Q. What is the Bethany Ark Campaign?
A. It’s all about personal Spiritual Growth.

There should be no mystery to the question, “What is the meaning of life?” Simply stated, we were created to worship and glorify God, and have a Spirit-led relationship to Him. The best gift ever given is the opportunity to experience and glorify God. Conversely, the worse curse would be to not have any relationship to God. Man was given free will to reply to God’s invitation. The Bible’s historical descriptions of mankind show us time and time again that although He is beyond our comprehension, we can experience Him if we do His will.

Unfortunately, time and time again we continue to drift away from God as our daily focus and rely on our own will. The result of our self-reliance is sin, which separates us from God. Without Christ’s sinless sacrifice, we would have no salvation… no way to experience God and live with Him in heaven. Faith through grace in Christ as your Savior is the first step on the road to experiencing God.

But then, what’s next? God did not intend for you to lead a saved, yet fruitless life. Christ gave us the Holy Spirit to be with us and in us daily. The Holy Spirit makes us new, teaches us and gives us freedom for a new life.

The next step once our salvation is secure is to be sanctified by allowing Christ to live through us. This can’t be done on our own. A self-reliant process-based approach will not work. We are to seek God’s will and experience God. This can only be done after accepting Christ and living a Spirit-led life with the help of the Holy Spirit. This is where many Christians become confused. How do I live a Spirit-led life? How do I know God’s will for my long-term and daily life? How do I connect with the Holy Spirit?

Without understanding how to do God’s will, many Christians focus solely on one or two areas most comfortable to them. They may not be listening for the Holy Spirit’s prompting in other areas as well (such as meaningful Worship, Discipleship, Service, Fellowship, and Evangelism). Without understanding a Spirit-led lifestyle, Christians may only be living out part of God’s intent for them.

Stop chasing all of the well meaning process-based books. They can only take you so far. God’s specific will for you must be revealed to you by the Holy Spirit (and discerned against biblical truths). Completing a Spiritual Gifts assessment and reading good books are helpful, but getting in touch with God directly is the only way to know God’s will for you specifically.

The Bethany Ark is a program that will teach each of us to understand the concept of a Spirit-led life. Are you living a balanced spiritual life in the values of Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Service and Evangelism? Over a five-month period, the church will provide sermons and one Sunday night class each month for each of these five Spirit-led acts glorifying God. Bethany won’t tell you where to improve. Each of us is extremely unique and will serve God in different capacities, in different times, and in different abilities. That will be between you and Him. These classes will give you insight into a Spirit-led life, and the acts of Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Service, and Evangelism. Following the courses, Bethany will give you opportunities to participate in existing programs in each area. Whether to move in one direction or the other is up to your discernment via the Holy Spirit. If we are all led by Him, we will work in different ways yet be calibrated as a very healthy church. It would be to His glory.

The intent of the Bethany Ark is to give everyone at Bethany the fundamental teaching to follow a balanced Spirit-led life in the areas of Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Service, and Evangelism. How you will do that is up to God. The results are up to God.