What We Believe

We believe the Scriptures of the Old Testament and New Testament are the Word of God and are verbally inspired and inerrant in the original manuscripts and are sufficient for our practical instruction in faith and conduct (II Timothy 3:16,17).

We believe in one God eternally existing in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Son and the Spirit are divine, one in essence, nature, attributes and purpose with the Father.

1. The Father – The Father is (with the Son) the Creator and Preserver of all things.
2. The Son – Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, Redeemer and Savior of the world. He was eternally begotten of the Father, conceived by the Spirit and born to the Virgin Mary. He was the Word made flesh, therefore fully human and fully God. As the sinless Son, He is the perfect and only mediator between God and humanity (Acts 4:12).
3. The Spirit – The Holy Spirit convicts sinners, guides humans into truth, and regenerates believers to new life. Through the work of the indwelling Spirit, believers mature in their faith and are given gifts for ministry and edification in the body of Christ.

We believe mankind came into existence by the creation of God and was uniquely made in the image of God. Because of Adam’s fall, all men have inherited a sinful nature, and all men choose to sin (Romans 3:23). Sin separated man from God and placed him under condemnation. Man is not able to remedy his fallen state of his own accord.

We believe that salvation is a gift of God’s grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Christ died in our place and bore our sins in His own body. Good works and obedience are results of salvation, not requirements to obtain salvation.

We believe that water baptism by immersion is a new believer’s testimony of a good conscience towards God and a witness to others of a decision to live his life in faithfulness to God and for the glorification of His Kingdom (I Peter 3:21).

We believe that the Church consists of all who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and have committed to be faithful to the Word of God. Christ is the Head of the Church, and the believers are His Body. The Church is universal because it consists of believers from all people groups and from all ages. The Church is visible because of the believer’s obedience to God and separation from evil. The local church is where believers gather to worship, to hear the Word taught and preached, to edify one another and to practice the ordinances.

We believe in the blessed hope and future return of Jesus Christ to receive His saints (I Thessalonians 4:13-18). We believe in the visible and bodily return of Christ to earth to establish his promised millennial kingdom. We believe in the physical resurrection of all human beings – the saints to everlasting joy, and the wicked to eternal punishment (John 5:28,29).

A faith that is centered in Jesus Christ will be expressed practically, both as individuals and corporately. Faith is both lived and shared. Faith becomes credible to an observing world when it is demonstrated in the believer’s life. Jesus intended that our faith would be more than a private belief. A vibrant faith becomes salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16) when it is demonstrated through a life lived in loving service to others and a personal integrity and purity that gives witness to a heart that has been sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Christians, by necessity, engage with the culture of the world in which they live. There will be times, however, when our desire and intentions of being obedient to Christ and the Scripture will conflict with accepted cultural norms. As servants of Christ, we go into the world fully aware of the sharply different values of society. By faith, we confront those values that do not honor Christ by striving to live exemplary lives in all our conduct and practices. We must not limit faithful living to just a few particulars, but it is helpful to identify some of the major societal and cultural conflicts we may encounter.

We believe marriage is appointed by God to be a lifelong covenant of love between one man and one woman (Mark 10:6-9).

We believe that human life, from conception, is a sacred creation of God (Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13). Therefore, non-spontaneous abortion violates the sanctity of human life.

There is no biblical evidence that God allows a person to choose their gender identity. God created humans as exclusively male or female. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them” Gen. 1:27. As Christians we are called to show loving compassion to those who experience gender struggles and confusion. Sin has the power to distort the image of God in which they were created, but sin cannot remove God’s image (Rom. 1:24,25).

The ethics taught by Jesus and the writers of the New Testament picture non-violence towards all men. Jesus stated that His Kingdom was not of the world and his servants do not fight and that we are to love our enemies. The Apostle Paul reminds us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal and that we are to overcome evil with good. Therefore, we hold that acts of violence towards another human being and the destruction of human life are not justifiable to the Christian for any reason.

We practice Communion (Love Feast) as a three-fold service.

1. Feet-Washing - Following the example of Jesus with His disciples, we practice feet-washing to remind us of our responsibility to humbly serve our fellow believers and to remember the cleansing that Christ provides for us. (John 13:1-17)
2. Fellowship Meal - We participate in a simple meal, reflecting on the meal Jesus shared with his disciples as he was about to usher in the New Testament or Covenant by the offering of His Body for our sins. This meal also anticipates the future marriage feast (supper) of the Lamb as described in Revelation 19:7-9. This feast symbolizes the union of Christ (the Lamb) with His Bride (the Church) and represents the culmination of God’s redemptive plan and the eternal reign of Christ.
3. The Bread and the Cup - We break unleavened bread, representing the broken body of Christ. We share the cup, representing His shed blood to remember His suffering and His death on the cross (I Corinthians 11:26).

We believe that the Scripture calls for Christian women to veil their heads in times of prayer or prophesying as a recognition of God’s creation order (I Cor. 11:1-16).