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Our Convictions
God We believe in one sovereign God who eternally exists as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Central to understanding the Doctrine of God is understanding the difference between person and essence. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are distinct in person and one in essence. The Father created all things through the Son (aka the Word) by way of the Holy Spirit. All three played a full and integral part in the creation of all things. While the Son became incarnate in the womb of a virgin and was born into the world, He existed along with the Father and the Spirit in the beginning. The Father, Son, and Spirit are fully worthy of our devotion and worship.
The Gospel The Gospel is the good news of what God has done in Jesus. It is comprised of both a person and an event, a message and a story. The focal point of the Gospel is the person Jesus Christ, the Messiah. In him God has entered the world and acted to save creation from corruption and death brought about by sin. The gospel is an event because it is rooted in the historical veracity of the incarnation, birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is a message because through Jesus salvation has come into the world: the gospel is the power of God to save all those who believe. The gospel is a story because God has been at work in the world to save his people since long before the events took place or the person became incarnate. Truly, the Gospel is the story of God, at work since the beginning of time to accomplish the redemption of his people.
The Scriptures We believe that the Christian Scriptures as conveyed in the original manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God. They are infallible, inerrant, and profitable for all things concerning life, godliness, and Christian discipleship. Scripture is true and reliable in all matters that it addresses, is free from all falsehood, fraud, and deceit, and is a complete and living witness. To say that Scripture was authored by God is to say that God inspired human writers who wrote down words as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Scripture cannot be separated from the Holy Spirit who inspired it, and together with the Holy Spirit acts as a perfect and complete guide to the believer in all matters of faith and practice. The Spirit and the Word are one in purpose and in witness. Since God the Son, who is eternally begotten of the Father, became incarnate through the power of the Holy Spirit, he is ascribed with the magnificent title, "the Word made flesh."
Salvation The salvation of God has been made available to all people through the person and work of Jesus Christ by grace alone through faith alone. To be a partaker in God’s salvation one must freely choose to come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and fully affirm his status as God’s Son and the historical veracity of his life, atoning death, and resurrection. All genuine salvation results in discipleship. We reject the notion that one can be saved simply through praying a prayer apart from genuinely submitting to the Lordship of Christ. Thus, we affirm the Scriptural teaching that faith without works is not genuine faith.
The Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is given to every believer as an indwelling presence throughout their Christian life. The Spirit is meant to guide, sustain, convict, and quicken the believer as they learn to live in harmony and submission to the Spirit’s leading. There are nine manifestations of the Holy Spirit, all of which are fully functional in the church today. We reject the notion that the spiritual gifts have ceased to exist, operate, and function in the church. While the believer should pursue the operation of all spiritual gifts, they should do so with the understanding that it is God who empowers them in the individual, and that pursuing love is the greater endeavor. All operation of the spiritual gifts in the local church should be done decently, in order, and in accord with the Scriptures. We believe that every true manifestation of the Holy Spirit glorifies God, not the individual through whom the Spirit is operating.
The Church The church consists of every person who is a genuine Christian. The church is not a building or a specific congregation; neither is it a single denomination. It is a group of people, and its members are made up of members from many different denominations and groups, including protestant, orthodox, evangelical and non-denominational. Scripture refers to the church as a “spiritual house being built up,” as “the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,” and as “the body of Christ.” The church is a spiritual family consisting of Christians the world over who collectively make up “the dwelling place of God on earth.” In times past, a temple was considered the dwelling place of God, but now Scripture refers to the church itself as “being grown into a holy temple in the Lord.” Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and there is no hierarchy in the church save Jesus Christ who is the head.
The Last Things We believe in the literal, bodily return of Jesus Christ to the earth. We believe that when Jesus returns, he will judge the quick and the dead and rule on earth for 1,000 years. We believe in the bodily resurrection of all persons, final judgment, eternal reward and punishment, and the establishment of God's perfect kingdom in a new heaven and a new earth.