Core Beliefs

It all starts with Jesus.  He is God’s eternal partner (John 1) and shows us God’s glory. He came to demonstrate to us the extreme love of God and to “speak” to us (Hebrews 1).  For us, it is all about Jesus.  We suggest you read the gospel of John to begin a foundational understanding of who Jesus is.

GOD:  There is only one God – Jehovah of the Bible.  He created everything we see and He is the originator of life.  God exists in three persons: Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit whose chief desire is to dwell in you and guide your life. God loves you with an unquenchable love. Read the book of Genesis and revel in the story of a relational God relentlessly seeking relationships. Of course, see John 3:16.


JESUS: Jesus is equal with God and the Holy Spirit.  He is also eternal.  He chose to be fully God yet at the same time fully man in order to relate to us.  He shows us God in a unique manner.  Being born of a virgin, he came to take the sins of mankind upon himself, displaying how much God truly loves us.  His resurrection shows that there is no power on earth that can hold Him back.  His promise of returning for us guarantees that grace has been showered on us. Read Philippians 2:5-11 for a better understanding of Jesus.


HOLY SPIRIT:  The Holy Spirit is also equal with God.  He lives in every Christian.  His role is to help us, comfort us, guide us and equip us.  When a person becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit indwells them and goes to work in their lives.  The Holy Spirit actually communicates to God for us when we cannot find words (Romans 8:26,27).  There are “fruits” of the Spirit that grow in our lives as we mature (Galatians 5:22,23.) The Spirit is just waiting to help you find your gifts.


THE BIBLE:  We believe the Bible is truly God’s word. We believe that God inspired human authors to record his will for our good.  The Bible tells us about God, about his love and about his design for our lives.  We do our absolute best to follow God’s word but we also recognize that we are fallible human beings.  We praise God that we are not saved on the basis of perfect interpretation of scripture but by a perfect savior. See Psalm 119 and John 17:17 as well as 2 Timothy 3:16,17


SALVATION:  We believe the Bible teaches that without God, mankind is lost due to sin.  Men and women cannot restore the broken relationship with God by themselves.  We, by ourselves, cannot be good enough to be saved or do anything to win salvation.  We are not saved by religion (set of rules) or by religious deeds. The sacrifice of Jesus and accepting him as savior is the only pathway to salvation and heaven.  We are saved by grace – nothing more.  We believe that Jesus is the son of God. We choose to follow him by moving from our path to his and allowing ourselves to be immersed in water.  We do not believe that baptism saves but that it is a direct command of God in order to demonstrate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus in our own lives. Jesus himself was baptized. We do not believe one must be immersed in our church. Please see Acts 2:37-39, John 14:6, Ephesians 2:8,9.


THE CHURCH:  The church is the family of God.  The church consists of those who have chosen to follow Jesus – it is as simple as that.  We do not believe the church is defined by a building, a name or by one special set of beliefs.  We are the body of Christ called to worship together and given spiritual gifts to be used for his glory.  We are to love each other as family and our unity in diversity will serve notice to the world that we are God’s people.  We want to bring others into our family. See John 17:20-23, I Corinthians 12:12-27, I Peter 2:4-10


FOREVER:  The greatest news of all is that God loves you so much that he wants to be with you forever and you can absolutely know you are saved.  What a wonderful thought that we have the opportunity to be with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and all believers forever.  Your Christian loved ones are not gone, they are just not here! Matt 7:21-23, John 14:1-6, I John 5:13



Ministers

We typically call our preachers “ministers” while we recognize that most call them “pastors”. You may use whichever term works for you because ministers by all means do pastoral work.