What We Believe

We believe that by the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, salvation is found in no one and nowhere else other than through personal faith in Jesus Christ. We believe that by the blood of Christ and his resurrection power we are a new creation in Christ, redeemed and forgiven. Those who repent and accept God’s gift of forgiveness do so by God’s gift of faith, not assisted by their works. We believe that they are sanctified by the Holy Spirit and are delivered from condemnation, receiving the gift of eternal life. This Gospel is to be proclaimed through all the earth to all peoples.

We believe that there is one living and true God, eternally existing in three persons; that these are equal in every divine perfection; and that they execute distinct but harmonious offices in the work of creation, providence, and redemption.

We believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love. We believe that He infallibly foreknows all that shall come to pass, that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, that He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ.

We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, eternally begotten of the Father, uncreated, fully God and fully human. We believe that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, performed many miracles, and His teachings are truth. We believe in His substitutionary, atoning death; His victory over evil and death; His bodily resurrection; His ascension into heaven; His perpetual intercession for His people; and His personal, visible return to earth.

We believe in the Holy Spirit who comes from the Father and Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and to regenerate, sanctify, and empower all who believe in Jesus Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Christ, and that He is an abiding helper, teacher, and guide.

We believe that the Word of God, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is fully inspired and without error in the original manuscripts, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We believe it has supreme authority, testing all claims about what is true and right for faith and practice.

We believe that man and woman were created by God in His own image. We believe that in Adam all humanity incurred the penalty of physical, spiritual and eternal death, which is separation from God and slavery to sin. As a consequence, all are born with a sinful nature and are sinners by choice. Therefore all are under God’s just condemnation.

We believe that good works are owed to God, that they are the necessary fruit of salvation, giving evidence of what God has done. They reflect the glory of our God. Therefore, we believe that Christians should live for the glory of God and the well-being of one another – first to the household of God and then to all mankind. Their conduct should be worthy of their calling before the Church and the world. They should be faithful stewards of their possessions with generosity characterizing their lifestyles. They should seek both to realize for themselves and to encourage other believers to the full stature of maturity in conformity to the image of Christ.

We believe in the universal Church, united in one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a living spiritual body of which Christ is the head and regenerated persons of all people groups are its members. We believe in the local church, consisting of a company of believers in Jesus Christ, baptized on a credible profession of faith, and associated for worship, discipleship (which includes building up one another), and reaching out to the community and the world with both good works and the Gospel.

We believe Jesus Christ commands all believers to celebrate two outward signs of God’s grace in corporate worship. First, the Lord’s Supper is to be celebrated often with joy, remembering the Lord Jesus’s death for forgiveness of sins, along with enjoying the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. This is practiced by taking bread and the fruit of the vine in thanksgiving for the Gospel, proclaiming the Lord’s death until His return.

Second, public baptism is to be practiced as the outward physical sign of spiritual conversion by the Gospel. We practice baptism after confession of faith in Jesus Christ, by immersion in water pronounced in the name of God “the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” according to the command of Jesus Christ. Baptism is an act of obedience expressing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is also a testimony to his or her faith in the final resurrection of the dead.

We believe that every person who has faith in Jesus Christ has a direct spiritual relationship with God the Father by the agency of the indwelling Holy Spirit, not mediated by any other person or ecclesiastical authority. While each person is ultimately and personally responsible to God in all matters of faith, he or she is also accountable to his or her local church as expressed in the terms of membership.

We believe the church and state must be kept separate as they have different functions, each fulfilling its God-given duties. God has ordained the state to have both a protective function for the innocent and the power of punishment for wrongdoers. The church has both a God-given right and calling to be a moral and spiritual voice through words and works in state and society.

In the spirit of Jesus, we lovingly oppose racism, greed, vice and all forms of sexual immorality. We compassionately speak for the unborn, seeking to minister to the orphan, widow, stranger, the sick and elderly among us. We believe in the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. Every Christian is called to exhibit a productive and fruitful life which brings honor and praise to God, letting our light shine before others.

We believe God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood or adoption.

Marriage is only the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. Outside of marriage, God has called all people to live celibate lives. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. A wife is to respect her husband as head of the family, as unto the Lord. Children are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Children are to obey their parents while dependent and are to always honor them.

God has called many adults to be single for a season or lifetime. All adults, whether married or single, are equally valued.

We believe in the personal and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth where he will fully bring about his Kingdom and renew all things. He will return to destroy Satan and all his works, judge the nations and all mankind. Death and the curse will be destroyed. The new heaven and the new earth will be eternally established. There will be the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment of all mankind will take place resulting in the endless suffering of the wicked and the eternal joy of the righteous, His people, whom God will be with forever.