About

By God’s hand alone, Hogan continues to minister to its surrounding community and has become an icon to the Southside of Jacksonville. Starting in 1931, Hogan Baptist Church sought to be an assembly of believers with the simple purpose of gathering to worship the Lord. While much has changed over the years with regard to how this simple purpose is carried out, the purpose itself remains the same.

Understanding however that you can not be about your business unless you know what your business is, the following has been offered to explain not only what we are about but why we are about it.

While much can and should be said with regard to Doctrinal Stand, Hogan Baptist Church can in general be most easily classified as a “conservative evangelical” church with regard to our theology. There are two documents in particular that spell out the specifics of this stand. They are the “Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy” and the “Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics.” Both of these statements can be easily found on the internet. Weblinks are provided for both.

The Denominational Alignment of Hogan Baptist Church is with the “Southern Baptist Convention.” Doctrinally, the latest “Southern Baptist Faith and Message” reflects their doctrinal stand as well as ours. A weblink is also provided for this document.

With regard to Ministerial Direction or philosophy of ministry, our purpose is profoundly simple and straightforward.

Our Vision is to be a church that is understood by those on the inside as well as the outside, as a church that lives the Great Commandment to: “love God with all that we are and to love our neighbor as ourselves.” (Matthew 33:37-40)

Our Mission is to achieve our Vision through obedience to God’s word, fulfilling His Great Commission by making disciples (Matthew 28:19-20) who by nature strive to obey God’s Great Commandment.

Our Core Ideology which explains “Why this vision,” outlines our chief motivation and guiding force. We believe that God’s word is truth in its entirety. We also believe that it is universally authoritative and binding to all of humanity. God’s word clearly states, both explicitly and implicitly, that He has special expectations of those He has entrusted with His specially endowed gifts and talents. God’s word also establishes our accountability to Him and a special eventual appointment were we will give such an accounting to Him alone regarding all that He has made us stewards over. We therefore should pursue our God given responsibilities individually as believers and collectively as God’s church with a real sense of zeal and urgency equipping the saints for the work of the ministry and striving toward the fulfillment of the commission God has given us in harmony, unity and efficiency.

• The truth of God’s word Psalms 119:160; John 17:17
• The universal application of God’s word Ecclesiastes 12:13
• God’s expectations of His stewards Matthew 25:14-30
• The certainty of our appointment with Jesus 2Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:10-13
• An urgency that is real Ecclesiastes 9:10
• The role of the individual believer and the collective body (church) 1Corinthians 12, 1Timothy 3:15
• Equipping of the saints Ephesians 4:11-12; 2Timothy 2:2
• The establishment of ministerial direction; unifying resources Philippians 1:27, 2:2

Strategy:

• Establish a unity of purpose, mind and or direction Philippians2:2
• Cultivate a sense of selflessness Romans 9:1-5; Philippians1:21-25, 2:3
• Being faithful to carry out our responsibilities while depending on and looking to God for results. Psalms 20:7; Proverbs 3:5-6; Isaiah 31:1; 1Corinthians 3:5-9
• Effective communication of the value and legitimacy of the core ideology
• Emphasis on the intentional establishing and cultivation of long term Christ centered relationships.
• Emphasis on the family of God; the nuclear family;
• Establish, cultivate, and nurture relationships that generate a venue for long term evangelistic ventures

Goals:

• Glorify God and make Him known 1Timothy 1:5; Deuteronomy 10:12-13

Objectives:

• Evangelism, salvation, spiritual growth
• Move individuals from a mindset of spectator to involvement, dependence to independence, consumer to producer.
• Establish for the new convert, an expectation of independent and productive ministry involvement and spiritual growth.

Tactics:

• Equipping, prayer, obedience to God’s word
• Provide consistent and solid opportunities for worship, discipleship, evangelism, ministry, and fellowship.
• Mentoring and shadowing the convert / new member in their involvement in ministry and spiritual growth.
• Immersion.
• They watch you; they do with you; you watch and they do; they do on their own; they show another. 2Timothy 2:1-2

Resources:

• The Bible

Infrastructure:

• Regular services, small group bible study, ministry opportunities and endeavors

Processes:

• New members class
• Spiritual gifts inventories
• Assimilation
• Mentoring
• Shadowing