What We Believe

THE WORD OF GOD

We believe that the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) is the Word of God, fully inspired by Him and without error in the original manuscripts. The Scriptures contain the complete revelation of His will and plan for salvation. They are intended to teach, guide, correct, and nourish the believer, and are the final, divine authority for all matters of Christian faith and life.

2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 2:1-2; 2 Peter 1:20-21

THE GODHEAD

We believe in one living and true God, creator of all things, perfect in every way, without beginning or end, and eternally existing in three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and that these are equal in every divine attribute and perfection.

Genesis 1:1, 26; Psalm 90:1-2; Isaiah 45:5-6, 21-22; Acts 17:24-28; 2 Corinthians 13:14

JESUS CHRIST

We believe that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. We believe in His sinless life, miracles, and teachings. We believe in His substitutionary and atoning death on the cross, His bodily resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven where He is now exalted at the right hand of God and intercedes for His people as our High Priest, and His personal visible return to earth as promised in the Scriptures.

John 1:1-3, 14; Luke 1:26-37; Romans 3:21-25, 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, 20-24; 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 4:14-16

THE HOLY SPIRIT

We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person who convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, regenerates the believer into new life in Christ at the moment of salvation, sanctifies the believer in Christlikeness, and seals the believer unto the day of redemption. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Christ, and that He guides, instructs and empowers them for godly living and service.

John 14:16, 26; Acts 1:8, Romans 8:16, 26-27; 1 Corinthians 2:4, 10-16; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 1:13-14, Titus 3:5-6

MAN

We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that through Adam's sin man fell, and thereby incurred physical, spiritual, and eternal death. As a result, all human beings are born with a sin nature and are under the just condemnation of God. Because of sin man is alienated and separated from God and unable to remedy his lost condition.

Genesis 1:26; Genesis 3; Romans 5:12-19; 1 Corinthians 15:22; Ephesians 2:1-10

SALVATION

We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received through personal faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. We believe that those who repent and forsake sin and trust Jesus Christ as Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, become new creatures in Christ, are freed from condemnation, and receive eternal life as God's children.

John 1:12-13, 3:3-6, 3:16, 14:6; Romans 10:9-13; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Ephesians 2:8-10

ORDINANCES

We believe that baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances to be observed by the church. We believe that water baptism is an outward expression and a celebration of a person's new life in Christ. We believe that the biblical pattern for baptism is by immersion in water in the name of the triune God. We believe that the Lord's Supper was instituted by Christ for the remembrance of His death and for the proclamation of His death until He comes again.

Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:38-41, 8:12-13, 10:47; Matthew 26:26-29; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

THE CHURCH

We believe in the universal church, which is a living, spiritual body of Christ made up of all persons who have been regenerated and baptized by the Holy Spirit through saving faith in Jesus Christ, of which Christ is the head. We believe in the establishment of local churches as the pattern of the New Testament clearly defines. We believe in the autonomy of each local church under the headship of Christ to decide and govern its own affairs. We believe that God has given the local church the primary task of taking the good news of Jesus Christ to the world and helping believers grow and glorify the Lord.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14; Ephesians 1:22, 2:19-22, 4:14-16; Acts 1:8; 1 Peter 2:9-10; Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 4:15-16

LAST THINGS

We believe in the personal and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth and the establishment of His kingdom. We believe in the resurrection of the body and in the final judgment: of the believer to everlasting blessedness and joy with the Lord, and of the unbeliever to everlasting conscious punishment and suffering.

Matthew 16:27, 24:4-31; John 14:3; 1 Corinthians 15:40-58; Philippians 1:23; 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 4:13- 18, 5:1-11; Titus 2:13; Revelation 20:4-6, 11-15

MARRIAGE AND SEXUALITY

We believe that ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word `spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife. We do not affirm, support or advocate two people of the same sex getting married and thus would not allow for a same sex marriage to be performed on our church premises and/or by one of our pastor’s. We affirm that the Bible teaches that a person’s gender is determined by God through his grace and beautiful creative design in the womb before birth.

Genesis 1:27; 2:7, 18-25, Deuteronomy 22:5, Job 31:15, Psalm 119:73, 139:13-16, Isaiah 49:1, Jeremiah 1:5, Acts 17:25, Rom. 1:20-32, 1 Corinthians 7:1-4, 11:9, 1 Timothy 1:9-11

This statement has been taken from the Crossway Network Basic Statement of Faith.

We are a people LONGING EAGERLY for the FUTURE

We are waiting for the arrival of a new heaven and earth, which God will bring about through his transforming power. A day is coming when Christ will come again to establish his reign of justice and freedom. He will create the home of righteousness which his people crave, banishing forever sin, Satan and death. In renewed bodies in a renewed creation, we will live as God’s people in unbroken relationship with God and each other. At the center of everything will be the one God, eternally self‐existent as God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the creator and sustainer of all that is. His character is constant and his purposes unchanging. He will be all our glory. This will be life as it was meant to be lived—life in all its glorious and satisfying fullness.

We are a people FORMED DECISIVELY in the PAST

From before the creation of the world, God the Father chose us and blessed us in his Son, Jesus. We depend entirely upon the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, our King and Rescuer. Jesus is God‐in-the‐flesh, who shares our humanity, having been born of Mary. She conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit while she was still a virgin. As the Son of God, Jesus came to make God known. As the Servant of God, Jesus came to undo the corruption of humanity and the divine curse on creation caused by the first man, Adam. He came to liberate us from our devastating self-love and to rescue us from the consequences of our ongoing willful refusal to love God and others. Jesus fulfilled the promises made by God to Israel and realized all that Israel was called, but failed, to be. He gave us a glimpse of the world to come, calling the people of God to follow him and to demonstrate the goodness of his rule by their shared lives. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus lived the life Adam and the rest of humanity could not live. Jesus died the death that Adam and the rest of humanity deserve to die. On the cross he endured and exhausted God’s righteous anger against our rebellion, paying its penalty in full. Jesus rose physically from the dead, proving the effectiveness of his death. The resurrection is the promise and beginning of God’s new world. Jesus then returned to his Father in heaven, from where he now rules over all creation. He sent his Spirit to apply all that he achieved on the cross. The Spirit equips us as God’s people to live for Christ and speak of him so that others might submit to his gracious reign. In this way Jesus sovereignly gathers his church as he rescues those the Father has given him.

We are a people LIVING JOYFULLY in the PRESENT

God has given His Spirit and Word to His people to equip us to serve him in the world and to bring us to His future. God the Holy Spirit is the giver of life, the one who convicts of sin and the creator of saving faith. He is the one who opens our eyes to see the beauty of Christ so that through the Spirit we surrender willingly to overwhelming grace. He is the one who gives us new hearts to turn to Christ and trust Him. The Spirit sets us apart for Christ and makes us more like Him through the word of God. The Holy Spirit is the author and interpreter of the Bible, which is God’s Word to his world concerning His Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible reflects the characters and circumstances of the people who wrote it, but the Holy Spirit guided the entire process. So in the Bible God reliably reveals His character and plans as he tells the story of His grace in rescuing sinners for His glory. Because it is the Word of God, the Bible is the final authority in matters of conduct, questions of life and issues of truth. We live together in union with Christ as his church. God is scattering local expressions of this church throughout the world. We celebrate our cultural diversity while enjoying unity in Christ. These churches are a means of grace to a needy and dying world.

God has given us the task of making the good news of Jesus known to those without God and without hope. Our community life points ahead to what God has in store for His future world. So, by word and deed, we model and offer reconciliation to those alienated from God due to their willful rejection of Him. We call people to turn from despising God and urge them to trust in Christ. Without Christ, people face only the judgment of being forever cut off from God and all that is good. It is by grace that we live in the present as forgiven sinners. We never earn the right to be called children of God. The gift of faith hears the ‘not guilty’ verdict that God will proclaim for his people on the coming day of judgment and enables us to live in the light of it now. As those welcomed, forgiven and accepted, we become a community of those who welcome, forgive and accept. We respond to the gospel in baptism, expressing that we have become part of the people of God. The Lord’s Supper is the meal we regularly share together to celebrate the work of Christ and express that we continue to be part of the people of God together. Our shared life proclaims the Lord’s death until He returns to make good the invitation to his eternal banquet.

For more specific questions see our Theological Distinctives.