Our mission statement breaks down into three parts:

1) Gospel Transformation in our church.  
The Gospel is the glorious new that in spite of our sin, God has made a way to be reconciled to Him - namely, through His Son, Jesus.  Christianity is not a call to try hard or hope our good outweighs the bad.  Because of our sin (sin meaning we have rebelled against God, our Creator, & tried to live our own way) we cannot do anything, in and of ourselves, to get to God.

But God came to us.  He sent his son Jesus, who lived a completely sinless life and then pay for sin by his death on the cross.  But that was not the end, three days later he rose from the grave and is alive right now.  The Gospel is the good news that if we turn from our sin and trust in the finished work of Jesus, we will be saved.  

But that's not all.  Far too often the Gospel is seen like the front door of a house.  You need it to get in, but then you can move on to other things.  The reality is that at no point in our Christian lives do we move away from the gospel.  Tim Keller puts it this way:

"We never ‘get beyond the gospel’ in our Christian life to something more ‘advanced’.  The gospel is not the first ‘step’ in a ‘stairway’ of truths, rather, it is more like the ‘hub’ in a ‘wheel’ of truth.  The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s of Christianity, but it is the A to Z of Christianity.  The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to enter the kingdom, but the way we make all progress in the kingdom.”

Gospel Transformation in our church means that as believers we are being transformed and the Gospel is what transforms us.  Paul talks about Gospel Transformation in 2 Corinthians 3:18, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."  

In other words, we are changed, by degrees into what we behold.  So we want to behold the glory of God revealed in the gospel to be changed by it throughout our lives in every area of our lives.  And God has brought us together as believers because He does not intend for the Gospel to change us while we are alone.  In fact, one of the primary tools He will use to transform us will be eath other  God intends for us to be in a community of like-minded believers who are striving to follow Jesus and encourage each other to press on

2) Into our city
We want to see the city of Salem transformed by the same Gospel that has transformed us.  Therefore, Salem Baptist Church will strive to take the gospel into our city.  

As followers of Jesus, He has called all of us to be missionaries.  We are to be about taking the good news of Jesus into our streets (Matt. 28:18-20).  Out of all the places in the world and out of all the times in history when we could have lived, God has put us in this place at this time (Acts 17:26) to be about his mission.  

To that end, when we say we want to see Gospel Transformation go into our city, that means we will be a missional people who seek to take the Gospel into our neighborhoods, schools, places of employment, etc.  

We want to serve the city of Salem by helping it to be a great place to live.  So we want to be active in serving our community.  But above all, we know that what the people who live in Salem need is the Gospel, so by God's power, we will take it to them.

3) To the corners of the earth
Not only do we want to take the Gospel to those who live in Livingston and Crittenden Counties, but we want to take it to the world.  Jesus calls us to be witnesses "to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8) and we want to do that by giving financially and going.  

The Gospel is the story of the greatest rescue mission in the history of the world.  God rescuing man from total doom, at the cost of his own Son.  We want to be a church that sees that Gospel continue its work in us and take it to the world around us.  

Website:  http://www.salembaptist.church