Our Mission & Strategy
Our purpose is to help people make an eternal connection with Jesus Christ and with others in order to grow strong to produce fruit for the kingdom of God. Our strategy is to accomplish this by creating joyful, relevant, irresistible environments led by skilled staff and dedicated volunteers.
Our Beliefs
The Scriptures
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
II Timothy 3:16-17; Proverbs 30:5,6; II Peter 1:19-21; Psalm 119:130; Psalm 119:160
God
There is one and only one living and true God. …The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
Exodus 20:2,3; Genesis 17:1; I Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 4:6; I Timothy 1:17; Philippians 2:5,6
God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. …God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Genesis 2:7; Jeremiah 10:10; Isaiah 43:3 & 15; John 5:26; John 14:6-13; Galatians 4:6
God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. …He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.
Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-23; John 1:1-18; John 14:7-11; Acts 2:22-24; Romans 1:3,4
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. …He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. …He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
I Corinthians 2:10-14; I Corinthians 3:16; I Corinthians 12:3-11; Ephesians 1:13,14; I Thessalonians 5:19; I John 4:13; Revelation 1:10; Revelation 22:17
Man
Man is the special creation of God, in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. …By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. … The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore every person of every race possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
Genesis 1:26-30; Genesis 2:5, 7, 18-22; Psalm 1; Psalm 8:3-6; Romans 1:19-32; 3:10-18; I Corinthians 1:21-31
Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
Genesis 3:15; Matthew 1:21; Matthew 16;21-26; John 1:11-14; John 3:3-21; John 5:24; John 10:9; Acts 2:21; Acts 15:11; Acts 20:32; Romans 1:16-18; I Corinthians 1:18; II Corinthians 5:17-20; Philippians 2:12-13; Revelation 3:20
God's Purpose of Grace
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. …All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.
Genesis 12:1-3; I Samuel 8:4-7; Isaiah 5:1-7; Matthew 16:18-19; Luke 1:68-79; John 1:12-14; John 10:27-29; Romans 8:28-39; Ephesians 1:4-23
The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
Matthew 16:15-19; Acts 2:41,42,47; Acts 5:11-14; Acts 13:1-3; Romans 1:7; I Corinthians 9:13-14; Philippians 1:1
Baptism & the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. …It is an act of obedience symbolizing 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. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members … memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
Matthew 3:6, 13-17; John 3:23; Acts 2:41-42; Romans 6:3-5; Colossians 2:12; I Corinthians 11:23-28
Evangelism & Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations... to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.
Matthew 28:18-20; Genesis 12:1-3; Isaiah 6:1-8; Matthew 10:5-15; John 14:11,12; John 20:21; Acts 1:8; Acts 8:26-40; Romans 10:13-15; I Peter 2:4-10; Revelation 22:17
The Lord's Day
The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. …It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion.
Exodus 10:8-11; Matthew 12:1-12; Mark 16:1-7; Luke 24:1-3; John 4:21-24; Romans 14:5-10; I Corinthians 16:1,2; Colossians 3:16; Revelation 1:10
Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. …Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly…the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell. …The righteous… will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
Isaiah 2:4; 11:19; Matthew 16:27; 18:8,9; Matthews 25:31-46; Mark 8:38; Mark 9:43-48; Mark 16:19-26; John 14:1-3; Acts 1:11; 17:31; Romans 14:10; I Corinthians 15:24-28; 35-58; I Timothy 6:14; Hebrews 9:27,28; James 5:8; I John 2:28; Revelation 1:18; 3:11; 20:1; 22:13
Education
The cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is co-ordinate with the causes of missions and general benevolence … there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility. …The freedom of a teacher in a Christian school, college, or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which the school exists.
Deuteronomy 4:1,5, 9,14; 6:1-10; Nehemiah 8:1-8; Job 28:28; Proverbs 4:1-10; 8:1-7, 11; Ecclesiastes 7:14; Matthew 5:2; 28:19,20; Luke 2:40; Ephesians 4:11-16; I Timothy 1:3-7; James 1:5; 3:17
Stewardship
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtor-ship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions.
Genesis 14:20; Leviticus 27:30-32; Malachi 3:8-12; Matthew 6:1-4, 19-21; Matthew 25:14-29; Luke 12:16-21; Acts 2:44-47; Romans 6:6-22; Romans 12:1,2; I Corinthians 16:1-4; II Corinthians 8 and 9
Cooperation
Christ's people should … organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. …Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations.
Exodus 17:12;; Judges 7:21; Ezra 1:3,4;2:68,69; 5:14,15; Nehemiah 8:1-5; Matthew 10:5-15; Matthew 20:1-16; Matthew 22:1-10; Acts 1:13,14; Acts 4:31-37;Galatians 1:6-10; Ephesians 4:1-16
The Christian & the Social Order
All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society... in the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death.
Exodus 20:3-17; Psalm 101:5; Micah 6:8; Matthew 5:13-16; 43-48; Matthew 22:36-40; Luke 4:18-21 John 15:12; Romans 12-14; I Corinthians 6:1-7; Galatians 3:26-28
Religious Liberty
Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. …A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal.
Genesis 1:27; 2:7; Matthew 6:6,7,24; John 8:36; Acts 4:19-20; Romans 6:1,2; Romans 13:1-7; Galatians 5:1,13; I Timothy 2:1,2; I Peter 2:12-17; 3:11-17; 4:12-19
Family
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. We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male and female. These two distinct, complementary sexes together reflect the image and nature of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person. We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other.
Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. 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. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation... Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage.
Genesis 1:26-28; 2:15-25; Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Psalm 51:5; Psalm 78:1-8; Psalm 139:13-16; Proverbs 1:8; 5:15-20; 6:20-22; 12:4; 13:24; 14:1; 17:6; 23:13,14; 31:10-31; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; Malachi 2:14-16; Matthew 5:31,32; 13:2-5; 19:3-9; Mark 10:6-12; Romans 1:18-32; I Corinthians 7:1-16; Ephesians 5:21-33; II Timothy 1:3-5; Titus 2:3-5; I Peter 3:1-7