What We Believe

STATEMENT OF FAITH

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.

Preamble

Baptists are a people who profess a living faith which is rooted and grounded on Jesus Christ who is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Therefore, the sole authority for faith and practice among Baptists is Jesus Christ whose will is revealed in the Holy Scripture, which is the perfect treasure of divine instruction.

Each individual through the guidance of the Holy Spirit must experience a growing understanding of the truth and relate this to the needs of each generation.

God

There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

(A) God the Father

God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of His grace. He is all powerful, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

(B) God the Son

Christ is the eternal Son of God. God has revealed His redeeming love in Jesus Christ, who lived as a man among men, demonstrating the perfect will of God. In His death on the Cross, God acted uniquely for the salvation of all mankind. He was raised from the dead, thereby demonstrating God’s power over all creation. He reigns, even now, with the Father.

(C) God the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is God’s active presence bringing about His Kingdom. As Spirit, God acts to enlighten and empower all believers in worship, evangelism, and service.

Man

Man was created by the special act of God, in His own image. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable him to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man.

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 the broadest sense salvation includes the new birth, growth in grace, and the final blessing of eternal life.

The Church

A New Testament Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper), committed to His teachings, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. This church is an autonomous body, operating through democratic process under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In such a congregation members are equally responsible. The New Testament speaks also of the church as the body of Christ which includes all the redeemed of all the ages.

Evangelism and Missions

It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by personal effort and by all other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.

Stewardship

God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtorship 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; they should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement of the Redeemer’s cause on earth.

Ordinances of Christ

A. Baptism

Christian baptism is the immersing of the believer in water in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. It is symbolic of the believer’s faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior; and of the believer’s death to sin, burial of the old life, and resurrection to walk in a new life with Christ Jesus. It is an act of testimony to the faith of the believer in the final resurrection of the dead.

B. Lord’s Supper

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby Christians, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

Last Things

God in His own time and way will bring the world to its appropriate end. Jesus Christ shall return personally and visibly in glory to the earth, the dead shall rise and all men will be judged in righteousness. The unrighteous will be forever separated from God for their everlasting punishment. The righteous will be resurrected in glorified bodies and receive their reward and dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

CHURCH COVENANT

Since we believe that we were led by the Holy Spirit to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and on profession of our faith were baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and united to this church as one body in Christ, and with the aid of the Holy Spirit:

We do solemnly and joyfully covenant with one another, to walk together in brotherly love, have a Christian concern for one another, participate in one another’s joys, and with tender sympathy bear one another’s burdens and sorrows.

We will strive for the advancement of this church in knowledge, holiness, and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines as expounded in the Holy Spirit; to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the Gospel through all nations.

We promise to avoid pride and dissentions among our members and to make Christ the head of our church and a focal point of Christian purity, love and concern in our homes and day-by-day living. We vow before God to let Christ shape our lives that we may be more effective witnesses, that we may look upon our church as the body of Christ in our worship, fellowship and service, and that we may reflect Christ as our Lord in our attitudes toward death. We promise through the blood of Jesus Christ, to strive to be perfect in every good work to do His will to whom be glory.