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The United Baptist Church "Come SHARE our Vision"
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OUR VISION: We seek to develop an intentional relationship with God as in Jesus so that our lives demonstrate the transforming effect and supreme importance of such a relationship for us, our society and our world. OUR MISSION: Our mission is to reflect Christ's attitudes and behaviors by being:
COME SHARE
OUR VISION:
We'd
like to personally welcome you to the website of The United Baptist Church of
Annandale! Let us briefly tell you who we are:
We are a
Christian Church located in the middle of the Village of Annandale, at the
intersection of the Capital Beltway (I-495) and Little River Turnpike (exit 52).
Find us by turning left at the 7th stop light (John Marr Drive) after taking
Little River Turnpike EAST. You will find us on the corner at the next stop
light (7100 Columbia Pike).
When
you attend our Christian worship service on Sunday mornings at 10:55 a.m., you
will find an order of worship with both clearly printed instructions and clear
verbal instructions to facilitate your worship of God without you needing to be
anxious about doing something personally embarrassing to you. You will not be
expected to do anything you do not feel comfortable doing. You will find warm,
friendly people like yourself, from many different Christian and non-Christian
traditions, eager to greet you, both as the worship begins, and following
worship in the nearby Fellowship Hall. You will find a warm welcome, regardless
of the region of the world from which you come.
Our
mission is to seek God's direction through prayer as we: introduce all
people to Jesus Christ; work for their conversion to a personal relationship
with God; assimilate them into the Body of Christ; and encourage spiritual
growth through worship, education, fellowship and ministry.
We
are a Christian church in the tradition of Baptist. This means we highly value
helping people to have a personal relationship with God, as revealed in Jesus,
the Christ.
We
believe that God already has a personal relationship with every human being. But
people begin to experience that personal relationship with God by FIRST learning
that God already has a personal relationship with them. Meaning that God has
determined that the status of the relationship is PEACE rather than HOSTILE or
antagonistic. A popular assumption is that God is hostile until people
"clean up their act," so to speak, "winning" God's approval.
The GOOD NEWS is this that simply "ain't so!" We believe God
determined and demonstrated the PEACEFUL status of God's personal relationship
with people when God reacted to the HOSTILE behavior of people crucifying Jesus,
by raising Jesus from the grave. If God was ever going to react HOSTILELY. the
crucifixion of Jesus would have been the time! When people learn that God has
determined the relationship to be PEACEFUL and allow that good news, on faith,
to "sink in" and become a controlling conviction, the FIRST step to
experience a personal relationship with God has been taken. People must repent
of their HOSTILE assumption (which is sin) and on faith change their assumption
about God. This is what it means to be "born again" to use the popular
phrase. Indeed, it often feels like beginning again!
The
SECOND step in forming a personal relationship with God is to begin to be aware
of God's initiative through people’s behavior for you every day, many times a
day. Becoming aware of God's generous behaviors tend, out of personal gratitude,
to lead to conforming personal daily behavior to God's behaviors. When Godly
behaviors are practiced, regardless with whom or by whom, people are spiritually
with God (in God's presence). Therefore, since God is a Spirit, the SECOND step
to a personal relationship with God is to learn and behave as God behaves.
Through people’s Godly behavior, Spiritual God becomes physical and concrete,
to people, in and through people.
We
believe it is our purpose
as a church to help us all to learn to experience this personal relationship
with God every moment of every day. Therefore, the goal of our effort is not on
getting people to be religious by getting people to "come to church"
or do "religious" things. Our goal is to help people RECOGNIZE and
BEHAVE as does God, in Jesus, in all their relationships, especially those
beyond the church. Church is a place to remind, instruct, inspire and encourage
a growing personal relationship with God beyond the walls of the church.
We
would be delighted to share more about a personal relationship with God and
about the free atmosphere in which Christians of the Baptist tradition operate,
if you would allow us to do so.
Thank
you for taking a few moments to read this brief summary of who and where we are.
We
welcome you personally at our place. When you come, please tell us that your
first contact with us was on the internet. Please, come meet us face to face.
Sincerely, J.
Wayne Yawn & Gerald L. Young
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