Part 1: A Vision

The Church & The Family
We believe that it is the role of the Church to call the world back to godly family life (Luke 1:17, Matthew 14:4). We also believe it is the role of the Church to equip men and women (except those who have the gift of singleness) to live out their lives in faithful families (Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, 1 Timothy 3, 5, Titus 2). This includes, helping men and women pursue biblical marriages in all wisdom and purity (1 Corinthians 7). It also includes teaching on gender roles, parenting responsibilities, child training, and faithful living in the world and the Church. We do not believe that the Church is called to replace the family, but rather to equip the family for lives gospel discipleship in this broken world.

How Do We Equip Families (Part 1)? Modeling
The first thing we do as Elders is to model biblical family life. The Bible is abundantly clear, those who would lead God’s Church must manage their own households well, keeping their children submissive (1 Timothy 3). Elders who would teach others to love their wives, must themselves be men who are devoted exclusively to their wives. The family ministry of Immanuel Baptist Church does not start with any program or plan, rather it starts with the lives of our Elders and Deacons. It is our hope that our lives will model for the congregation different examples of what a faithful family should look like.

How Do We Equip Families (Part 2)? Teaching
The lives of our leaders should be faithful, but they certainly are not perfect. God’s Word, on the other hand, is perfect. That is why we are devoted to teaching God’s Word. We believe that as God’s Word is taught by faithful Shepherds that it equips the saints for the work of ministry. It equips fathers to love their wives, it equips wives to love their husbands, and for fathers to teach their children, and for children to obey their parents in everything. We believe the teaching of the Elders should equip a whole congregation (singles too) to speak into the lives of families about what God expects of them as they live out their lives in the gospel.

Our Hope (A Vision for Fathers, Mothers, Children, Singles, and The Lost)
It is our hope that in the coming years Immanuel Baptist Church will increasingly become a place where wives are more lavishly loved, and faithfully shepherded by their husbands with the Bible. We long to see more and more women embrace the high calling of being a wife and mother. And, in that calling we long to see them joyfully submitting to their husbands as unto the Lord, and we long to see them raising their children in all faith, love, holiness, with self-control. Furthermore we long to children who have learned from their fathers to love tax collectors and prostitutes. In other words, we long for children who have been so well taught by their fathers that they are actually living like Jesus. We long to see families who are not insulated, but who rather fold singles into their love. We also desire to see singles who shun lives of selfishness and ease and who give themselves to caring for tired mothers, and discipling growing children. Finally we long to see families who fold in their unbelieving friends. How many people have been led to the Lord by ‘that Christian family’ that welcomed them in during high school or college? How many children have been led to the Lord because they were adopted into a Christian home? We long to see more of all of this. We long to see a greater display of God’s glory in the family.