VALUES & DISTINCTIVES

What makes Unity Baptist Church stand out?  It’s important to us that this doesn’t come across as thinking or saying that we’re better than any other Bible-believing Christian church, but we’re also not ashamed of the specific values and distinctives of our church.  Here are a few:

A high commitment to scriptural truth and sound doctrine

We hold that the Bible is God’s Word and our ultimate authority.  Because of this, we are very careful to be faithful to Scripture in our theology.  We constantly examine our theological stances in light of what we see in God’s Word.  When questions come up, you will never hear the leaders of the church ask, “What is the Baptist way?”  Rather, the question is always, “What is biblical?”  Because of this, we prefer a sequential expository (preaching straight through books of the Bible, covering every verse) approach to preaching, and we consistently seek to keep God firmly planted in the center of our theology.

The value of worship

We believe that God’s concern for His glory is at the heart of all that He does; therefore, we strive to keep it at the heart of all that we do.  A believer’s life should be characterized by worship in its various expressions.  This is especially the case in public worship at UBC.  We strive to be discerning in our selection of songs for public worship.  If a song’s content doesn’t demonstrate sound theology and biblical truth, it won’t be a part of our service.  Our worship style is modern and expressive, and we frequently sing recent worship songs, but we also gladly draw upon the rich tradition of truth-packed hymns from earlier periods in the history of the church. 

The importance of Church family

We strongly believe that brothers and sisters in Christ have a God-given responsibility to take care of each other.  Church members should be invested in each other’s lives to the degree that encouragement and accountability are the natural and obvious result.  We encourage close relationships in our church family, and use weekly small group gatherings as a means of facilitating that. 

Discipleship

We feel that much of the American church is filled with immature Christians who have never spiritually matured much past salvation.  Coupled with our sense of responsibility for others, this leads us to place a high value on older, more experienced Christians investing themselves heavily into younger believers and helping them reach higher levels of mature Christian manhood and womanhood. 

Evangelism and Missions

We believe that our church has a biblical obligation to share the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.  Christians have been entrusted by God with the gospel message, and we should have a desire to see every nation reached for God’s glory.  Missions is a big deal with us.  In past years, UBC has had a missions presence in Brazil, China, India, Nicaragua, and Uganda.  We are currently focusing much of our missions effort toward evangelizing unreached peoples in Indonesia.  Our hope is to extend our missions outreach further still. 

Nondenominational identity

Baptist is a theological descriptor, rather than a denominational title.  Unity Baptist Church practices congregational autonomy and is not part of any larger denominational group.  It maintains the autonomous direction of its own affairs, independent of any outside control.  However, we choose to work cooperatively with other like-minded churches and ministries who are striving toward the same goals. 

Reformed Understanding

Unity Baptist Church is committed to a theologically reformed understanding of doctrine.  We celebrate the great doctrines of God’s grace toward sinners and seek to see Him glorified in all things.  For more on what it means to be a Reformed Baptist, click here.