MISSION AND CORE VALUES
OUR MISSION
“Our Passion is to glorify God by preparing interns to initiate church planting movements among all Muslim peoples worldwide.”
We do this in partnership with like minded local churches and mission agencies by providing field experiences and balanced, practical training in all areas identified as essential by experienced missionaries and their sending organizations.
CONVICTIONS
Studio embraces the implications of each of the following core values and strives to incorporate these values into the very DNA of all training and internship activities.
- Passion for God. The Great Commandment to love God and neighbor motivates our efforts to help fulfill the Great Commission. We live our lives fully surrendered to God so that all nations may know that He alone is Lord.
- Unreached People Groups. Studio seeks to instill interns with both faith and passion to reach those with the least opportunity to hear and understand the Gospel.
- Church-Planting Movements. We long to see new followers of Christ in fellowship with other believers, forming churches that grow and multiply until all peoples have heard the Gospel.
- Ethos of Grace. Understanding that each person bears the image of God, we cultivate an atmosphere of mutual acceptance and respect while encouraging one another to grow into his or her full potential in Christ Jesus.
- The Local Church. The local church is at the heart of God’s redeeming plan for the world. At Studio, we take seriously our role as servants to the church. Studio partners with local churches, participating in their outreach opportunities and helping their congregations engage with long-term missions. All Studio interns are required to attend a local church throughout their internship.
- Community. Studio provides interns with a strong, supportive community that allows them to experience team life, grow in character, and develop skills that allow them to serve effectively on ministry teams.
- Innovation and Flexibility. Effective church planting and disciple making requires an openness to the Holy Spirit, who moves in unique ways in different locations in different seasons. A ministry strategy that works in one place may not work in another. Accordingly, Studio’s movement training instills innovation and dependence on God.
- Servant Leadership. At Studio, servant leadership is nurtured and modeled to interns. We apply an interactive approach to communal decision making that is based on mutual trust and respect.
Studio is an Evangelical Christian ministry committed to the creeds and traditions of Protestant Christianity. To serve with Studio, a person must be in personal agreement with the following statement of faith
We believe in the full, verbal inspiration of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments: as authoritative, sufficient, infallible and without error in the original manuscripts, not only as containing, but as being in themselves the only written Word of God; and the need of the teaching of the Holy Spirit for a true and spiritual understanding of the whole.
We believe in one God, creator of all things, eternally existing as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We believe that Adam and Eve, created in the image of God, were tempted by Satan, the god of this world, and fell; that their sin has passed to all people, who as a result are lost, are unable to save themselves from the wrath of God, and need to be saved.
We believe in the absolute deity of our Lord Jesus Christ; His virgin birth; His real and perfect humanity; the authority and infallibility of His teaching, His work of atonement for the sin of the human race by His vicarious suffering and death; His bodily resurrection, and His ascension into Heaven; His present high-priestly intercession for His people; and His lordship over His Church as its supreme Head.
We believe that salvation is a gift of God to those who repent and personally believe in Jesus Christ; that it is accomplished by God’s grace through the merits of the vicarious suffering, death, and bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
We believe in the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in conviction of sin, regeneration, sanctification, as well as in ministry and worship; the Holy Spirit indwells all believers, enabling them to live holy lives, and empowering them in witness and service despite opposition from the world, the flesh and Satan.
We believe in the spiritual unity of all true believers, the Universal Church, the Body of Christ of which Jesus is the head; that this Church is composed of only those persons who, through saving faith in Jesus Christ, have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they who are saved unto the resurrection of eternal blessedness with God, and they who are lost unto the resurrection of eternal condemnation and punishment separate from God.
We believe that Christ commanded the Church to go into all the world and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching those who believe to obey all that Christ commanded.
Studio embraces the recommendations of the World Evangelical Association in regards to contextualization. The following is written to clarify Studio’s approach to this important contemporary topic.
Principles
Social Context: We believe God normally desires new believers to remain connected with their social context (1 Corinthians 7:17‐24), while not compromising biblical teaching in their beliefs or practice. The implications of living out this creative tension and gospel witness are best worked out by groups of believers, through prayer and diligent study of the Scriptures, informed by the story of God’s people throughout history and the global body of Christ. This affects key issues, including:
Allegiance: We urge all believers to live in such a way that those around them become increasingly aware of their wholehearted submission to Jesus as Lord. He calls all believers to a process of transformation into the image of Christ (Romans 12:1, 2; Colossians 3:10), giving courageous and respectful testimony of Christ’s work in us (1 Peter 3:14‐16).
Identity: We strive to make disciples who understand their biblical identity in Christ and his church universal; who embrace the implications of that identity as active members of a local community of believers in healthy relationship with the Body of Christ worldwide. This involves an ongoing process whereby believers are nurtured by the Spirit and guided by the word of God. (Ephesians 2:19‐22; 1 Peter 2:9; Gal 2:20; 2 Cor 5:16-18).
Obedience: Our passion is to see believers obey all that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:20). This involves an ongoing process whereby believers are empowered by the Spirit and nurtured by the word of God (Galatians 5:16‐25; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 1 Peter 2:2, 3).
Beliefs: Believers are to mature in their faith, growing in the knowledge and grace of God so their worldview and beliefs are increasingly transformed into conformity with Scripture (Romans 12:2; Hebrews 5:14).
Suffering: God grants us suffering in this world to refine our faith, strengthen his church and bring glory to Christ (Philippians 1:29; 3:10; 1 Peter 1:7). Together, we recognize that persecution is not to be feared, and ‘everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’ (2 Timothy 3:12; Matthew 10:28; Hebrews 10:32‐34).
Culture: All cultures reflect elements of God’s creative goodness and human sinfulness (Romans 2:14, 15; 1 John 2:15‐17). We encourage believers to live out biblically sound and culturally appropriate worship, witness, relationships, and lifestyles (Ephesians 5:15; 1 Timothy 5:8; 1 Peter 2:11, 12, 16, 17).
Applications
Discipleship: We strive to reach Muslim communities in the most effective, culturally appropriate way possible, while not departing from the Biblical principles outlined above. Muslims typically come to Christ with substantial “baggage” – both theological and cultural. We seek to disciple them through this syncretism, so their worldview and beliefs come increasingly into conformity with Scripture.
Church: We strive to bring our BMB disciples into healthy relationship with the Church universal (the body of Christ world-wide), while at the same time affirming and encouraging their own indigenous Biblically permissible expressions of worship and fellowship in local gatherings. In this process we are guided by our statement of faith and historical evangelical belief and practice.
Identity: We strive to help our BMB disciples fully understand their identity in Christ, and to replace their former Islamic identity with a culturally appropriate statement of their new identity in Christ – though not necessarily referring to themselves as “Christian”. This process is progressive as disciples mature in Christ and may take years. Studio does not permit staff or employees to acquire an Islamic Identity.
Mohammad and the Quran: We strive to help BMB disciples grow in biblical understanding with the expectation that, over time, they will come to recognize Mohammad as a false prophet and the Quran as a false Gospel. As this recognition occurs, we urge them to abstain from recitation of the traditional Muslim creed (Shahada): ‘There is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger’; and the traditional Muslim liturgy (Salat): “God does not beget… I bear witness that Muhammad is God’s servant and messenger”. As BMB disciples mature in Christ, we encourage them to abstain from attending Mosque services except as opportunities for bridge-building and evangelism.
Translation: Studio is fully compliant with the World Evangelical Association. As regards Bible translation, we affirm the WEA’s admonition to retain Biblical familial (Father-Son) language in all translation work.
This statement is agreed to by all Studio staff and team members. In all that we do, whether in training and mentoring interns or in outreach to Muslims, we hold to these convictions.