Heritage Baptist Church - Manchester, New Hampshire

Church is always a touchy subject. For most people the word church conjures up images of priests or cathedrals – but mostly not-so-fond memories of long periods of boredom and/or hypocrisy. Creepy crucifixes, mysterious and unending rituals, people telling you what to believe. Church is often a bad word.

That is unfortunate because the church was not supposed to be any of these things. The apostles – Jesus’ followers – wrote most of the New Testament to correct people who were trying to turn church into some kind of institution or organization.

Church is supposed to be about Jesus’ teachings – the Jesus who lived and walked on the earth, not some image up on a fake cross or some theological idea. The first four books of the New Testament are simply the story of Jesus; and the remaining 23 are all about how people should live by his teachings.

So, church is about Jesus – a teacher of peace, love and truth; a man of compassion; and yes, the Savior of the world. We reduce Christianity to three simple things:

• Love Jesus (which means you will love others, as he does)
• Hate sin (because it separates us from God, not because it makes people any less loveable)
• Trust the Bible (as it tells us about Jesus and also tells us about God and ourselves)

At Heritage, we are very intentional in growing as followers of Jesus Christ. We want to see people go from irreligious and unsure of this whole Jesus thing to confident followers of Jesus and his teachings.

When it came time to ask ourselves, “what does that look like?” we realized that in order to be a follower of Jesus, you have to get to know him. We get to know people through a series of meetings or encounters. We have designed everything we do around three encounters with Jesus.

Encounter 1: BELIEVE

Jesus as Savior

You hear the Word of God and the Spirit of God changes something inside your heart. You acknowledge your sinfulness and your own inability to save yourself. You yield to God’s leading and the truth of his Word and trust in Jesus as your Savior.

There are a lot of obstacles that might keep you from taking the step of belief, and our church is designed around the idea of creating environments where you can journey toward that belief without pressure but with guidance when you want it.

When you take the step of belief, you are baptized as a confession of faith.

Encounter 2: WORSHIP

Jesus as Master

After believing in Jesus, you begin to walk with him. We encourage everyone, even those who are still questioning about belief, to join in the worship of the church, receiving the teaching of God’s Word as inspired and authoritative and thanking him for his Word and ministry through songs. We also encourage discussion and dialogue during our worship, giving opportunities for everyone to journey together with Jesus.

In recognition of Jesus’ authority over your life, you join the church in the celebration of communion (the Lord’s Supper) as an integral part of our worship. This is a covenant relationship with God and the other members of the church that we call church membership.

Encounter 3: SERVE

Jesus as Model

The third encounter is life-changing. As we read the story of Jesus and the application of it to our lives, God works in our hearts to give us a burden to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, serving others and sharing the Good News of his life, death and resurrection. We believe that God will give Jesus’ followers a passion about the truth of God’s Word and a desire to share it with others because it has transformed your own life.

As a result of this third type of encounter, you commit to share in the ministry of the church – both physically and financially. You reach out to others.