Core Beliefs and Statement of Faith

  1. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is verbally inspired of God, and inerrant in the original writings and that they are the supreme and final authority in faith and life.
  2. We believe there is only one Living and True God eternally existing in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
  3. We believe that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, and is true God and true man, and as such He lived a perfect sinless life.
  4. We believe that man was created in the image and after the likeness of God, that he sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from God; and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature which is enmity against God, and in the case of those who reach moral responsibility, become sinners in thought, word and deed.
  5. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice; and that all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood and righteousness.
  6. We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, in His ascension into Heaven, and in His present life there for us, as High Priest, Advocate and the only Mediator between God and man.
  7. We believe in the personal and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ to set up His kingdom upon the earth, to reign in righteousness and justice.
  8. We believe that Salvation is by grace through faith, and that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God and that the Holy Spirit indwells all believers.
  9. We believe there are two ordinances, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which are divinely enjoined upon all Christians.  Without merit in themselves, they provide an expression of faith regarding the believer’s identification and fellowship with Christ.
  10. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, the everlasting blessedness of the saved, and the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost.
  11. We believe in all 19 gifts of the Spirit, and that any one gift can operate through a yielded Christian at any time.  However, we are not a traditional charismatic church; we do not know how some of the manifestation gifts (tongues, prophecy, exhortation) operated in the early church, and because there is no unanimity on how the manifestation gifts are to be understood, we feel, for the sake of the unity of the body, that these gifts should not be brought into our worship life. We do believe in the empowering of the Holy Ghost, for personal witness, the work of evangelism, and for spiritual maturation.  We affirm the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, perfecting us in love and producing within the believer holiness of heart and life.
  12. We believe that no gift should ever be a test of fellowship and that no gift signifies or credentials the depth of the work of grace in a believer’s heart.  The greatest manifestation of the resident Christ in a believer’s heart is Holy love.