We strive to be God-centered, Bible-saturated, Gospel-driven, and Grace-motivated in everything we do.
If you are unfamiliar with Christianity, this is the section of the website which can get confusing. We put this here for people who may be looking for a new church home after moving into the area. Ultimately, what we hope to communicate by this statement of faith is that we seek to take God and his Word (the Bible) seriously. We exist, like all of God’s created world, for His own glory. Therefore, everything we do has as its chief aim, making much of God. He alone is worthy of our worship. He is absolutely sovereign and infinitely good. We want to understand more and more of Him every second of every day, but we believe that we will never truly see or understand the greatness of God, without looking deeply and intently into His Word.
Because of this, we want our worship services, Bible studies, prayer time, and even our times together as individual families to be drenched with the truth of God’s Word. We believe the Bible reveals one overarching truth, called the Gospel. The Gospel is the true good news about Jesus Christ, God’s only Son—His miraculous birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, glorious resurrection, and His soon return.
It is our conviction that this good news changes everything. It changes the way we look at all of life—our goals, dreams, relationships, and our own identity. When the Gospel is central in the life of a church, grace will become one of its undeniable and defining characteristics. This grace that so profoundly shapes our life together is expressed clearly in the following statement: We are more sinful and flawed at our deepest level than we ever believed, but at the same time, we are more loved and accepted by Jesus Christ than we ever could have hoped.
What We Believe and Teach
The Bible
The Scriptures (sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments) are complete and without error in the original writings. The Bible has been reliably preserved and is the sole authority in all areas of faith and practice. (Matthew 5:18; Romans 10:13-17; II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:20-21)
God
There is one God who eternally exists in three persons–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity is distinct yet coequal in essence and every divine perfection. (Matthew 28:19; John 1:1, 3; Romans 1:19-20; Ephesians 4:5-6)
God the Father is the Creator of all things and has decreed for His glory all things that come to pass. The Father governs all His creation by His providence, sovereignly purposing all things toward the praise of His glory. (Genesis 1; Ephesians 1:11; 3:9)
The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, by whom all things continue in existence. Without ceasing to be God, Jesus became man conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, living a sinless life and dying in substitutionary atonement for mankind’s sin. Having accomplished redemption for believers in Him, Jesus was resurrected with a physical body and ascended into heaven, from where He perpetually intercedes for His people and will return to earth to reign. (Isaiah 7:14; Micah 5:2; Matthew 1:23, 25; John 1:3; Acts 2:30-31; Romans 3:24-25; Philippians 2:5-8; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 7:25; Revelation 20)
The Holy Spirit is an eternal person, active in creation, the revelation of the Scriptures to mankind, and salvation. The Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment, while regenerating, baptizing, indwelling and teaching those who believe, so that believers may be filled with the Spirit of God. (Genesis 1:2; John 3:5-6; 16:8; Romans 8:9; I Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 5:18; Titus 3:5; II Peter 1:21)
Mankind and Sin
God created man in His likeness with the purpose that man should enjoy God and glorify Him forever. Through Adam’s sin of disobedience, the image of God in man has been corrupted and passed on so that no one is able to please God and is hopelessly lost apart from divine grace. Mankind lives under sin’s consequences of alienation from God, death and judgment. (Genesis 1:26-27; 3:1-24; Romans 3:10-12, 23; 5:12-21; Ephesians 2:1-3)
Salvation
Salvation is by God’s grace through faith on the basis of the redemption by Jesus Christ and not on the basis of human merit or works. God grants salvation to those who turn in faith to God and in repentance from sin. Faith is complete reliance in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Repentance is demonstrated by righteous attitudes and conduct in submission to God. Salvation is an all-inclusive term from the special calling of God to justification by faith to regeneration and sanctification through the Holy Spirit to ultimate glorification in the presence of God.
Church
All who place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual body, the Church, of which He is the Head. The formation of the church began on the day of Pentecost and will be completed at the second coming of Christ. The establishment and continuity of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament. Churches are responsible to glorify God through worship, evangelism, discipleship, fellowship and the administration of baptism and communion/Lord’s table.