Theological Convictions


“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.”  - Titus 2:1


We live in a pluralistic society that values emotions and experience above the truth. Our culture views the truth as relative to each person’s own experience and preferences, and sadly this way of thinking has crept into the Church as well. As a result, many Christians have a negative view of doctrine, believing that those who insist on doctrinal specifics are divisive and arrogant. As a local church, we believe firmly that the truth matters and that God has spoken to us with authority and clarity in His Word. We believe that biblical doctrine is necessary for true unity within the Church and the genuine transformation of society. Therefore, we are unashamed of our doctrinal convictions and we proclaim them and live them out in our daily experience.

Many of the doctrines mentioned in this statement are recognized by all Christians, across denominational and camp lines, but some of them are secondary doctrines over which genuine believers are not always in complete agreement. While we believe that God has revealed Himself with clarity in His word and that our failure to understand is often the result of our finiteness, sinfulness and/or lack of study, we also recognize that there is much that will remain a mystery until we see Him face to face, and know as we are known. If you are seeking to become a partner of Kaleo Church, complete agreement with every secondary doctrine in our convictions is not required, but you should know that you will be submitting yourself to leaders who preach, teach and shepherd in accordance with these convictions.

  • God is sovereign and thus he is the one who begins, sustains, and consummates our salvation. Therefore, he gets all the glory.

    The Gospel is the good news of what God has graciously accomplished for sinners in and through the sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. It is applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This Gospel provides forgiveness from sin, and complete justification before God. It is the foundation for our confidence in the ultimate triumph of God’s Kingdom and the consummation of His purpose for all creation in the New Heavens and New Earth so that we can eternally delight in Him and dwell together as His people in His glorious presence. All of Scripture points to and is connected to this good news of the Gospel of Christ. The gospel is the foundation for the life of the Church and is our only hope for eternal life.

    We believe that Christ Jesus is our representative and substitute. On the cross, he paid the debt of our sin, making complete satisfaction before a holy God, and, by taking on Himself the full penalty of our rebellion, reconciled us to the Father. Through his resurrection, Jesus was vindicated by God, broke the power of death, defeated Satan, and brought everlasting life to all His people. The Gospel is not only the means by which people are saved but also the truth and power by which we are sanctified; it is the truth of the Gospel that enables us to do what is pleasing to God genuinely and joyfully and to grow in progressive conformity to the image of Christ.

    The triune God initiates, sustains, and consummates our salvation. The Father chose us before the foundation of the world because of his eternal purpose and grace. He is the one who draws us to his Son Jesus. Because God is our savior, nothing can separate us from his love. The Holy Spirit has been given to us as the guarantee of our inheritance until we receive it in full when Jesus returns to establish his kingdom.

    We believe that our loving and sinless God reigns in sovereign control over all things, including our salvation, and that this in no way diminishes a person’s responsibility to believe in Christ or marginalizes the necessity and power of prayer, perseverance in obedience, and gospel-proclamation, but rather reinforces and establishes them as the ordained means by which God accomplishes His eternal purposes. The gospel is a free and bona fide offer of salvation to every human being and should be preached to all without exception or qualification. Because God chose the lowly things of this world, the despised things, the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, no human being can ever boast before Him—Christ Jesus has become our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. God gets all the glory and our eternal joy is found in Him.

    (Mark 1:1; Luke 24:46–47; John 3:16–18; Romans 1:16–25; 1 Corinthians 1:18–31; 2:2; 15:1–4; 2 Corinthians 4:1–6;9:13; Galatians 1:6–9; Ephesians 1:7–10; Colossians 1:19–20; 2 Timothy 1:8–14; 2 Peter 3:11–13; Jude 1:3–4; John 1:12–13;6:37–44; 10:25–30; Acts 13:48; 16:30–31; Hebrews 12:2; Romans 3:1–4:25; 8:1–17, 31–39; 9:1–23; 10:8–10; Ephesians 1:4–5; 2:8–10; Philippians 2:12–13; Titus 3:3–7; 1 John 1:7,9)

  • When Jesus baptizes believers with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit indwells, and fills them so that they are sanctified, empowered to edify, and emboldened to proclaim the word of God.

    The Holy Spirit is fully God, equal with the Father and Son, whose primary ministry is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He also convicts unbelievers of their need for Christ and imparts spiritual life through regeneration (the new birth). At salvation Jesus baptizes believers with the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the Spirit permanently indwells believers after they are saved as a seal indicating that they belong to God and that God is theirs. Although the Holy Spirit permanently resides in all those who truly belong to Christ, all believers are commanded in Scripture to be filled with the Spirit; coming under His influence in their ongoing daily experience.

    Apart from the Spirit Christians are incapable of being sanctified, growing in their Christ-likeness, and defeating sin and the flesh. The Spirit produces fruit in the life of believers so that they abandon the fruits of the flesh.

    The Spirit also empowers all believers for ministry by giving each believer gifts to be used for the edification of the body. We do not see sufficient evidence in Scripture to conclude that any of the gifts mentioned in the New Testament have ceased to operate today within the church. The primary purpose of the gifts is the edification of others. Therefore the gifts that have more potential to edify are to be prioritized. Furthermore, Spiritual gifts are to be exercised in obedience to the first and second greatest commands to love God and love your neighbor. Therefore spiritual gifts rightly exercised will never tear down the church but edify it, nor will they exalt self but exalt God. ..

    One of the greatest signs of the filling of the Spirit in believers is boldness to preach the word of God. The believer's prayer for boldness in light of persecution in Acts 4 and the resulting filling of the Spirit is instructive to the church today.

    (Luke 4:1,14;5:17; 10:21; John 3:1–15, 34; 14:12; 15:26–27; 16:7–15; Acts 2:14–21; 4:29–31;10:38; Romans 8:9;12:3–8; 1 Corinthians 12:7–13; 12:28–31; 14:1–33; 2 Corinthians 1:21–22; Galatians 3:1–5; Ephesians 1:13–14;5:18) See this video from Sam Storms and Desiring God

  • We are committed to the fundamental spiritual and moral equality of men and women, as well as the reality of biological distinctions, and different roles given at creation.

    God created mankind; male and female, in his own image. Men and women are created equal in essence and value, but different in biology and roles. God’s creational design for men and women is a beautiful gift that is intended for their happiness and for His glory.

    Gender roles were given at creation and are not a result of the fall. After the fall, however, the image of God was distorted and gender roles were corrupted. Therefore men tend to abuse or abdicate their leadership, and women tend to rebel against their husbands’ authority. Just as these relationships were corrupted through the sin of Adam, as the representative of humanity, these relationships are restored through the righteousness of the man Jesus Christ; the representative of the redeemed humanity.

    The primary relationship between men and women in the church is that of brothers and sisters. Therefore, we reject the concept that every woman is in submission to every man in the church. Rather, women are to be in submission to their own husbands.

    Both men and women should participate in ministry using their spiritual gifts to build one another up and advance the kingdom of God. The office of elder and the tasks specific to it are reserved for biblically qualified men. We believe that the scriptures allow women to hold the office of deacon. Therefore we gladly extend the opportunity to serve in this capacity to both qualified men and women.

    In the marriage relationship, husbands and wives are called to display the Gospel story of Christ laying down His life for His bride, the church, and the church respectfully submitting to Christ. As such, husbands are called to sacrificially love their wives, while the wife is called to respectfully submit to her husband. Both husbands and wives are responsible to God for spiritual nurture and vitality in the home, but God has given to the man primary responsibility to lead his wife and family in accordance with the servant-leadership and sacrificial love characterized by Jesus Christ. The principle of male headship should not be confused with, nor give any hint of, domineering control. Rather it is to be the loving, tender, and nurturing care of a godly man who is himself under the kind and gentle authority of Jesus Christ. God has uniquely designed each gender to represent his image in the household and since the church is the household of God, its order should be an example of the order in the household. Therefore, men are called to humbly and sacrificially lead the church, while partnering in ministry with women.

    (Genesis 1:26–27; 2:18; Acts 18:24–26; 1 Corinthians 11:2–16; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 5:22–33; Colossians 3:18–19; 1 Timothy 2:11–15; 3:1–11; Titus 2:3–5; 1 Peter 3:1–7). Watch this video from The Gospel Coalition for more on this doctrine.

  • The Kingdom of God has been inaugurated at the first advent of Jesus and it will be consummated at the second advent of Christ.

    We believe the kingdom of God is where the rule and reign of Jesus Christ is expressed and experienced. Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of God in His bodily ministry on the earth and continues to establish it by His Spirit through His body, the church, today. We believe the consummation of the Kingdom will be fulfilled when Jesus returns.

    So we live in between the inauguration and consummation of Jesus’ Kingdom. Presently the Church serves as an outpost of the Kingdom of God and as a foretaste of the future reality when all will recognize the authority of Christ. As the Church submits to and serves Christ today, the world gets to see and experience a preview of the future under the full rule and reign of Jesus Christ. (Matthew 12:25-30; Mark 1:15; Luke 17:20-21; Acts 2:16-36; Ephesians 1:10; 22-23; Colossians 1:13-14; Revelation 20-21)

    We acknowledge the variety of views (including different interpretations of the millennium) within inaugurated eschatology and allow for this variety within our leadership. We believe that all Christians should eagerly expect the imminent return of Jesus and should not necessarily divide over the specific details and timing of events surrounding His second coming. However, we believe it is important to study and teach on these matters as they are addressed in Scripture, striving to accurately interpret these passages while humbly interacting with the various viewpoints held by devout believers over the centuries.

  • The Spirit-empowered church is the primary means by which God chooses to advance the gospel of the kingdom to the nations.

    The church has a clear biblical mandate to look beyond its own community to the neighborhood, the nation, and the world as a whole. Thus mission is not an optional program in the church but an essential element in the identity of the church. We are called to make Christ known through the Gospel and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to bring His lordship to bear on every sphere of life. The primary way we fulfill this mission is through the equipping of the saints for ministry in our local church and seeking to make Jesus known in our local communities. Our aim is that Jesus Christ would be more fully formed in each person through the ministry of Kaleo and that God would empower us to share the good news of Jesus Christ in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and families, sharing in and celebrating His redemptive work together. We also believe we are responsible neither to retreat from our culture nor to conform to it, but with humility, through the Spirit and the truth of the gospel, to engage it boldly as we seek to see lives transformed and brought into submission to the lordship of Christ.

    (Isaiah 52:7; Matthew 10:5–25; 28:18–20; Luke 4:18–19; 24:46–47; Acts 1:6-8; 28:31; Romans 10:14–15; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; Galatians 2:10; Ephesians 3:10; 4:11–16; 2 Timothy 4:1–5;Hebrews 10:23–25;1 Peter 2:4–5, 9–10)