Mission statement

In 1907, the American Thermos Bottle Company launched a marketing campaign to popularize its vacuum-insulated bottles. They succeeded so spectacularly that “thermos” became a household word. The problem was, by the early 1920s, competitors were using the term “thermos” to describe their vacuum-insulated bottles as well. And so began the battle for the trademark, which included multiple lawsuits, changing the name of the business to the American Thermos Products Company, and launching Thermos-branded tents and stoves in an effort to prove that “thermos” was not a generic word for vacuum bottles. But it was too late. In 1963 a court deemed that the term “had entered the public domain beyond recall.”

Thermos is not the only corporate brand to fall victim to its own success. “Escalator,” “laundromat,” and “zipper” all used to be trademarks. Believe it or not, a company called Sealed Air Corporation still holds the rights to “Bubble Wrap,” Wham-O Inc. owns “Hula Hoop,” and Sony is hanging on to “Memory Stick.” Velcro went as far as producing a music video urging us to refer to generic versions of their product as “hook and loop,” but that’s not going to catch on.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Positive spin: Many words in Christianity have also taken on a “life of their own.” We commonly hear phrases like “it’s the gospel truth,” “it is the company’s mission statement,” and it is “their cross to bear.” This can be an aid to preaching, if we are careful to define what the Bible means by these now familiar words.

Negative spin: We must be careful that the gospel, the cross, and our mission not be watered down by the world hijacking biblical words, redefining them, and robbing them of their original unique spiritual meaning.

At a Worldwide Developers Conference Steve Jobs said:

One of the things I’ve always found is that you’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you’re going to try to sell it. And I’ve made this mistake more than probably anybody else in this room, and I’ve got the scar tissue to prove it.

And as we have tried to come up with a strategy and a vision for Apple, it started with, “What incredible benefits can we give to the customer? Where can we take the customer?” Not starting with “Let’s sit down with the engineers and figure out what awesome technology we have, and then how are we going to market that?

Jobs recalled being excited about the first laser printer. He said, “I remember seeing the first printout come out of it. Just picking it up and looking at it and saying ‘We can sell this.’ All you have to do is hold it up and say ‘Do you want this?’ People went ‘Wow … Yes!’”

Possible Preaching Angle:

The church can learn from Steve Jobs. We don’t attract people with our technology, our gimmicks, our web presence. Like Jobs, we must “hold up” a community of Christ followers who love each other and God’s world. We can hold up hope. We can hold up an answer to guilt. We can hold up eternal life. Then people may see the thing they have been looking for, and join us.

First Baptist Church lives to glorify Christ by making disciples who are growing in relationship with God in worship, then with the church in fellowship, and with the world in witness.

Reach unchurched people in the Inland Empire. Help them grow in Christ. So we can together serve the Lord in ministry.

We believe God's vision for us is to be a contemporary church, believer based, seeker sensitive, creatively and consistently evangelizing, encouraging, establishing and equipping people in the Word and the Spirit to worship and witness. We are called to reach out intentionally, creatively, boldly and lovingly to the unconverted and unchurched. We are called to be a church of faith, hope, love, forgiveness, and acceptance, bringing people into Christian maturity.

To provide a nonjudgmental, relevant atmosphere; to introduce people to a personal, dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ; to encourage personal growth through teaching, caring, and sharing.

We are to glorify God by responding to the Lord Jesus Christ through EXALTING him as Creator, Savior, and Lord, EXEMPLIFYING him and the values of his kingdom, EDIFYING his church, EVANGELIZING his world, ENCOMPASSING the past, ENRICHING the culture.

As a church, we are to continue a strong pulpit ministry, teaching the Scriptures and the lordship of Christ, develop discipleship and stewardship among us, which must entail the devoting of our time, talents, and treasures to the service of God and others.

To be a haven for worship and prayer; To provide opportunities for instruction and fellowship; To call all people to a life devoted to Jesus Christ.

We need "bifocal" vision, a balance of being concerned close to home and committed to world evangelism.

There is certainly nothing wrong with the church looking ahead, but it is terribly important that it should be done in connection with the look inside, into the church's own nature and mission, and a look behind at her own history. If the church does this, she is less likely to take her cues from the business community, the corporation, or the marketplace.