What We Believe
Holy Scripture
We believe Jesus commissioned us as His followers to go and make disciples. We are to share the Gospel with those in our neighborhoods and throughout the nations. We do this as we live daily in our personal lives with those we can influence. We do this corporately as a part of the Body of Christ through sending missionaries, or workers, who can reach in areas and ways that we can’t. We send them with our prayers, our encouragement, and financial support. We also do this by looking for opportunities to personally go and serve in other cultures, becoming more aware of God’s vast work to draw people from every tongue and tribe to worship Him.
God the Father
We believe that there is one living and true God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5-7; I Corinthians 8:4), Who has revealed Himself through creation (Psalm 19:1) and through conscience (Romans 1:19-20), and who is an infinite, all-knowing Spirit (John 4:24), perfect in all His attributes, eternally existing in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; II Corinthians 13:14) – yet one in essence, deserving worship and obedience (John 20:28; cf. John 17:5 with Isaiah 42:8; Revelation 1:17 with Isaiah 42:8).
God the Son
Jesus Christ came to reconcile us with God. He lived a life without sin and willingly died on the cross to pay the penalty for our transgressions. God raised him from the dead and now, by grace, offers as a free gift eternal life to all who follow Christ, by faith, as their Lord and Savior. That is why salvation can be found in Christ alone.
God the Holy Spirit
We believe that God the Holy Spirit is a divine Person (John 14:16) who indwells, sanctifies, instructs, empowers for service, and seals all believers at the time of salvation for eternity (Romans 8:9; II Corinthians 3:6; Ephesians 1:13).
Salvation
We believe that man is born into sin (Romans 5:12). Man’s salvation comes about by sanctification through Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:10), is instantaneous, and accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of the Word of God by grace through faith, on the basis of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, and by the merit of His shed blood, not on the basis of human merit or works (Ephesians 2:8-9). All the redeemed are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever (Romans 8:38-39). Faith in the finished work of Christ will be evidenced by good works in the life of the believer (James 2:14).
The Church
We believe that all who put their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual Body, the Church, of which Christ is the head (Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:18). The Church began on the Day of Pentecost and will endure until the coming of Christ. The purpose of the Church is to glorify God by building up its members in the faith (Romans 15:6), by instruction of the Word, by keeping the ordinances of baptism and communion, by fellowship (Ephesians 4:12), through service, and by seeking to extend the gospel to the entire world (Matthew 28).
Additional Statements
We have included two statements of belief and an article that we feel are particularly important to affirm at this point in church history.
