The Word of God
We
believe that the Bible is the Word of God, fully inspired and inerrant in the
original manuscripts, and that it is God’s perfect and trustworthy revelation
of his character and will to humankind. It was written by the hand of men under
the perfect inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has supreme authority in all
matters of faith and conduct, and is ultimately a testimony of Christ.
The One True God
We
believe that God eternally exists in three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit—and that these three are one God, having the same nature,
attributes, and perfections, and worthy of the same worship, reverence, and
obedience. God is infinite in holiness, wisdom, power and love. We believe that
He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of humankind, that He hears and
answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and death all who come to Him
through Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy of all honor and praise.
God
as Father is all wise and providentially
cares for his universe. He is fatherly toward all people but is Father in truth
only to those who become his children through the redemptive work of Jesus
Christ.
God
as Son is Jesus Christ who was conceived of
the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He was fully God and fully human.
He took upon himself the form of humanity yet without sin. After living a
perfect life, he died a substitutionary death on the cross to provide
redemption. After his bodily resurrection, he appeared to people for forty days
and then ascended into heaven to serve as the Mediator and Intercessor for his
people. At the Father’s initiation, the Son will return to earth to judge the
world and bring to consummation his redemptive mission to all of creation.
God
as the Holy Spirit is the divine Spirit
of God that was active in creation. He was the person of the Trinity
responsible for inspiring men to write the Bible. He now works to convict
people of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He illuminates truth in order to
call people to salvation. At the moment of salvation, he baptizes believers
into the Body of Christ, indwells them, and seals them in salvation as a down
payment of the future fullness of their relationship with God. His presence in
a Christian enables them to grow in their faith and understanding of the work
and will of God.
The Nature of People
We believe that people are the special creation of God,
made in God’s own image in a state of innocence with moral responsibility.
Adam’s choice to sin has brought sin into the human race and marred the image
of God in us. All people are born in sin and now stand under the righteous
anger of God’s punishment.
Salvation
We believe that salvation is the gift of God by grace
alone and is necessary for every person since we are all affected by sin.
Salvation comes only by Jesus Christ who freely took upon the form of man, yet
without sin; lived a perfect life; and became the sacrifice for man’s sin by
his death. Having been raised from the dead, he ascended to his throne in
heaven. When a person believes in Jesus Christ, they are freed from the guilt
of sin, released from darkness into life, placed into a friendship with Christ,
made a new creation, indwelt and baptized by the Holy Spirit, renewed in the
image of Christ, and given the gift of eternal life.
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit chooses how to gift all believers in a
supernatural manner to enable them to evangelize those yet to be saved and
edify the church in such a way that believers remain in control of their
faculties and operate within the bounds of scriptural mandates. All gifts are
available today and are to be used in an orderly fashion and under the guidance
of the Spirit and the leaders of the church.
The Church
We believe in the global church, a living spiritual body
which includes all of the redeemed of all ages and all nations, of which Christ
is the head and all regenerated persons are members. We believe in the local
church, consisting of an assembly of believers in Jesus Christ, baptized on a
credible confession of faith, who join their lives together by a covenant of
belief and practice with Christ as their Lord. They observe the two ordinances
of Christ, which are baptism by immersion after personal belief and the Lord’s
Supper. The church is governed by the Scriptures and shares the Gospel with the
world.
The Ordinances
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has committed two
ordinances to the local church: baptism and the Lord's Supper. We believe that
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water into the name of the
triune God. We believe that the Lord's Supper was instituted by Christ for
commemoration of His death. We believe that these two ordinances should be
observed and administered to those who are born again until the return of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Mission
We believe Jesus gave his followers the mission of
sharing the message of salvation and making disciples of all nations and
cultures. Christ expressly commanded that the church and its members are to
serve as a witness in their life and words as to the grace of Christ offered by
His sacrificial death for sin. In order for that work to be done, all
Christ-followers are to mature in their understanding of God and practice of
their beliefs through spiritual growth and formation. It is the work of Christ
to save people from their sin and that work continues through transforming the
redeemed into his image. This work is to be done in a culturally relevant
fashion by imaginative pioneering methods with the Scriptures as the guide for
its content and method. A further element of missional living is the
willingness on the part of believers to give of their finances in a cheerful,
generous and sacrificial fashion to finance the work of the church in its
ministries locally and globally.
Church Networking
We believe that local churches of similar faith, vision
and practice can best promote the mission of Jesus Christ by networking with
one another. All such networking exists and functions by the will of the
churches, is voluntary and may be terminated at any time, and is global in
nature.
Christian Conduct
We believe that Christ-followers should live for the
glory of God and the well-being of others; that their conduct should be
blameless before the world; that they should be faithful stewards of their
possessions; and that they should seek to achieve for themselves and others the
full stature of maturity and unity in Christ.
Religious Liberty
We believe that every human being has direct relations
with God, and is responsible to God alone in all matters of faith; that each
church is independent and must be free from interference by any ecclesiastical
or political authority; that therefore Church and State must be kept separate
as having different functions, each fulfilling its duties free from dictation
or patronage of the other.
The Family
God has chosen the family as the foundation of culture
and as a portrait of His relationship to the church. Marriage is defined by God
as a lifetime covenant between one man and one woman in which there is mutual
submission to one another. The husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the
church and the wife is to lovingly submit to the leadership of the husband as
the church does to Christ. Parents are to nurture their children by teaching
them the truths of the Bible and modeling a loving relationship with their Lord
and one another.
The Last Things
We believe that, according to his promise and at a time
known only to God, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly to earth and
the establishment of his kingdom. He will raise the dead and judge all men by
His righteous standard. There will be an eternal separation of those without
Christ to hell, a place of real and eternal punishment, and the saved to
endless joy in a perfect place of fellowship with God. The Bible teaches that
believers are to live as if the time of Christ’s return could be at any moment.