STATEMENT OF FAITH

In essential beliefs, we have unity (Ephesians 4:4-6)
In non-essential beliefs, we have liberty (Romans 14:1, 4, 12, 22)
In all beliefs, we have charity (1 Corinthians 13:2)

We believe the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, to be the verbally inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings, and the supreme and final authority in doctrine and practice.

We believe in only one living and true God, eternally existing in three equal persons – God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe God the Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of human history according to His purpose and grace. All glory goes to Him. We believe the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal, pre-existent Son of God, who, for us and for our salvation, became a man, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven to reign. We believe that God, the Holy Spirit, restrains evil and convicts of sin. He also regenerates, indwells, and empowers believers for service and bestows spiritual gifts, sealing them for eternity.

We believe that all things in heaven and on earth were created by God and exist by His power and for His glory. We believe that humanity was created innocent and in the image of God, but that we sinned, bringing both physical and spiritual death to ourselves and this world.

We believe that every person is lost in sin apart from Christ and in need of a Savior. We believe that salvation is a gift of God and is received by man only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. The full scope of salvation includes Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification.

We believe that the universal church, the Body and Bride of Christ, is made up of all true believers. We believe that the local, visible church is an assembly of professing believers in Jesus Christ who are voluntarily joined together in one body to worship, reach out, and grow. We believe that Christ instituted the ordinances of believer baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which are to be observed by believers until He returns.

We believe that the gospel is the good news that the triune God has poured out his grace in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ so that we might have peace with God through his work. Every person is lost in sin apart from Christ and in need of a Savior. Christ died in the place of sinners, absorbing the wages of sin so that those who entrust themselves to him also die with him to the power, penalty, and (eventually) practice of sin. Christ has raised the firstborn of a renewed and restored creation so that those whom the Spirit unites to him in faith are raised up and created a new humanity in him. One with Christ and made alive in him, who is the only ground of salvation, sinners are reconciled with God – justified, adopted, sanctified, preserved, and eventually glorified. The Gospel is personal in its content and cosmic in its scope; together with renewed humanity, the Gospel is God’s promise to one day renew all of creation.

We hold to the historic Christian ethic on sexuality and life. We affirm the sanctity of sex, reserved for the covenant of marriage between husband and wife. We affirm that God made both man and woman (male and female genders) to reflect his image. We affirm that God created life and is sacred from conception to natural death.

We believe the Lord Jesus will one day return physically to earth in power and glory to complete what He began: graciously saving believers and bringing righteous judgment on non-believers. Our call is to make ourselves ready for that day!