"If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit." Galatians 5:25
The Primacy of the Sunday Gathering and the Preaching of God's Word
Arlington Baptist Church's ministry to adults involves several different elements and is organic in nature. We minister God’s Word to adults mainly through the Sunday morning service and fellowship. In our Sunday morning service, we want to sing rich, theologically true, biblically-based hymns and spiritual songs, read scripture, confess statements of faith that accurately summarize biblical teaching, pray biblically and corporately, and most critically, preach from the Bible. The preaching of the word is the center (and longest part) of our Sunday morning meetings.
Intentional Hospitality and Deliberate Fellowship
In addition to solid instruction from the Bible, we also prioritize fellowship with one another. We encourage our members to get to know one another and to share our burdens and sorrows with one another. We want to center our relationships on our shared faith in Jesus Christ, allowing us to partner with people who are not like us in a worldly way (ethnicity, class, or personality). After the Sunday service, we regularly spend significant time discussing the sermon and our lives. We live this out practically by often going to lunch together at a nearby food court or park after the service. Members often invite one another to each other’s homes and make time to have deeper conversations during the week.
Deep Discipleship: Sunday School, Small Groups, One-to-One
Building off of this main ministry to adults, we also minister to adults by providing a discipleship hour, small groups, deliberate fellowship, and one-on-one discipleship:
- Discipleship Hour (=Sunday School) provides an ideal venue for equipping our members (and others) through classes that focus on the central role of knowledge in discipleship. The classroom format is ideal for theological and thematic teaching on a recurring basis with room for discussion, Q&A, etc.
- Small Groups focus on Bible study, fellowship, community, and accountability.
- One-on-one discipleship focuses on specific, individual growth.