Beliefs

Scripture

As the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God, the Bible is our absolute and only source of authority. We believe God is loving enough, honest enough and capable enough to guarantee that we have in our hands a reliable document by which to guide our lives and our church. 

God

God exists eternally in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God, the Father, rules over His created universe and controls human history according to His purpose and grace. Jesus, the Son, was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, provided for the redemption of men from sin through His substitutionary death, was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven where He now offers reconciliation between God and man. He is personally, visibly and bodily returning very soon to reign as Lord. The Holy Spirit inspired the writing of Scripture, convicts mankind of sin, righteousness and judgment, indwells in the believer from the moment of salvation, guaranteeing the believer an eternal home in heaven and guiding him/her in understanding truth.

Salvation

God created each of us to live with Him in heaven throughout eternity. All He ever wanted from us was our love and obedience. But each of us has ruined God’s plan for our lives by living life our own way rather than His way. In the Bible, this is called sin. Every person has sinned, and our sin separates us from God. On the cross, Jesus accepted the blame for all our sin and received all our punishment. The punishment required His death . After three days, He was resurrected and lives today. When a person turns away from their life of sin, turns to Jesus, apologizes to Him for their sin, begs for forgiveness and turns control of their life over to Him to manage, Jesus forgives their lifetime of sin, moves into them with His Holy Spirit and eternally saves them.

Church

The church is made up of those who have given their lives to Christ and have followed Him in Biblical baptism. The Bible refers to the church as the bride of Christ, indicating how very much Christ loves us. The Bible also refers to the church as the body of Christ, indicating how we are to collectively function in carrying out His will. The church is also referred to as “the called out ones” describing how different we are from the society in which we serve. The church is also called “the fellowship” indicating the partnership of love and devotion we have for each other in Christ.

Ordinances

The Bible describes only two ceremonial ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The biblical form of baptism is by immersion, after conversion, before the assembled church. The Lord’s Supper is periodically observed by the assembled church to remind us of Christ’s body and blood that He sacrificed on the cross in order to offer us new life.

Priorities

From the moment of salvation we have three new priorities in life. First, we honor our relationship with Jesus by spending quality time alone with Him daily, by allowing His indwelling Holy Spirit to control our lives, and by actively serving Him. Second we honor our relationship with our families by learning from Scripture how to be Godly husbands, wives and parents. And third, we honor our relationship with Christ’s church (His bride) by faithfully meeting together, fellowshipping with each other, encouraging and ministering to one another.

For additional information, view The Baptist Faith & Message (2000).