As a pastor-teacher, I want people to be challenged intellectually and motivated toward personal change. My desire is to introduce them to Christ's transformative love and guide them in deepening their walk. I believe when our lives are brought under the teaching of God's Word, we can effectively do the work He has set before us, both individually and corporately as a church.
1 Timothy 4:6-10 is a life, doctrine, and salvation passage. Watch your life, watch your doctrine, and focus on salvation. Good pastor-teachers are to be nourished by the truth of God themselves, so that they are able to convey these truths to the people of God. In other words, the pastor-teacher's personal nourishment sustains their public ministry. They are to take time and trouble to keep themselves spiritually fit and to this end they are to toil and strive to remain focused on salvation and finishing well.
We believe that it is the explicit message of our Lord Jesus Christ to those whom He has saved that they are sent forth by Him into the world even as He was sent forth of His Father into the world. We believe that, after they are saved, they are divinely reckoned to be related to this world as strangers and pilgrims, ambassadors and witnesses, and that their primary purpose in life should be to make Christ known to the whole world.