Our Beliefs
1. We must acknowledge that we are sinners. “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Romans 3:23
2. We must understand that there are consequences for our sin. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
3. We must believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that He was buried, and that He rose from the dead after 3 days, and now lives to give us new life. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 “ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:3,4
4. We must understand that Jesus is the only way for reconciliation. Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
5. We must repent of our sins and confess them to God and willingly accept Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf as the payment for our sin. “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.” Acts 3:19 “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
6. We then become part of God’s family. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12
Our Statement of Faith
God
We believe that there is only one living and true God, who exists in three distinct persons—God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These three, the Trinity, are equal in essence and distinct in function.
Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19.
The Father
The first Person of the Trinity orders and directs all things according to His purpose and pleasure. He has created humanity to bring Him glory and honor, through His grace. While He is transcendent, He is also actively involved in His creation—offering a life-giving and eternal relationship with us through his Son Jesus Christ.
Matthew 6:9; John 5:19-24; Ephesians 1:3-6; 2:1-10.
The Son
Jesus Christ is both the eternal Son of God and virgin-born Son of man. Fully God, fully man, He surrendered nothing of His deity during His earthly life. His sinless, sacrificial offering on the cross satisfied the Father’s justice, offering atonement for all of humanity’s sins, for all time. We believe in His bodily resurrection, His physical ascension, and His visible return back to earth to establish His earthly kingdom.
John 1:14-18; 1 Corinthians 15; Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 2:9; Revelation 20:11-15.
The Holy Spirit
The third Person of the Trinity executes the will of God in this world through humanity, by leading, guiding, filling, teaching and convicting. The Holy Spirit is not merely an impersonal force, but is a person, displaying the qualities of personhood (intellect, emotions and will). He equips believers upon conversion by giving them gifts to be used for the building up of the church, and by bearing fruit through their yielded lives.
John 16:5-16; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 2:10; John 3:1-8; Ephesians 1:1; Galatians 5:16-25.
Humanity
We were created in the image of God, destined to enjoy an intimate relationship with God, fulfilling His will here on earth. But because of Adam and Eve’s willful sin in the garden, sin entered into the world, and has infected all of humanity. Therefore, because of our inherent sinful nature received from our father Adam, we are all separated from God, spiritually dead, and destined for physical death and an eternity removed from God.
Genesis 1-3; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 3; Romans 5; Ephesians 2:1-3.
Salvation
We believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins as the only sufficient sacrifice, offering the atonement of sins for all mankind through his death, burial and resurrection. While salvation is available to all, it is only experienced by those who respond to God’s gracious gift by faith apart from works. For those who do respond, they are regenerated and baptized by the Holy Spirit, becoming children of God, given a new nature and placed into the universal body of Christ, making them eternally secure in Him. As a result of our new relationship with God through His son Jesus, we are now called to a life of submission to the Holy Spirit, manifesting spiritual fruit, and walking in good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to do.
John 14:6; Titus 3:4-7; Acts 4:12; John 1:12; Romans 3:21-26; Ephesians 1:7, 2:8-9; Hebrews 10:10-12; 1 John 5:11-13; Galatians 3:26; John 3:16.
The Scriptures/Bible
We believe that every word in the original writings is inspired by God and is without error. The Word of God reveals God’s nature and will for all of humanity, and because of this it is to be the foundation of faith and practice. We affirm that while the Scriptures are accurate in all matters it was never given to be an end in and of itself, but rather a means to a relationship with God. Because of this the authority and teaching of Scriptures will have a preeminent place in our ministry.
2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Hebrews 4:12; John 17:17.
The Church
For all who have placed their faith in God through His son Jesus Christ, they are a part of the universal body of believers known as the church. This placement of the believer into the universal church requires an association of the believer with other followers of Christ in a local assembly.
The purpose of the local church is to lead people to Christ and to bring them to maturity in Christ. The members of the local church are to live their lives in humble submission to other Spirit-led believers, and to the God-appointed leaders of the church.
Hebrews 10:24-25; Acts 2:41-47; 1 Corinthians 12-14; Matthew 28-18-20; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.
The Future
We believe that the next great event in human history will be the return of Jesus Christ for his children. This is the blessed hope for all followers of Jesus Christ. While this event is a prophetic truth of Scripture, we acknowledge that the point of Christ’s return is not for believers to passively await this event, but to labor with all of their might in the power of the Spirit to fulfill His will in their lives through righteous living, evangelism and discipleship. After the return of Christ, those who accepted God’s gracious gift of salvation will worship God forever in heaven. Those who did not will spend an eternity separated from him in hell.
Matthew 24:36; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; John 14:1-3; Matthew 24-25).
Marriage and the Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.
Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship. This relationship is the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.
The husband and wife are of equal worth before God since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.
Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage, His loving fatherhood, physical provision, nurture and authority. Parents are to model and teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.
Genesis 1:26-28; 2:15-25; 3:1-20; Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Joshua 24:15; 1 Samuel 1:26-28; Psalms 51:5; 78:1-8; 127; 128; 139:13-16; Proverbs 1:8; 5:15-20; 6:20-22; 12:4; 13:24; 14:1; 17:6; 18:22; 22:6,15; 23:13-14; 24:3; 29:15,17; 31:10-31; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; 9:9; Malachi 2:14-16; Matthew 5:31-32; 18:2-5; 19:3-9; Mark 10:6-12; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 7:1-16; Ephesians 5:21-33; 6:1-4; Colossians 3:18-21; 1 Timothy 5:8,14; 2 Timothy 1:3-5; Titus 2:3-5; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Peter 3:1-7.
