What We Believe

Scripture
We believe and teach that the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments (i.e. the Protestant Canon) constitute the infallible, inspired and authoritative Word of God. The Bible is God’s truth in written form.
We believe and teach that the Bible is God’s special revelation of Himself to man and that the Bible alone is our perfect rule for faith and all practice. The Bible alone stands as our supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be judged.

God
We believe and teach that there is only one true, living, and infinite God, Who eternally exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He alone is the Sovereign Maker and Ruler of heaven and earth.
We believe and teach that this triune God is holy in His nature and in every expression of His character (attributes), and that He alone is worthy of our worship and obedience.

Jesus Christ
We believe and teach that Jesus Christ is the incarnate and only begotten Son of God. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life in perfect fulfillment of God’s law, performed true miracles, willingly died on the cross in loving obedience to His Father and was buried in a tomb, was raised to life by the power of the Holy Spirit after being physically dead for three days, was seen alive again by many witnesses, has gone to be at the right hand of the Father in heaven, and will personally return to rule earth in power and in glory.
He is the way, the truth, and the life and the only mediator between God and man.

Man
We believe and teach that every person is created by God in His image and likeness. Man was originally created holy (sinless) with a rational nature, intelligence, and moral responsibility to God. As God’s creature man was to glorify the Lord, be in fellowship with Him, live according to His will, and accomplish God’s purpose for mankind in the world.
Through Adam’s disobedience and rebellion to God and to His Word man fell from his original perfect state and became corrupt in his nature. Thus, all men incur the penalty of spiritual and physical death under the wrath of God.
We believe and teach that man is hopelessly and helplessly incapable of saving himself from the deserved wrath of God. As a corrupt sinner, having broken God’s laws for living in relationship to Him and to one another, man stands as dead in his trespasses and sins, an enemy of almighty God. Man needs to be forgiven by God.

Salvation
We believe and teach that man’s greatest need is to be forgiven by God for his sins against God and to be delivered from his corrupt nature. This forgiveness or salvation from the permanence and penalty of sin is wholly of God by His grace on the basis of the redemption of Jesus Christ and His shed blood on behalf of the sinner. Salvation is in no way or form a product of human achievement or merit.
We believe and teach that salvation comes from God alone, by grace alone, through faith alone and not by human works. God alone is sovereign in salvation. All those whom God saves, God will keep in faithfulness to Himself until they die. This entire work of salvation is exclusively wrought by God the Father, according to the merit of Jesus Christ the Son, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The Church
We believe and teach that Jesus Christ alone is the Head of the church. It is His bride and His body on earth. It has pleased God to make His church the visible expression of the life and love of the Lord Jesus Christ toward a needful humanity. In all aspects of its life and function, the church is answerable to God.
We believe and teach that as God’s family on earth, the church is to be served, led and governed by elders (pastors) who are called by God to do this work of ministry according to God’s design in Scripture. It is the elders’ responsibility to feed, pray for, protect and care for God’s people. It is the responsibility of the church to lovingly submit to the elders’ godly leadership. Our elders are assisted in their work of caring for God’s people by deacons who primarily serve the physical needs of our congregation. Elders and deacons are the only biblical officers of the church.

Ordinances
We believe and teach that two ordinances have been given to the local church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is by immersion and publicly identifies the Christian believer with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In addition, Christian baptism by immersion identifies the believer with the visible church. Baptism in no way imparts saving grace, but is an expression of God’s grace at work in the believer.
We believe and teach that the Lord’s Table is a commemorative, symbolic act that serves to proclaim Jesus Christ’s death on behalf of those whom He has saved. Thus only those who are born-again in Christ may participate. It is preceded by a time of solemn reflection and prayer and performed with the greatest care by those who are participating. As with baptism, the Lord’s Table does not impart saving grace. The elements of bread and wine are symbolic representations of the body and blood of Jesus Christ respectively.