What We Believe

Christians have been called “People of the Book.” It is our conviction that God has given us in His Word the essentials of the faith He has called us to embrace. Biblical truth sets us free to live lives of purpose and fulfillment. Rather than being a collection of esoteric propositions, the basics of Christian doctrine serve as the foundation for our spirituality. Rooted in the orthodoxy of historic Christianity, we affirm the following essentials as our statement of faith:

The Bible

We believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, and authoritative Word of God. The Bible is the ultimate and final authority for believers and the Church in all matters on which it speaks.

GOD

We believe in one eternal God who has revealed Himself in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; distinguishable yet indivisible and of one substance. The Bible describes the character of God as good, loving, righteous, holy, just, merciful, faithful, kind, and perfect. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present.

Jesus Christ

We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.

Sin

We believe that as a result of the fall of man into sin, people remain spiritually dead, morally depraved, separated from God and unable to attain right standing with God apart from Jesus Christ. Everyone has sinned and stands guilty before God.

Salvation

We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful man, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential. Salvation is wholly dependent upon the work of God’s free grace and is manifested through repentance from sin and faith in Christ and His finished work on the cross. Through His work, not our own, we obtain the forgiveness of sins and are adopted into the family of God.

Holy Spirit

We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life. We also embrace the doctrine and experience of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, at or subsequent to conversion, with accompanying gifts God bestows upon believers.

The Church

We believe in one true universal Church consisting of all genuine believers and in the visible expression of that Church in local congregations. Local churches are commissioned to propagate the gospel, teach God’s Word, administer the sacraments (baptism and communion), exercise spiritual authority, and pastor God’s people into their destiny.

Christ’s Second Coming

We believe in the second coming of Christ – physical and visible – to judge the living and the dead, to receive his Church, and to consummate human history in the plan of God.

Resurrection

We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost: the saved unto the resurrection of life and the lost unto the resurrection of damnation.