OUR BELIEFS

Our Statement of Faith

We have endeavored to be deliberately open to the liberty of belief with respect to individual conscience and the variety of convictions and preferences that have historically been present throughout the rich and storied history of Christianity since the time of Jesus Christ.

As a result, we affirm in this section only that which is explicitly and indisputably affirmed by Scripture, and reject in this section only that which is explicitly and indisputably rejected by Scripture.

On God

We believe that there is one God, who eternally exists in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and that these three having the same nature, attributes, and perfections, are worthy of all worship, confidence and obedience.

On Jesus

We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ; in His Virgin Birth; in His sinless humanity; in His miracles; in His perfect sacrifice for the sins of all people through the shedding of His blood and death on the cross; in His bodily resurrection; in His ascension to the right hand of the Father; and in His personal return in power and glory.

On The Holy Spirit

We believe in the promise of the Holy Spirit, not as an influence, but as a Divine Person, who was sent at Pentecost to unify all believers into one body, the Church, whose indwelling is the source and power of all acceptable worship and service. He is our abiding Comforter and Helper, and is ever present to testify of Christ.

On Humanity

We believe that mankind was designed, male and female, in the image and likeness of God, but that mankind’s sin has alienated us from God. We believe that mankind is incapable of attaining salvation by any personal effort or merit.

On Salvation

We believe that salvation is a free gift of God offered to all humanity by grace and received through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and is necessarily expressed and made manifest by works pleasing to God.

While we understand and embrace the quandaries and mysteries that exist in the category of soteriology, especially with regards to God’s sovereignty and man’s libertarian free will, we ultimately reject any belief system that removes or diminishes one in favor of the other in an attempt to disentangle any perceived tension in this realm. We believe and teach that God is above all, but we do not believe that this truth exists in conflict with the Biblical teaching that mankind has and exercises a free will, and that God desires all humans to be saved and commands all humans, everywhere, to repent.

On The Church

We believe that the Church is the body and bride of Christ, and manifests in local assemblies all around the world. We believe that the Church in a larger sense is a spiritual family united by the Holy Spirit, and in a local sense is a particular group of believers committed to regularly assembling together. 

The church in every sense is commanded to share their possessions, services, and finances with each other, pray for one another, and keep each other accountable while bearing each others’ burdens in love and humility.

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Head over all the church, commanded His people to hold to the practice of water baptism by immersion and also to observe the regular, repeated memorial of the Lord’s Supper. The early church knew nothing of an unbaptized or unchurched believer — these are anomalies at best, not normalcies.

On Last Things

We believe that, while there are many different views with regard to eschatology and last things, there will be a physical resurrection of both the saved and the lost in the last day: those who are saved unto the resurrection of life, and those who are lost unto the resurrection of the second death.

On The Bible

We believe in the the “divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God, without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. We also affirm the power of God’s word to accomplish his purpose of salvation. The message of the Bible is addressed to all mankind. For God’s revelation in Christ and in Scripture is unchangeable. Through it the Holy Spirit still speaks today. He illumines the minds of God’s people in every culture to perceive its truth freshly through their own eyes and thus discloses to the whole church ever more of the many-colored wisdom of God” (taken from the The Lausanne Covenant). We believe, as did Jesus Christ, that the Bible is ultimately a “unified story that leads to Jesus” (taken from BibleProject).

On Behavior

We believe that the life of the believer is to be characterized by the fruits of the Spirit, not the works of the flesh. We believe that to sin is to miss the mark of God’s design and ultimately harm the witness of the church while negatively impacting the world itself.

On Human Sexuality

We believe that God designed and ordained only two sexes (which we do not hold distinct from genders): male and female. We believe that sexuality was intended to be expressed between one male (who was born male) and one female (who was born female) only, and then only within the covenant of marriage.

We therefore reject any form of sexual conduct or marriage that does not fall within this category. We also reject transgenderism, pedophilia, bestiality, and pornography as harmful distortions of sexuality. 

On Abortion

We believe that life begins not at birth, but at conception. While there have been many recent and robust hermeneutical developments and discussions around this topic in the 21st century, we maintain that there is significant and sufficient reason to believe that the general practice of abortion is the cruel and unjust termination of life.