Our beliefs
Our desire is not to “reinvent” church or how we “do church”. Our church’s main mission is to Point Lives to Jesus Christ and it is our desire that we accomplish this mission through a Biblical pattern. Our goal is to pattern what we do, as a church, on the early church in Acts 2:46-47 and to emphasize these five “basics” of church life and the Christian life:
Discipleship in the word —
(vs. 42) because we believe that God speaks to us directly through His Word and that His Word has everything that we need to live godly in this world, we will preach the Word of God in our services, we will teach the Word of God in a variety of ways that readily applies to daily life, and we will encourage and challenge each individual to be growing through the consistent reading and studying of God’s Word.
Worship that exalts God —
(vs. 42, 47) because we believe that God alone is worthy of our worship, we will corporately worship in a way that draws attention to Him and Him alone and stirs our passions toward Him. Because we believe that we are commanded to pray, we will pray together and encourage the discipline of prayer in the lives of each person associated with our church.
Fellowship with each other —
(vs. 42, 46) because we believe that we are to be relationally involved in each other’s lives, we will encourage and stimulate fellowship among the body of Christ. This type of fellowship will create bonds of love which cannot easily be broken, accountability within the body of Christ, and a means by which care can be demonstrated.
Ministry to each other and to those outside our fellowship —
(vs. 44-45) because God has given us each talents and abilities to be carefully used for His purposes, we will encourage the use of these talents and abilities to minister to each other within the body of Christ and to those who are not a part of this body to accomplish our God given mission of Pointing Lives to Jesus Christ.
Evangelization of the lost —
(vs. 47) because we recognize that we are called to reach out to the world around us we will work to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our community, our nation and throughout our world through a variety of mission endeavors and our personal witness to the glory and power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We simply desire to be a group of growing, God-honoring believers. One of the identifying marks of a God honoring church is the maturity of those who make up the church. In order to facilitate the spiritual growth of our members, we will preach and teach the Word of God to our people and we will worship together in an atmosphere that directs our attention to the greatness and glory of our great God. We will seek to avoid dangerous practices such as employing trendy church growth models that employ a “growth at all costs mentality”, teaching that God’s Word is only found in one translation, using anything else but God’s Word for the care and cure of souls and any other practice or method that is contrary to God’s Word.
Faith Statement
ARTICLE 1 — The Scriptures
We believe the Bible in its entirety, is the verbally inspired, inerrant and infallible authoritative Word of God, and that God gave the words of Scripture through inspiration without error in the original autographs, we believe that the Bible is the supreme and final authority for faith and life.
II Timothy 3:16-17, II Peter 1:19-21
ARTICLE 2 — God
We believe in one, true, living God; an infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Spirit, the Creator and Supreme Ruler of Heaven and earth, inexpressibly glorious in holiness and worthy of all possible honor, confidence and love and that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal in every divine perfection and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption
Genesis 1:1-2, Matthew 28:19, Mark 12:29, Acts 5:3-4, II Corinthians 13:14
ARTICLE 3 — Jesus Christ
We believe that Christ is absolute Deity, that He is both human and divine, both true God and true man; that He existed from eternity and is co-equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit; that He was born of a virgin and lived a sinless life; that He died on the cross, was buried, and arose bodily from the grave; that He ascended bodily into heaven and intercedes now for the saints; and rules over His creation now and forever.
Luke 1:26-28, John 1:1-2, 14; John 10:30, I Corinthians 15:4, Acts 1:11, II Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 2:5-8, Colossians 1:16-17, Hebrews 4:15, I John 5:20
ARTICLE 4 — Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a Divine person, equal with God the Father, and God the Son; that he was active in creation; that He convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment; that He is the agent in the New Birth; that He baptizes all believers into the body of Christ at conversion; that He comforts, indwells, seals, endues, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies, fills, and helps the believer. We believe that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to believers but that the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit are completed and are not applicable to the work of the Holy Spirit in this age
Psalm 139:7, John 14:16-17, 16:13-14; I Corinthians 6:19, Acts 5:3-4, Ephesians 1:13
ARTICLE 5 — Devil and Satan
We believe in the reality and personality of Satan, the Devil; and that he was created by God as an angel but, through pride and rebellion, became the enemy of his Creator; that he became the unholy god of this age and the ruler of all the powers of darkness, that he is presently the accuser of the brethren and is destined to the judgment of an eternal justice in the lake of fire.
Isaiah 14:12-15, Matthew 4:1-11, II Corinthians 4:4, Revelation 12:10, 20:10
ARTICLE 6 — The Creation
We believe in the Biblical account of Creation, including angels, physical universe, and man, and that this is a literal, historical account of the direct, immediate, ex nihilo (out of nothing) creative acts of God, without any evolutionary process.
Genesis 1-2, Psalm 102:25, Exodus 20:11, Acts 14:15, Hebrews 11:3
ARTICLE 7 — Fall of Man
We believe that Adam, created in the image of God, was without sin but that he voluntarily sinned and thereby brought upon himself and all mankind the wrath of God manifested in physical death, and also that spiritual and eternal death which is separation from God. All human beings are born with a sinful nature and are sinners in thought, word, and deed.
Genesis 2:16-17, 3:1-6; Romans 3:10-19,23; 5:12; Ephesians 2:1
ARTICLE 8 — Salvation
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures as a Substitutionary sacrifice and rose again for our justification and that all who trust in Him are justified on the merit of His shed blood and are saved by grace through faith wholly apart from human merit and works.
Isaiah 53:6, Acts 16:31, Romans 3:21-28, I Corinthians 15:3-4, II Corinthians 5:21, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5-6
ARTICLE 9 — Grace and New Birth
We believe that in order to be saved, sinners must be born again; that the new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus; that it is instantaneous and not a process; that in the new birth the one dead in trespasses and in sins is made a partaker of the divine nature and receives eternal life, the free gift of God; that the new creation is brought about in a manner above our comprehension, not by culture, not by character, nor by the will of man, but wholly and solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with divine truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the Gospel; that its proper evidence appears in the holy fruits of repentance and faith and newness of life.
John 1:12-13, 3:3,16; Romans 6:23, II Corinthians 5:17, II Peter 1:4, I John 5:1a
ARTICLE 10 — Justification
We believe that Justification is the judicial act of God, whereby He declares the guilty sinner, once for all to be righteous through the imputed righteousness of Christ securing the forgiveness of sins, and that it is given not because of works but only through faith in the Redeemer’s shed blood
Romans 3:24, 4:5, 5:1-9; Galatians 2:16
ARTICLE 11 — Sanctification
We believe that Sanctification is the divine setting apart of the believer unto God, accomplished in a threefold manner; first, an eternal act of God, based upon redemption in Christ, establishing the believer in a position of holiness at the moment he trusts the Savior; second, a continuing process in the believer as the Holy Spirit applies the Word of God to his life; third, the final accomplishment of this process at the believer’s entrance into heaven.
John 17:17, II Corinthians 3:18, Ephesians 5:25-27, I Thessalonians 5:23-24, Hebrews 10:10-14, Jude 24
ARTICLE 12 — Separation
We believe in personal separation from all practices and influences of the world which hinder a Spirit-filled life. We believe in Biblical separation from all forms of ecclesiastical liberalism, apostasy, and compromise.
Romans 12:1-2, 16:17-18; II Corinthians 6:14, 7:1; Galatians 5:16-25, Ephesians 4:14, II Thessalonians 3:6,14; James 4:4, I John 2:15-17
ARTICLE 13 — Security of the Saints
We believe that all who are truly born again are sealed by the Holy Spirit and eternally kept by God.
John 10:27-29, Romans 8:35-39, Ephesians 1:13-14, 4:30; Philippians 1:6, Jude 1
ARTICLE 14 — The Local Church
We believe that the local church is an organized body of immersed believers, observing the ordinances of Christ, having the offices of pastor and deacon exercising the gifts, rights and privileges and responsibilities given them by the Word. The local church has the absolute right of self government, free from outside interference and is directly responsible to God. We believe the mission of the church is to glorify God, edify believers, and seek to evangelize the lost
Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 2:4, 20:28; I Corinthians 1:2, 12:27; Ephesians 4:11-12, Colossians 1:18, I Timothy 3:1-15
ARTICLE 15 — Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
We believe that baptism is an outward testimony of inward regeneration. We believe that baptism is the single immersion of a believer in water to show forth our identification with the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, through Whom we died to sin and rose to a new life; that baptism is to be performed publicly under the authority of the local church and that it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is the commemoration of His death until He come, and should always be preceded always by solemn self-examination.
Matthew 3:16, 28:16-20; John 3:34, Acts 2:41-42, 8:36,38-39; Romans 6:3-5, Colossians 2:12, I Corinthians 23-28
ARTICLE 16 — Righteous and Wicked
We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked; that only those who are justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and sanctified by the Spirit of God are truly righteous in His esteem; while all such as continue in unrepentance and unbelief are in His sight wicked and under the curse; and this distinction holds among men both in and after death. We believe in the bodily resurrection of all dead; the saved to a life of eternal glory and blessing in heaven with God; the unsaved to eternal judgment of conscious suffering in the lake of fire.
Proverbs 14:32, Malachi 3:18, Matthew 7:13-14, 10:28, 25:46; Luke 16:25, John 5:28-29, Romans 6:23, II Thessalonians 1:6-9, Revelation 21:1-8
ARTICLE 17 — Civil Government
We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interests and good order of human society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed. However, we believe that civil government has no right to legislate or seek to control matters of religious faith or practice.
Matthew 22:21, Acts 5:29, Romans 13:1-7, I Timothy 2:1-2, Titus 3:1, I Peter 2:13-14, 17
ARTICLE 18 — Future Events
We believe in the imminent “Blessed Hope” the Rapture of the church before the Tribulation, when “The Lord shall descend from heaven” to catch up His bride to meet Him in the air and to participate in the Judgment Seat of Christ and the Marriage of the Lamb in Heaven; that the Tribulation will begin on the earth culminating in the literal return of Christ to earth at the end of the Tribulation, the setting up of His millennial reign which is followed by the eternal state, including the new heaven and the new earth.
John 14:1-3, I Corinthians 15:51-52, I Thessalonians 4:13-18, Titus 2:13, Revelation 1:7, 19:11-16, Revelation 20
Church covenant
Having been led, as we believe, to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, we do now, in the presence of God and this assembly solemnly and joyfully renew our covenant with each other.
We will work and pray for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
We will walk together in brotherly love and exercise an affectionate care and watchfulness over each other. We will faithfully admonish and encourage one another as occasion may require and will be slow to take offense, and always ready for reconciliation.
We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, nor neglect to pray for ourselves and each other.
We will endeavor to bring up such as may at any time be under our care, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and by a pure and loving example seek the salvation of our family and friends.
We will rejoice at each other’s happiness and endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other’s burdens and sorrows.
We will seek, by the power of Christ in us, to live carefully in the world by denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and remembering that we have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life.
We will work together for the continuance of a faithful evangelical ministry in this church, as we sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline and doctrines. We will contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations.
We will, when we move from this place, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and principles of God’s Word.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.