Trinity Baptist Church CBWC - Winnipeg

1. RESPONSE OVER INITIATIVE:

Here at Trinity Baptist Church, we believe that unless Jesus Christ builds his Church, all our efforts are in vain. We are convinced that, as the head of the Church, Christ, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, will direct us corporately in knowing him and his will for us. Therefore we are committed to maintain a posture of prayerful listening and careful discernment so that we can respond to his initiative.

We do this by being a praying and worshiping community:

Wednesday Prayer: In the tabernacle, Aaron and the priests were instructed to keep the flames of the golden lamp stands burning night and day and not to allow them to go out (Leviticus 24:1-4). Like the lamp stands, we believe that God wants his church to be "continually lit" in prayer as a sign of our dependency on him. We set Wednesday nights aside to present our requests to God but also to listen for what he wants to say to us, his people.

-Sunday Worship: One of the ways that we as a community resist taking control of our lives is by recognizing that Jesus is Lord and is seated upon a throne above all other thrones (Ephesians 1:19-23). As a church we are inspired to express this reality in our times of corporate worship, whether that be in word or song: that Jesus is at the centre of all that we are and do!

2. PEOPLE OVER PROGRAMS:

God is relational! When we look at the Trinity- Father, Son and Holy Spirit- we see a God who relates through inter-dependant relationships. We also believe that God approached mankind in a relational way when the Father sent his son, Jesus Christ, into the world. He served people and touched their lives through acts of love. As our great example, Jesus demonstrated how he wanted a redeemed people to interact. At Trinity Baptist, we believe that programs are only helpful inasmuch as they help us build relationships with God and each other. Therefore, we endeavor to prioritize the types of gatherings and activities that enable us to build deeper relationships with Christ, other believers and the community around us.

We do this through:

- Home Groups: At Trinity we are currently growing Home Groups whose goal is to build authentic relational community in the same way the early church did. In Acts 2 the early church did this by gathering in homes to eat, pray, study and share their lives.

- Men's and Women's Ministry: Our men's and women's ministry endeavors to build relational connections through formal and informal gatherings. As we gather, we seek to encourage, build up and spur one another on in our faith.

- Food Bank: Every two weeks Trinity Baptist opens its doors to our community's less fortunate. Our goal is to do more than give food, but also to dispense God's loving kindness, by making our building a welcoming refuge for any who have needs.

3. INTEGRATION OVER SEGREGATION

Although we acknowledge that there are times when it is important for people to be with others who are like them, we believe that the scriptures teach the church is made up of a lot of different parts: men, women, children, parents, grandparents, singles, couples, rich, poor...not to mention the various nations represented. Sometimes it's tempting to find a place where everyone is like ourselves... but at Trinity, we believe that God wants us to learn from each other and value our differences. We believe that it is in learning to love one another despite our differences that we will grow in depth and maturity.

We do this by:

-Teaching: We will continue to allow the Word of God to challenge our tendency towards building segregated comfort zones and inspire us to love and learn from one another.

-Worship: One day, all nations will gather before the throne of God (Revelation 7:9) and glorify him with one voice. At Trinity, we believe that God wants us to express our unity by worshiping together. Men, women, young and old... everyone's contribution is important to God and edifying to the Body of Christ. Therefore, we choose to keep our children together during our corporate worship times and to choose to worship in various styles and modes so that those gathered can express praise in their heart language.

-Home Groups: We have a vision to build towards having more and more diversity in our Home Groups. Periodically we will break and offer courses for special groups and needs but we are convinced that the best way to build the church is through groups that celebrate diversity.

4. SUBSTANCE OVER STYLE

Style can permeate into all aspects of our lives: how we dress, the music we enjoy, restaurants we frequent and our social media presence. In a world that is obsessed with style, we can end up orienting our spiritual lives around things that are external and changing which can leave us feeling like we are missing the next best thing. Our desire at Trinity is to be a place where we go deeper than surface appearances, as we grow in our knowledge of God's Word, our love for Him and deeper in our love for one another. We believe that our intimacy with Christ and our capacity to follow him are forged in the deep places where substance grows.

It's often in times of suffering and in the places we feel powerless, where we cry out to God, and character is built. We are convinced that as we move past the surface with both God and one another, our root systems will grow deeper and stronger, and we will bear good fruit.

We do this by:

-Service: We seek to prioritize character instead of outward gifting among those who serve in ministry. Patiently allowing God to develop people according to His call rather than their tastes. We seek to provide opportunities for people to serve and the freedom to learn and grow in the process, mistakes and all.

-Worship: We believe that the quality of our Sunday corporate worship is reflected in the genuineness of the faith of each worshiper expressed during the rest of the week. We encourage one another to put more emphasis in the depth of our love for God than our outward musical or oratory performance. Although it is good to express worship in pleasing styles of music and forms of expression, we aim to keep focused on Who we are worshiping rather than the form of our worship.

-Fellowship/friendship: We believe that God has made each person with inherent value, and we desire to be a place where, rather than judging a book by it's cover, we learn to know one another and love each other deeply, from the heart. This means making space for conversation, prayer and spiritual friendship when we gather in our homes and in various church gatherings.