Our Values
No matter where they find themselves, God sent His Son to die for not just us, but for everyone, so that they too may have an opportunity to get to know Him better.
We are committed to walking humbly before God, loving mercy and justice.
Mic 6:8
We interact with others and the world based on Jesus’ instructions to love others as He has loved me.
John 13:34
About God
Because He has created everything, He has authority in and over everything. He is worthy of honor and praise by everything that is. He is infinite in everything and perfect.
Some of the Characteristics that we use to describe God include
The image that we have of God is that He is a Spirit (John 4:24).
About Jesus
Jesus was born of a virgin. Jesus represents the ultimate expression of God’s love towards us, showing that Love overpowers sin and evil. God’s love sent Jesus to do what Humanity could not do for himself. For example, Humanity could not go back to his past sins, or even to Adam’s sins and do anything about them. In Humanity’s present state, he would not even be a worthy sacrifice to be offered to God.
As a human, He demonstrated the incarnation and how to Live for God while in the flesh; as the Truth, He demonstrated how we might understand God’s law and His promises—not just by the letter of the Law, but that we might understand the true purpose of the Law. By Life, Jesus being on the Right Hand of the Father represents eternal life, which was God’s original plan for humanity (Rom 8:2-4).
About The Holy Spirit
He has been with God from the beginning and as such was active during creation, was the One that inspired the writings of the Canon. He is still with us and based on the Words of Jesus – the spirit descended as Jesus ascended.
He continues to teach us and bring things to our remembrance (John 14:26). He helps and reminds us of God and the salvation we are given which helps us shape our relationship with God, fellow believers, and non-believers. He is living in us and around us. He establishes God’s ownership in us, and seals us until Jesus returns and redeems us (Eph. 4:30).
About The Bible
We believe that the Canon in its whole was provided through divine inspiration, and it is complete in providing knowledge of God and instruction for the Conduct of the Believer. Since it was authored by God, it is inerrant in its instruction and purpose (2Tim 3:15-17). We believe that it will remain until the end of time (Matt 24:35).
Because we believe that the Bible is a tool for Believers, we believe that God’s Holy Spirit assists us by revealing the truths found in this sacred text.
About Humanity
Using free will, man decided in the Garden of Eden to disobey God. Because of this disobedience, Humanity was no longer perfectly aligned with God, but was separated from God, and therefore corrupted his nature of holiness. Thus, was now open to and even drawn to sin (Eph 2:13). Everyone after Adam is now imputed with a sin nature as descendants of Adam and Eve (Rom 5:19).
Not having our spirit aligned with God causes us to be separated from God – which is sin. Thus, we can be significantly challenged with other powers that dominate us, which are enemies of God: the world, the flesh, and Satan. Those enemies of God seek to destroy us and cause us to destroy one another (John 10:10).
We believe that the effort to be more like Christ is deliberate and intentional. The results of this – we believe, helps define our purpose, gives us life, and allows us to act as agents of God to give life to the world.
We know that the result of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life (Rom 6:23).
About The Church
Baptized believers represent the Church (Acts 2:41-42). They are the building both inside and outside of the mortar. The Church is important as a symbol of God’s love, and a place or person for the world to go to when everyone else rejects them. When the Church gathers, ordinances are important practices that unify the body of believers, and that continue our tribute to and gratitude for what God has done for us.
Baptism – Baptism is the immersion in water of a believer into the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost. This ordinance symbolizes our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior with its effect in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life in Jesus Christ. This is also a prerequisite to our ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. (Matt 28:19; Rom. 6:4)
The Lord’s Supper – This ordinance is one where baptized believers enter, after self-examination, the sharing of sacred bread – which symbolizes the body of our Lord and Savior; the sacred wine – which symbolizes the blood of our Lord and Savior; all to commemorate the dying love of Christ for our sakes. (Luke 22:7-34; 1Cor 11:22-30)
Believers – We Believe that all believers are called to minister as individuals and in community. “The church is the church only when it exists for others,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As a congregation of priests, we each bring varied gifts to the faith community.
There are two aspects of our priesthood:
1) as individuals we are committed to our personal relationship with God;
2) as part of the community we worship together and support one another, realizing that in community we meld as equals, blending our spiritual gifts for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ (Eph 4:12; Romans 15:16; Hebrews 3:1).
About Salvation
Humanity, with its nature corrupted, now needs to be realigned with God: it needs to be saved from death due to sin and restored to God’s purpose for Humanity in the beginning to have eternal life (Rom 6:23). He needs regeneration or rebirth (John 3:3). He cannot do this on his own, but God- through Jesus Christ has come up with a way (Rom 5:19).
So, God sent Jesus – His only begotten Son, as our Mediator and the only One that could be the sacrifice for our sin nature and to take away the power that sin had over our nature (John 3:16).
In Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, we are now re-born with a new nature, and we are justified (Rom 5:9). Thus, all our sins have been accounted for, and paid for. So, although, we needed to be saved, we did not earn it, ask for it, or even deserve it. It was truly God’s grace (Eph 2:8-10).
As a result, we are not only justified, but we are sanctified – set apart, with God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in us to keep us. We are also continually sanctified by the Word of God. Humanity’s response to this wonderful gift is that of acceptance (Rom 10:9-10).
About Ministry
We believe that the primary mission of Ministry is to bring people into the knowledge of the saving power of Jesus Christ. Ministry is meeting needs and it represents what Christ did. As believers, we are committed to continued study and prayer. We are mindful of those things that would please God.
About Atonement
Atonement is an act that is done to pay for something else – divine justice. We believe that this act of atonement could only be done by someone that was not guilty—this would be Jesus. The One Time (Hebrews 10:9-13; Rom. 5:19) act that Jesus did in atonement for our sins was due to grace and mercy. Jesus provided not only the sacrifice needed, but—through His sacrifice—justified us.
About Death
Those that have not been saved will die and their spirits shall return to God preserved in darkness until the Judgement. Those that die who have been preserved will have their spirits return to God and be at rest with God. At the last day, the just and the unjust will rise (Acts 24:15). Jesus will return to issue the Judgement. The unjust will be sent to eternal punishment, but the just will get eternal life (Matthew 25:31-46; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
