Who We Are
Our Founding Vision
Our Purpose and Philosophy of Ministry
Our Values
Our Priorities
This fellowship began in the heart of God and was revealed during two early morning prayer sessions. During the first morning there was a vision given of a large cemetary packed with unmarked tombstones. There was no life, no flowers, no vegetation–only death. Then the vision changed to show an auditorium filled with thousands of people with their arms raised in praise and worship to God. Immediately the scene changed back to empty graveyards, then back again to the worshiping crowd. During the second morning of prayer, the Lord brought back the same vision, and this time He began to explain it. The thousands of tombstones represented the lost, the oppressed, and those in bondage to Satan in the Ark-La-Tex. Then the scene of thousands reappeared and the Lord spoke, “Build a Worshiping Army!”
Ezekiel 37 describes a valley of dry bones that when spoken to by the prophet and touched by the Spirit of God becomes an exceedingly great army. This is the vision for this fellowship: to be a part of that restoration process of speaking to dry bones, reaching out to the lost, the dying the oppressed and those in bondage; and then seeing God raise them up into a mighty worshiping army.
Our Purpose and Philosophy of Ministry
The purpose of this fellowship is to proclaim the message of the Kingdom of God to North Louisiana. We desire to not only talk about the ministry of Jesus, but to also do it ourselves. Therefore, the Words and the Works of Jesus are of high value to us. We strive to reach out primarily to the unchurched in our area, providing them a non-threatening environment in which to experience the living God.
The philosophy of ministry is based upon Ephesians 4:11-16. The work of the pastoral staff and leadership is to equip the members of the church in Kingdom ministry. Every member of the body of Christ has been called to do the ministry of Jesus: healing the sick, setting free those in bondage, casting out demons, raising the dead (both spiritually and physically), and sharing the good news with the poor. Our goal is to train, motivate and encourage them as we together do the ministry of Jesus.
Our values are based upon Matthew 22:37-40. Here Jesus stated that all of the Law and Prophets hang on just two commandments: To love God with all of our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. These verses are best represented by just one word: “Relationships.” This is what we are about, developing two lines of relationships–vertical and horizontal. Both lines are equally important, for we cannot love God without loving our brothers and sisters, and we cannot love our brothers and sisters without first loving God.
We value the Pursuit of God. We are hungry to know God’s manifest presence, hear his voice and follow hard after him We want to encounte God in our daily lives and in all we do!
We value Christ-likeness. We desire that through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ love, mercy, grace, truth, purity, power and integrity would shine through all we do.
We value Being Spirit-Led. We honor Jesus as our head and the Holy Spirit as our counselor. We seek to be responsive to the Holy Spirit in life and ministry.
We value Prayer. We believe that prayer is essential, because it is our primary means of communing with God, and because it is God’s primary means of accomplishing his purposes in the world.
We value Discipleship. We aim first to grow as disciples of Jesus ourselves,and then we make disciples of others.
We value The Kingdom of God. We aim to move in the signs of the present fulfillment of the Kingdom, invoking the Spirit’s powerful presence, ministering through the Spirit’s gifts, and seeing God heal and work wonders.
We value Integrity. It is important to us to speak the truth, deal honestly, and live uprightly.
We value Servant Leadership. We aim to serve in leadership and ministry with humility, selflessness, grace, care for God’s people and a sincere desire to build up the Body of Christ.
We value the Individual. We aim to work together to build the church through maintaining mutual respect, open communication, determined coorperation, believing and speaking the best about each other.
We value Relationships. Relationships take root in the soil of intimacy, accountability, and mutual commitment. Relationships are an end in themselves and are not to be used for selfish gain or manipulated.
We value Simplicity. We wish to do nothing for religious effect but rather to operate in natural low-key, non-hype patterns. We desire to do the ministry of Christ with joy.
We value Being Culture Current. We use contemporary music and seek to develop an atmosphere in our services which the non-churched in the Shreveport-Bossier area will feel at home and at ease. We endeavor to be non-religious and to act in ways in which our culture will respond in a positive manner to the Kingdom of God without compromising the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Worship: Our highest priority is giving God’s love back to Him in worship. We give God ourselves in praise and adoration with the expectation that his presence will rest on us. We measure the quality of our worship by the intimacy, honesty and level of God’s presence.
Community: Our next priority flows out of worship: giving God’s love to each other we find acceptance, affirmation and healing with God, we have a basis to relate honestly with one another and build authentic relationships. We believe that the church is called to be a community of hope to a despairing world.
Word of God: Our third priority has to do with teaching and responding to the Word of God. To us, God’s Word involves both sound Bible exposition, presented with an emphasis on applying the truth, and His immediate word spoken through inspired utterance (i.e. word of wisdom, prophecy, etc).
Ministry: We believe that all Christians are called to minister in some manner by the power of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we release his ministry to those equipped in order that we may win people to Jesus and care for those who have been humbled by life’s circumstances.
Training and Equipping: We believe that all Christians should be trained and equipped to do the ministry of Jesus. So we try to provide an arena in services, classes and outreach events in which they can receive information concerning ministry and have a mode for transferring that information to hands on ministry. We call it a show and tell mode.
Sending: We believe we are called to reach out to those around us to call them into relationship with Jesus Christ. Our plan is to plant several churches along I-20 from East Texas to Mississippi. We currently have been involved in the planting of new Vineyard churches in Minden and West Monroe. We also are involved in short-term mission trips primarily in Central and South America to help equip churches and establish the Kingdom of God.
