OUR CORE BELIEFS
ONLY ONE LIVING AND TRUE GOD
We believe there is only one living and true God. There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory. Our triune God created all, upholds all, and governs all.
GEN. 1:2, 27; JOHN 14:16-17; MATT. 28:19; HEB. 9:14; JOHN 14:26; LUKE 1:35
INSPIRED WORD OF GOD
We believe the Bible itself as the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God. Both the Old and New Testaments in their entirety are an accurate and complete revelation of God’s will for the salvation of mankind. God’s Word has been preserved by God throughout the ages and is the final authority concerning truth, morality, and the proper conduct of mankind. God’s Word is the sole and final source of all that we believe and applicable to our everyday lives. II TIM. 3:16; II PETER 1:19-21
GOD THE FATHER
We believe in God the Father who is an infinite, personal Spirit. He is perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and love. He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, hears and answers prayer, and He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ.
EX. 9:23-27; DEUT. 4:31; PSALMS 99:9, 103:8; JOHN 3:16-17; ROM. 5:8; EPH. 2:4; I JOHN 1:9; I JOHN 4
JESUS CHRIST
We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. We believe in His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles and teachings, His substitutionary atoning death, bodily resurrection, and ascension into Heaven where He serves as our Mediator and Intercessor with the Father until He returns at the end of this age. MATT. 1:23; JOHN 1:1-12; HEB. 1:1-3; TITUS 2:14; ISAIAH 7:14
HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the Holy Spirit, who came forth from the Father and Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, and to regenerate, sanctify, and empower for ministry all who believe in Jesus Christ. We believe the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is an abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit and in the exercise of all the Biblical gifts of the Spirit. The Holy Scripture encourages all believers to be filled WITH the Holy Spirit and the scriptures refer to this as being baptized WITH the Holy Spirit. To be baptized WITH the Holy Spirit is a distinct and separate experience to that of salvation but can be received during or after salvation.
At salvation a believer is baptized BY the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ and immediately given gifts to serve within His Body (the Church). The purpose for being baptized WITH the Holy Spirit is to empower believers to be bold, anointed, and effective servants of God. We also believe the Scriptures encourages the Church to practice the laying on of hands and/or the anointing with oil for healing. JOHN 16:7-11; ACTS 2:1-5; ROM.8:2-6, 12:4-12; I COR. 6:11; II COR. 1:22; EPH. 1:13-14, 4:30; I PETER 4:10-11
NATURE OF MAN
We believe that man was created in the image of God and that his subsequent willful sin resulted in spiritual and physical death and in the necessity of a new birth for salvation.
GEN. 1 and 2; COL. 1:16-17; REV. 20:10
SALVATION
We believe that the shed blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection provide the only way for salvation. Salvation is received through faith and by God’s grace alone. Salvation is complete and eternal. People can be united with God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Anyone who accepts and believes in Jesus’ death for his or her sins, receives forgiveness for every sin. Upon this personal decision, God re-establishes a relationship with that person and gives to them eternal life. You are now born of the Holy Spirit and made a child of God. Once you receive Christ, you are empowered to live in a new way. You are free through Jesus’ work on the Cross and can live out a life of integrity. ACTS 16:31, 4:12; ROM. 10:9-10; JOHN 14:6
BAPTISM AND COMMUNION
We believe that water baptism and communion are two of the ordinances that our Lord Jesus committed to the Church to be observed during the present age. We practice baptism by immersion and communion open to believers. We believe that all who repent and believe on Christ as Savior are to be baptized, thus by faith identifying WITH the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. We do not believe that water baptism regenerates, but that baptism is a biblical and public testimony that one has placed their faith in Jesus. MATT. 18:15-17; Acts 1:8, 8:26-39, 15:4-28, 20:7, 28; I COR. 11:2; EPH. 1:22, 4:11, 5:23-24; COL. 1:18; I TIM. 3:15
THE CHURCH
We believe in the universal Church, the living Spiritual body, of which Jesus Christ is the Head and all regenerated persons are members.
MATT. 16:18; ACTS 1:8, 2:1-2; I COR. 12:12-28; EPH. 1:22-23, 3:2-6; I THESS. 4:13-18
CHRISTS RETURN
We believe in the literal, personal, visible return of our Lord Jesus Christ and the establishment of the fullness of His Kingdom, and that this expectation should encourage the believer to live a godly and fruitful life. I THESS. 4:13-18; II THESS. 1:6-12; REV. 20:1-6
RESURRECTION
We believe in the bodily resurrection of all the dead: of the saved to
everlasting blessedness and eternal life in the presence of God; and of the
unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment apart from God.
MATT. 25:26; LUKE 16:19-26; JOHN 5:28-29; II COR. 5:5-10; PHIL. 1:23; II THESS. 4:13-18; REV. 20:1-6, 12-15
MARRIAGE
We believe that the term “marriage” has only one meaning and that is marriage sanctioned by God which joins one man, as created by God, and one woman, as created by God, in a single, exclusive union, as defined in Scripture.
GEN 2:12-24
GRACE AND MERCY
We believe that God offers redemption and restoration to all who seek His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. We believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with scripture nor the doctrines of the Church.
ROMANS 3, 4, 5, 6