RBC Core Values
What is RBC at its core?
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God has spoken and we want to follow what he has said. We seek to have the Scriptures lead in us everything that we do.
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It is not good for people to be alone, particularly as they live the Christian life. So, we seek to foster and maintain healthy Christian Community.
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We recognize that true unity as a church lies in our common belief.* Common belief has to do with both doctrine and how we do ministry. While me may not agree on everything, we come together agreeing on our Statement of Faith and the additional doctrinal and practical statements of our Constitution. This allows us to stand together on the things that matter and give grace to one another on things that we need not separate over. We take on this same perspective when we think about those with whom we partner.
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We seek to be people of conviction as the truth so compels us. That will lead us to be clear about what we do and don't do as a church and why. Yet, we also leave room for grace, cultivating humility in our thinking and actions.
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What we do in worship forms us. We are thoughtful about what we do in corporate worship because it forms us into certain kinds of people. This impacts our decisions about what we do with children during worship as well as the elements of our worship service.
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God is committed to his mission to redeem his people and we seek to join Him in his great work. He has chosen the local church to be the vehicle He uses to spread the news of the saving work of the Lord Jesus, so we care about the church, both in our own ministry and in the ministries that we partner with locally and globally.
*We implement and practice theological triage as a helpful tool. This means we hold high first-level, essential issues like the doctrine of the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, the truth and authority of the Scriptures, and other doctrines essential to the Christian faith. We then understand that there are second-level issues that are important to us as a church like the meaning and mode of Baptism, the qualifications for eldership, or things like these, which may set us apart from other churches. Finally, we recognize there are third-level issues like eschatology, which are those that good Christians can come to different conclusions on without needing to separate. Read more about the principle of theological triage here and here.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. - Ephesians 2:19-22