We Believe

We believe this church is composed of believers in Christ who have made a public profession of their faith in Christ, been baptized by immersion, gather as a believer’s church, share in the Lord’s Supper and live their faith as visible saints.

As stated above, we believe the Bible to be the inerrant, infallible, and inspired Word of God. As such, all teachings are from the Bible, including sermons and classes. We encourage all members to own a good translation of the Bible and to not only read it, but to study, memorize, and think upon it daily. By focusing our minds on the Word of God, the Holy Spirit of God will transform us more and more into the image of Jesus Christ, the Lord and our Savior.

Our love and loyalty to the Word of God is not a work of salvation, but a response to our salvation, as we see the words of Jesus Christ as the words of life.  There is no other book ever written or to be written which will hold an equal place of authority in our lives. We see the Bible as God’s love letter to His people, and His people, saved by His grace, respond to the Bible accordingly by the work of the Holy Spirit, who is our primary teacher and counselor in all matters of faith and lifestyle.

Scriptural baptism is the immersion of the believer in water symbolizing the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus. Grace is given where medical conditions do not allow immersion.

The Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of the church and is observed in commemoration of the suffering and death of Christ and the expectation of His return.

Jesus Christ modeled a life of prayer. In fact, His ministry has been rightly described as a prayer ministry, as we see Him praying so much in the Gospels. Jesus prayed before major decisions and after significant accomplishments, he taught others to pray and went off to pray by Himself. For Jesus it was not a before or after thing or a private or community thing, it was an all-the-time reality of being in fellowship with God and doing God’s will.

We, too, are commanded to pray without ceasing. This is only possible for us by following Jesus’ example, praying as Jesus taught His disciples to pray, and by walking in the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus is the second person of the Trinity and coequal and coexistent with the Father, so is the Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the Trinity.

Jesus promised that He would not leave us as orphans upon His departure, and the way He kept that promise after His atoning death on the Cross was His victorious resurrection from the grave and triumphant ascension to the right hand of the Father in Heaven, where He is in His physically resurrected body interceding (praying) for us today. As followers (disciples) of Jesus Christ, we are saved by God’s grace, and not by works so that no one should boast, at the moment of our faith conversion through the confession of our sins and repentance from self-lordship into Christ’s lordship.

It is at this moment of salvation that we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, which means the Holy Spirit indwells us and seals us for the Day of Redemption, granting us eternal security through our participation in the Trinitarian Fellowship of being “in Christ.” This is what the Bible references as being “saved", being "born again”, and being "baptized in the Holy Spirit"—it is the work of God’s grace through faith to bring a person from being "dead in their sin and transgressions" to being "alive in Christ".

We are commanded to walk in the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, to show the maturity of a Christian by demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, and self-control), and to do the work of a Christian by utilizing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. (for more about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, click HERE)  We believe a person is a redeemed (adopted) child of God when they are under the lordship of Jesus Christ, and leadership of the Holy Spirit will bring glory to God by exalting Jesus Christ. This is why we call God, “Our Father", as Jesus Christ modeled and instructed His disciples. The Holy Spirit manifests His presence in a person to glorify God alone and never a person.

We are God’s workmanship, and all that we do should be for His glory and not our own, for His coming Kingdom and not our temporary kingdoms.