What We Believe
Oak Park Baptist Church is a fellowship of believers who are bonded together in Christ, building up their walk in Christ, and who desire to blossom out into their community with the Love of Christ.
BOND - One must first bond with Christ in salvation thru confession of sin and then through one's confession and acceptance of Jesus as Savior and Lord!
Bonding continues – the corporate worship service – reveals faithfulness.
BUILD - One must build up their walk in Christ thru the submission of their will to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their lives and learning from God's Word!
Building up begins with an intimate and personal prayer life and Bible study for the believer.
Building up increases through attending Sunday School/Small group [natural transition from the initial bonding with God]
Building up continues – Not only attending but through growing to teach and help and get involved in the discipling process – this reveals the diligence of the walk of the believer, it also reveals the progression of their spiritual growth!
BLOSSOM - One must blossom out in their faith thru the total surrender of their will to God and become obedient to His calling on their life through being willing to get out of their comfort zone and 'go forth' into the world and share your faith!
Blossoming out begins with personal evangelism… a lifestyle change by the believer, believing it is their duty to sow the seed of God’s Word...
Blossoming out continues with the believer taking on the role of mentor for new believers in the fellowship...
Blossoming out is revealed corporately by sharing and participating in a specific ministry of the church to reach out to the community at large…this reveals the corporate goal of the church...
Thru the process one bonds with Christ, builds up his/her walk in Christ, and then blossoms out for Christ, which leads to others coming to a bonding moment with the Savior and the cycle repeats itself. We never stop bonding, we never stop building and we never stop blossoming out in our faith!
The Need for the Process of Spiritual Maturity:
Without movement, water stagnates and stagnant water begins to fester and teem with all sorts of biological difficulties! Likewise, the body of Christ needs movement or it stagnates and all sorts of difficulties and troubles begin to surface.
It is something like rush hour traffic… we all hate it! And just like rush hour congestion and traffic, congestion within the fellowship is just as aggravating and frustrating. Congestion within the body of Christ equals a lack of spiritual movement on behalf of that particular body of believers!
We learned in Heb 5-6 that all believers are called to progress forward in their walk with Christ. Stagnation in the life of a believer is caused by many things but it is not always apathy… a lack of movement within the corporate body can hamper many individual believers in the discipleship process.
However, when the congestion is removed, a flow resumes naturally. Just like clearing the road relieves a traffic jam situation. Clearing the congestion in a fellowship allows for spiritual progression on the part of all members.
Our duty as leaders in the church is not to be the Travel Agent for our church… but we are to be the Tour Guide! We don’t just point toward… we lead thru…
Bond WITH Christ and with each other!
Build up our walk IN Christ!
Blossom out into our community FOR Christ!