"Building
Community
in Christ"

a statement of our vision

Bethany Covenant Church

5120 Ridgebury Boulevard
Lyndhurst, Ohio 44124
(440) 442-5050

"Building Community in Christ"

While our vision motto is brief, it contains within its soil the seeds of the present and future ministry of Bethany Covenant Church. Let's look at it word by word.

Building
There are two basic stages of building a community of faith. The first is the laying of the foundation. This takes place when we focus our efforts on discipleship and spiritual maturity. The basics of Christian faith, doctrine and conduct are taught, discussed and modeled by the leadership and members of the community. As we hold one another accountable, each of us grows in our relationships with God and others. This first stage of building forms Christ's character within us (Galatians 4.19) and is the work of Christian Formation.

The second stage of the building is found early on in the book of Acts. There we see God adding daily to the numbers of the newly formed Church. People are hearing the gospel message, responding in faith and joining the community of faith the Holy Spirit is building (Acts 2.37-47). This stage of the building is made up of people who come to Christ through our ministry or ministries we support (whether they become a part of our congregation or not) and people who join our church because they share our vision of community and mission. This second stage is primarily the work of Local Outreach and World Missions.