majority of NBC’s growth to be a result of reaching the lost and hurting of our community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. By God’s sovereign design there are times when unbelievers become acutely aware of the aimlessness of life and the hollowness of this world. As Christians we know the greatest opportunity for satisfaction in life is experienced through personal salvation made possible by God’s grace alone, in Christ alone, by faith alone. So we encourage the members of NBC to have evangelistic sensitivity and boldness in their natural web of relationships (i.e. family, neighborhood, workplace, marketplace, etc.). Our community will be impacted by the gospel as we open our eyes to the various needs of people and develop creative ways to reach out as servants who look for God-given opportunities to communicate Christ’s love and truth. We encourage our members to invite their lost friends and family to NBC, because the church gathered for worship can be a powerful witness of Christ’s love and life. When unbelievers come to NBC, we want to be a congregation that expresses a warm, loving, welcoming and God-exalting environment.

The Purpose of Small Group Ministry:

We will be a church that equips and encourages one another through practical biblical instruction, fellowship, prayer and loving interdependent relationships.

From the application of biblical teaching, the loving leadership of our Elders and the divine enablement of the Holy Spirit, every member of our congregation is equipped to serve one another, which promotes the maturing process of the Body of Christ. The power of God is shown through the gifts of the Holy Spirit given by God’s grace to enable every member to be a minister of our church. As a congregation we desire to see the corporate and small group meetings of our church to become supportive, faith building opportunities through interaction and ministry.

As a church we want to provide our members the opportunity to be involved in small caring communities where members can glorify God through practical expressions of Holy Spirit inspired love and concern for one another’s spiritual and emotional development and needs (John 15:12, Gal 6:10). Our small groups are designed and structured to provide a nurturing and safe environment where participants can serve one another, pray for one another, worship together and interact with God’s Word (Heb 10:24, Col 3:16).

The Purpose of Youth Group Ministry:

We will be a church that encourages social and spiritual interaction among our youth, with the intent to encourage spiritual growth and the development of Christ-centered relationships.

We have a passion to see our young people express and experience genuine Holy Spirit inspired love for God, one another, and the lost. We desire to provide our youth opportunities to interact with God’s Word and one another for the express purpose of developing loving interdependent relationships and a passion for God in all of life. As a church we want to help our youth see God’s Word as practical, relevant, and supreme in all of life.

The Purpose of Children’s Ministries:

We will be a church that aids parents in shepherding our children to be Christ-centered and others-oriented for the glory of God in all things.

We believe parents, not churches, have the primary responsibility for the spiritual development of their children. We will make every effort to structure our ministry in a way that allows the church to “walk alongside” parents as they shepherd their children’s hearts, enabling and equipping them in this God-given role.

We believe that the Bible is a book first and foremost about God. We want our curriculum, classes, and activities to exalt God—to show Him as the great and almighty God. As a guiding principle for every class, Scripture is to be studied in the context of the question, “What does this say about God?” We want to fill our children with solid biblical truth that will give them a foundation to stand on when they go through deep waters. For this reason, we want our classes and curriculum to direct children to the Word of God. We believe that the Bible must be taught in depth, yet in a child-friendly or age appropriate, interesting manner.

We believe that faith comes through hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). We want the truth to be clearly understood by the children. We emphasize God’s truth and explain it through illustration, connecting the known to the unknown. Because interaction with God’s truth is critical, children are encouraged to discover and interact with Scripture passages, and then respond to the truth they discover. NBC’s teaching emphasizes God’s sovereignty in directing everything to serve His good purpose. We want to help children understand that nothing is outside the control of the all-powerful and all–loving God of the universe (Isaiah 46:9-11).

Since the church is a family of families, providing biblical support for the marriages and parents of our congregation is vital. We encourage those who are married among us to benefit from God’s creative wisdom as husbands and wives lovingly complement each other. This takes place as husbands model the headship and love of Christ and wives model the submission and respect of the Church.Parents are challenged to lovingly instruct and diligently guide their children in the paths of biblical truth.Children are taught the wisdom of honoring and respecting their parents and other mature believers who offer loving instruction and diligent guidance. Single adults have a special role in the church. They are valuable to God and valuable to the ministry of our church. We want them to feel lovingly supported by, and connected to, the family of believers and the ministry of NBC.

A Definition:

Worship is an expression of a biblical assessment of the character of God where His people are enabled by the Holy Spirit to openly express the humble desire and thoughtful pursuit of God’s grace and goodness found in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Purpose:

We will be a church with our attention focused on the awesomeness of God, which results in heartfelt communion with God, made known in our midst through honest respectful prayers, thoughtful readings of Scripture, skillful instrumental music, vibrant vocal music, and fervent declarations of biblical truth.

As a church we believe that worship is a way of life. This means that we do not draw distinctions between secular and sacred activities. All that we do must be done wholeheartedly as an act of worship. Two aspects of corporate worship include prayer and music.

• Prayer is God’s sovereign means of empowering our efforts in ministry and worship. Christians are to be people of prayer and the church is to be a place where prayer is promoted and practiced.
• Musical praise of God is central to the expression of our deep thoughts about and our deep feelings for God. Our musical praise is evidence of a God-centered passion that inspires the participation of the members of NBC.

The people of NBC are encouraged to corporately express praise to God, as they feel led by the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Congregational worship may be displayed by stillness, pondering, reflecting, mourning, kneeling, confessing, weeping, repenting, obeying, clapping, lifting hands, and praising. But our worship will always be displayed in a fitting and orderly manner with the glory of God as our focus.

The Purpose:

We will be known as a Bible teaching church where the members of our congregation are encouraged to develop reverence and affection for God’s Word and its application privately and corporately, as it is read, shared, taught, preached, and memorized for its Holy Spirit inspired ability to bring the timeless truths of our Lord to bear upon all aspects of our lives as our final rule of faith and practice.

Our passion is to pursue the Sovereign God as our joy and satisfaction in all of life. This pursuit takes us directly to the Bible. For people of all ages we uphold the Word of God as the unifying authority for truth and teaching. We believe it is biblical, Holy Spirit-empowered, passionate, practical teaching and preaching that helps establish sound theology and provides stability and discernment for us as individuals and as a church. We seek biblical excellence and relevance in our adult, youth and children’s ministries in order to inspire bold Christian lives.