Core Convictions and Philosophies

Every church operates with core convictions and philosophies that provide parameters for decisions and shape its practical ministry efforts. These ideals are important for members to embrace if there is to be unity and understanding among us. It is impossible that every leadership decision be fully explained or that we will always agree on everything that is done, but if we joyfully affirm a set of core convictions and philosophies and trust each other to keep them in view, we can have patience with each other and excitement about where we are heading.

Personal Devotion to Christ

The health and growth of a church will never go beyond the genuineness of its individual members. Our first philosophy is that every member must feel a personal drive to walk before Christ as an devoted disciple. It is a top priority for every believer to trust in the gospel, to hunger for God, to feed on his Word, to pray, and to commit to God’s kingdom. UBC is nothing if its individual members are not living lives accountable to Christ. (John 21:21-22)

Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

We believe that God has a beautiful purpose for human sexuality and that a church’s health is proportionate to the level that men and women operate according to their biblical design. While both men and women are of equal importance and value, God has called men to a responsibility of direct leadership that he does not expect of women (Eph 5:22-33; 1 Tim 2:12-3:13). Mature men of God are eager to lead, provide for, and protect women and children with appropriate love, courage, and gentleness. Mature women of God are eager to receive, support, and nurture worthy male leadership with enthusiasm, resourcefulness, and discernment. Of course, women are also called to be dynamic leaders in a myriad of ways, but we desire to grow men who step up and own the primary burden of responsibility in the home and the church. 

4 Growth

Our basic structure for growing disciples is called “4 Growth.” There are four key ways to be involved at UBC that provide a well-rounded plan for individuals to grow: corporate worship, community groups, course training, and committed serving and giving. In life, you get out what you put in. You reap what you sow (Gal 6:1-10). So we boldly encourage our members to be committed to all four of these important parts of church life.

Family–Oriented Corporate Worship

We believe that gathering for worship as an entire church family is the foundational weekly event of the church body. Corporate worship serves the huge purposes of rejoicing in our great God, encouraging one another, and being nourished personally. Because it is for the whole church, we encourage families to have their children present in the Sunday gatherings. However, we also recognize that not every family is on the same schedule with regard to when to include their children in corporate worship. Therefore, we provide for flexibility and freedom for each family by offering a nursery for preschool children during the entire worship service and a frequent “kids worship” option during the sermon (Kindergarten through 4th grade).  (Heb 10:23-25)

Authentic, Rich Praise

Our music ministry exists to help the church worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). Our goal is simple: Voices lifted loud in authentic response to the riches of God’s grace and truth. Instead of getting wrapped up in favorite music styles, we want the focus to be on Jesus, his gospel, and his Word. If we do this with excellence, everyone should be able to appreciate our musical direction and participate with whole-hearts. (Eph 5:18-21)

Expository, Doctrinal, Christ-Centered Preaching

In short, we desire for our preaching to focus on God’s word (expository), his truth (doctrinal), and his gospel (Christ-centered). If we do this well, our sermons will honor God and dynamically impact the human heart, the real place where lives are changed. Much of the preaching in our culture sacrifices transforming power for attempts at popular appeal. Though we earnestly strive for our sermons to engage, we mainly care about being reliable stewards of God’s message. (Col 1:28; 2 Tim 3:16-4:4)

Community Groups

If a person merely comes to corporate worship every week, it will be difficult for him or her to experience a strong connection with the UBC family. Community groups provide the needed opportunity for close-knit fellowship that is based on God’s Word. Our groups target various life-stages, but such designations are relatively loose so that everyone in the church is readily included. These groups have four major purposes: Bible study, fellowship, prayer, and outreach. (Acts 2:46-47)

Multi-Generational Interaction

We believe that a healthy church will foster opportunities for interaction among people of different generations. We want our students to be in relationship with other families. We want older church members to share testimonies with younger groups and visa-versa. We want community groups reaching out to other groups. We want our children involved in outreach ministry as much as they can. We want single adults interacting with married couples, older men mentoring younger men, older women encouraging younger moms, etc. etc. etc. (1 Tim 5:1-2)

Course Training 

In the Great Commission, Jesus says to teach his disciples everything he has commanded. This responsibility is huge because God’s Word contains a great deal of instruction, and this responsibility is challenging because everyone has different areas of needed growth. So to facilitate more intentional growth for our church family, we regularly offer discipleship courses and Bible studies that pertain to specific topics and books of the Bible. We encourage our members to be involved as much as possible.

Sacrificial Serving and Giving

We believe that a member’s growth will be limited as long as he or she is only an absorber of the ministry of others. Dynamic growth in Christ really happens when we follow him in sacrificial serving and giving. We encourage each member to find at least one regular role of service within our church. Plus, we believe that God deserves our trust with regard to money, so we encourage each member to give faithfully to our ministry. The fact is that our church would not exist without the voluntary serving and giving of our members, but the greater fact is that God is trustworthy with our time and resources. (2 Cor 9:6-8)

Word-Based Outreach

In the Bible, the church has one main strategy for reaching the world: Talk about Jesus to others. There are many ways that the church did this: preaching in various settings, house evangelism, testifying from one person to another, and engaging new people in their worship gatherings. But there was no strategy in which the church simply did nice things for people or the community without sharing Jesus. Therefore, at UBC we desire for all of our organized outreach attempts and all of our member relationships with the lost to have as its main goal that we talk about the good news of Jesus Christ and invite others into the family of God. (Rom 1:16-17)