Mission, Vision, Beliefs

To create environments and build relationships that promote devotion to Jesus Christ.

Vision

To be a world changing community that offers a living invitation to all people to join in the journey of knowing Jesus better.

Values

1. Lives surrendered to Biblical authority
2. Passionate pursuit of the one true God in Jesus Christ
3. Sacrificial love for people in search of truth
4. Commitment to love and minister to one another

Statement of Faith

• In essential beliefs - Unity

  "There is one body and one Spirit...there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of us all... " Eph.4:4

• In nonessential beliefs - Liberty

  “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters... Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God... So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God." Romans 14:1,4,12,22

• In all our beliefs- Charity(Love)

  "...If l hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but also the very secrets of God, and if I have the faith that can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all." 1 Cor.13:2

The Essentials

1. GOD

   There is one God. That God exists eternally, past, present and future. He has manifested himself to us in three Persons as described by the Trinity--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--who are united in essence and co-equal.

   • God the Father

     God the Father is creator and sustainer of all things. He is the maker and sustainer of life. He is completely sovereign over all things, which means he bears ultimate authority in all things. His creative purpose and redemptive plan cannot be thwarted.

   • God the Son

     Jesus Christ is God having taken human form. Jesus Christ is the eternally pre-existent Son of God, the living Word, who became incarnate through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. He is perfect Deity and true humanity united in one person. Both natures are whole, perfect, and distinct. He was tempted in all ways, yet He lived a sinless life. He was obedient to God the Father, even unto death. He voluntarily atoned for sinners by dying on the cross as their substitute and shedding His blood for the forgiveness of their sins. He thus revealed divine love and upheld divine justice, removing our guilt and reconciling us to God. On the third day after his death, He rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died. He ascended bodily into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father, where He, the only mediator between God and man, continually makes intercession for believers. He shall come again to complete His saving work and to complete God's redemptive purpose.

   • God the Holy Spirit

     The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity. We come to know who Jesus Christ is, and indeed who the Father is, as the Holy Spirit reveals them to us. As we are exposed to the truths of Jesus Christ as described in Scripture, it is the Holy Spirit who confirms the truth of those words to our hearts. The Holy Spirit instills confidence that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be, and is worthy of our faith. He draws us to Christ, imparts new life to our spirits, and indwells us, as we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

     He convicts an unbelieving world of sin, truth, righteousness, and judgment. The Holy Spirit further comforts, encourages, leads, and exhorts all those who are children of God. The Holy Spirit’s ultimate goal is to see all humankind conformed to the image and likeness of Christ, sealing them until the day of redemption. His fullness, power and control are appropriated in the believer's life by faith. The Holy Spirit alone administers spiritual gifts to the Church for the common good of all believers.

2. THE BIBLE

   The basis of our beliefs is the Bible, God's written Word as inspired through the lives of Godly servants. The Bible includes and is limited to the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament. It was uniquely, verbally, and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, and was written free from error in the original manuscripts. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks. It is the only infallible rule in faith and practice. All doctrinal statements must be measured against the full counsel of God in Holy Scripture.

3. HUMANKIND

   People were created in the image and likeness of God that they might know, glorify, worship, and enjoy Him forever. Tempted by Satan, humankind willfully disobeyed God and sinned. Thus, people were alienated from their perfect Creator and plunged into a state of sin and separation from God. This historic fall brought all people under the sentence of eternal condemnation and death. Humankind’s nature is corrupt, and we are thus, apart from the grace of God through faith, totally unable to please God, have fellowship with Him, or enter into His presence. The Good News is this; although deserving of death, Jesus Christ died as a substitution for all of humanity. He died that we, as humans, might live, knowing that the price for our sin has been covered.

4. SIN

   Sin, broadly speaking, is our human attempt to live independently of God. Sin can be more subtle than open defiance against God. Sin may simply be a set of wrong priorities in our lives, or a neglectful failure to love and forgive others as Jesus has loved and forgiven us. At the end of the day, sin results from some form of self-exaltation and pride, in which we remove Christ from the Throne of our lives, and place ourselves there instead.

5. REDEMPTION/SALVATION

   Salvation is wholly a work of God's grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human merit or goodness or religious ceremony. Jesus died upon the cross as the sinless substitute for sinners of all ages and times. His death perfectly satisfies the demands of God's holy justice and appeases His holy wrath. Therefore, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

   All who receive, by faith, the resurrected Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord are spiritually born into relationship with God by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Thus, God imputes His righteousness to those who put their faith solely in the substitutionary death of Christ for their salvation. As a result of this faith, the redeemed sinner receives eternal life and is free from the penalty and power of sin and, in heaven, from the very presence of sin. Redemption does not, however, promise that we will escape the earthly consequences of past, present, or future sinful acts. Neither is one's station in life, physical circumstances, financial status, etc., necessarily indicative of the state of one's heart before or after salvation. God may grant physical health and material prosperity to some, but this is because of His specific grace alone in accordance with His sovereign purpose and plan.

6. ETERNAL LIFE

   Eternal life is a relationship that begins at the moment of salvation and continues forever. Eternal life is knowing the one true and living God and Jesus Christ whom He sent.

   The great end, which Christianity sets before us, is the joy of eternal life in the knowledge and presence of the eternal God. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.

   When the Holy Spirit indwells the new believer at the moment of salvation, He imparts this eternal life to the believer.

   Although all die physically, God will ultimately resurrect all believers in glorified bodies that are incorruptible, without sin, decay, illness, pain, or death--finally perfected for eternal life.

7. ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

   Since human salvation is wholly a work of God's grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human merit or goodness or religious ceremony, salvation rests securely with God.

   All who are born again of the Spirit can be assured of their salvation from the very moment at which they trust Christ as their Savior and Lord. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. This assurance is not based upon any kind of human merit or feelings, but on the promise of God and the testimony of the Holy Spirit to the believer through His Word. Further, when a person is born of the Spirit of God, he is a new creation. He now desires to please God. This new inclination, the intent of the heart, is called repentance and is evidence of a changed life. Therefore, the three-fold witness of salvation—the witness of Scripture, the witness of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the witness of a changed life--is God's assurance that the believer is a child of God.

8. SANCTIFICATION

   From the moment of salvation, every believer is being conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. This process is called sanctification. God's promise is that He is faithful to complete this process He began in us.

   God created us in Christ Jesus to do good works, which He prepared in advance for us to do, so that people will see our good works and praise our Father in Heaven. The Holy Spirit is the active agent in fulfilling these good works; the responsibility of the believer is to obey.

   Through obedience to the Word of God and the empowering of the Holy Spirit, the believer is able to live a life of increasing holiness in conformity to the will of God, becoming more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ.

9. CHRIST'S RETURN

   Jesus Christ will come again to the earth--personally, visibly, and bodily--to consummate history and fulfill the eternal plan of God the Father. No man knows the day and time of Jesus' return, but the fact of His return is certain. The Scriptures declare that when Jesus returns to the earth in glory, every eye will behold Him, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Christians are to be about the Father's business and are to maintain an attitude of expectancy.

10. JUDGMENT

    Upon Christ’s return, everyone who has lived must stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ.

    Christians: All who confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord have already been judged at the Cross and have passed from death to life, from condemnation to salvation. Their names will be in the Lamb's book of life, and they will be ushered into God's presence forever. Their works, however, will be judged and each Christian will receive what is due him for the things done while in his mortal body.

    Non-believers: If anyone's name is not found written in the book of life, he will be thrown into the lake of fire, which is the second death, being punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and the majesty of His power.

11. THE CHURCH

    Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body. The Church is not a building or an institution; rather it is composed of all people who have received salvation. His people are to assemble together regularly to devote themselves to worship, teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. The Lord Jesus Christ commanded His Church to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to disciple men of every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all He has commanded. The church is to reflect the love of Christ through its service to others.

    Two sacraments have been entrusted to the Church: baptism and communion. They are not, however, to be regarded as means of salvation.