About Us

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Purpose Vision Mission Beliefs History

Purpose Statement

To make and equip passionate followers of Jesus Christ who, by embracing the cross with enduring hope, disperse the aroma of the knowledge of God.

We make and equip passionate followers by

  • being incarnational expressions of his life
  • proclaiming his word with wisdom and discernment
  • calling forth the image of the God present in every person. (Gen. 1.26)

Passionate followers of Jesus Christ are those who recognize him as

  • Lord God almighty,
  • the Savior of the world,
  • the One who alone reigns with both grace and truth, and
  • the deepest desire of the human heart.

They gladly embrace the cross enduring providentially allowed suffering knowing that

  • his strength is made manifest in suffering
  • suffering purges their lives of impurities
  • suffering can spread the aroma of the knowledge of God.

This enduring hope develops when these passionate followers discover Jesus Christ

  • is their deepest desire, freeing them from love of the “world” and that he
  • sustains them in trials, troubles, hurts and frustrations since their citizenship in heaven transcends this world.

Vision Statement

To enter lives with care and nurture by the grace, discernment, and energy of the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of joining him in the transforming work of souls.

To enter lives with care

  • with transcendent curiosity
  • to endeavor to know them without rejection
  • to provide safety in relationship that invites honesty, transparency and vulnerability

Care and nurture by the Holy Spirit’s power manifest in:

  • Grace—God’s empowering change dynamic
  • Discernment—recognition of the Spirit’s direction
  • Energy—the supernatural strength to carry out how the Spirit is directing

Joining him in the transforming work of souls: freedom

  • from the law and the expectations of men
  • from the flesh, world, and the devil
  • to love God with all our hearts, mind and strength and others as ourselves
  • to live the Christ empowered life
  • to receive every Spiritual blessing and all that is needed for life and godliness

Mission Statement

To live and proclaim the glory of God to individuals through personal

  • counseling,
  • discipleship, and
  • Spiritual direction

and to the body of Christ through

  • teaching and
  • training classes

Statement of Beliefs

  1. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God consisting of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, is verbally inspired of God, inerrant in the original writings and that they are the supreme and final authority in faith and life.
  2. We believe there is only one Living and True God eternally existing in three persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
  3. We believe that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, and is true God and true man, and as such he lived a perfect sinless life.
  4. We believe that man was created in the image and after the likeness of God, that he sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death but also that spiritual death which is separation from God; and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature which is enmity against God, and in the case of those who reach moral responsibility, become sinners in thought, word and deed.
  5. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and that all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of his shed blood and righteousness.
  6. We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, in his ascension into Heaven, and in his present life there for us as High Priest, Advocate, and the only Mediator between God and man.
  7. We believe in the personal and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ to set up his kingdom upon the earth to reign in righteousness and justice.
  8. We believe that salvation is by grace through faith, and that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God and that the Holy Spirit indwells all believers.
  9. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, the everlasting blessedness of the saved, and the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost.
  10. We believe the church is the body of Christ. Its mission is to make the Gospel known to every person and to teach to those who become disciples all things, which Jesus commanded so that they may adequately serve him.

History

Since 1997, Christian Families Today operated a counseling and training office in Fayetteville, GA, directed by Terry and Bonnie Phillips. In November 2006, the Phillips left Fayetteville to begin a similar ministry, Grace Life Family Ministry, in Douglasville, GA. With the blessing of CFT founder and President, Greg Brezina, the remaining staff-members of the CFT-Fayetteville office, incorporated in January 2007 under the name Image Bearers Ministries. We continue serving Fayette County and the south Atlanta perimeter by providing soul care.