What We Believe
"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."
- A.W. Tozer
The Beginning
In the beginning, God created the world and all therein; thus manifesting the glory of His power, wisdom, and goodness. By His sovereign power, He continues to sustain His creation. By His providence, He is operating throughout history to fulfill His redemptive purposes.
The Trinity
We believe there is one God, eternally existing in three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - each of whom possesses equally all of the attributes of deity and the characteristics of personality. We believe Jesus, the Son of God came to earth in true human nature through an Immaculate Conception and a virgin birth. He lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father and voluntarily atoned for the sins of humanity by dying on the cross as our substitute, thus accomplishing divine justice and bringing salvation for all who trust Him with their lives. Three days after his death, he rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died. He ascended into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the Father, where He, the only Mediator between God and man, continually makes intercession for His own. He shall come again to earth, personally and visibly, to consummate history and the eternal plan of God. We believe that God, the Holy Spirit came and presently remains with all on the earth and lives in the heart of every Christian. His purpose on earth is to provide every believer with all resource necessary to exemplify the life we've been called to live according to the commands of Jesus Christ.
Our Sin
The purpose of God's revelation in scripture is to bring all people into fellowship with Him. Created to have fellowship with God, humans willingly defied God, allowing sin within the hearts of mankind. This led us to be alienated from God suffering the corruption of our nature, rendering us with an inability to connect to God. Mankind’s embrace of sin took place at the beginning of human history (Adam and Eve), and all individuals since have suffered these consequences and are in need of the saving grace of God.
Our Salvation
The salvation of mankind is wholly a work of God's free grace, not the result, in whole or in part, of human works or goodness, and must be personally appropriated by repentance and faith. When God has begun a saving work in the heart of any person, He gives assurance in His Word that He will continue performing it until the day of its full completion.
His Word
The foundation of our Christianity is our belief in the Bible, sixty-six books of the Old Testament and the New Testament. We believe the Bible in its entirety originated with God, and that He inspired chosen people through which each book was carefully written. We believe the Bible is infallible and inerrant in the original manuscripts. It is the full and final authority on all subjects of faith and practice and there aren't any other writings similarly inspired by God.
His Church
We, those who acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord with their life make up the members of His body, the church. The scripture commands us to regularly gather together to devote ourselves to worship, prayer, the teaching of the Word, service to the body through the development and use of talents and spiritual gifts, and outreach to our world. Wherever God's people meet regularly in obedience to this command, there is the local expression of the church. Under the watchful care of supportive leadership, its members are to work together in love and unity, intent on the one ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ.
Ordinances
We believe that observance of water baptism and communion as Sacramentarian ordinances established by Jesus Christ. Communion exists to remember Christ’s sacrifice. One of the ways we remember Christ's death on the cross is to frequently include communion in our services and events. We use bread and grape juice to symbolically remember the One who did it all for us, knows our name, and without preference - loves and accepts us. Water Baptism, in the same sense, allows us to follow in the very footsteps of Jesus. Baptism is a symbolic act allowing a new believer the honor to publicly show they are a brand new person in Jesus! The 'old them' is gone - buried with Christ, and the 'new them' has come through the power of Christ's resurrection!
Spiritual Gifts
We believe through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts are made available to all believers and are biblically described to be:
- The gift of wisdom - the ability to make decisions and give guidance that is according to God's will.
- The gift of knowledge - the ability to have an in-depth understanding of a spiritual issue or situation.
- The gift of faith - being able to trust God and encourage others to trust God, no matter the circumstance.
- The gift of healing - the miraculous ability to use God's healing power to restore a person who is sick, injured, or suffering.
- The gift of miracles - being able to perform signs and wonders that give authenticity to God's Word and the Gospel message.
- The gift of prophecy - being able to proclaim a message from God.
- The gift of discerning spirits - the ability to determine whether or not a message, person, or event is truly from God.
- The gift of tongues - the ability to speak in a foreign language that you do not have knowledge of, in order to communicate with someone who speaks that language.
- The gift of interpreting tongues - the ability to translate the tongues spoken and communicate it back to others in your own language.
- The gift of administration - being able to keep things organized and in accordance with God's principles.
- The gift of helps - always having the desire and ability to help others, to do whatever it takes to get a task accomplished.
The End
We believe that Jesus Christ will come again to earth, personally and visibly, to consummate history and the eternal plan of God. We believe according to the bible that evidence is showing through Christ's foretold prophecies that we are presently in the 'last days,' however cannot possess any ability to predict a day or time when this world will come to an end. We wait with great anticipation.