To Proclaim the Gospel |
The Scripture clearly teaches the doctrine of the incarnation (that God was manifest in the flesh), the substitutionary death and physical resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and His ascension to the right hand of God the Father, where He ever lives to make intercession for us. We therefore believe that this "Gospel" message is God's central and primary message to the world. This is the reason the Church exists. As Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, this is the individual and corporate responsibility of God's people. This Gospel message, that we are to take into all the world, is the only means of peace with God and eternal life. His blood made atonement to God for our sins. His resurrection proves His deity and authority, ensures our peace with God, and provides our hope for eternal life.
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To Submit to the Authority of God's Word and His Providences in our Lives |
We acknowledge the final authority of the Scriptures for our understanding of who God is and what He requires of us. We understand the character and work of Jesus Christ through the Scriptures. We study them through God's Holy Spirit, Who is in us, and Who also wrote them through His servants. We, along with faithful saints through centuries, have found them to be true, enlightening, and sufficient for life and godliness. Knowing also that God is sovereign over all His creation, and works all things together for His own glory and for good to them that love Him, we seek to willingly submit to His wise providences and seasons in our lives.
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To Acknowledge God's Free Grace as the only source of our salvation |
We find glory, beauty, and wonder in the depth of God's grace, His rich and unmerited favor to sinful man. We love the acronym, God's Riches At Christ's Expense. We have experienced grace through salvation in Christ, and we see it in our lives every day. We are who we are, we have what we have, and we do what we do only by God's grace. We want to proclaim God's grace for everyone to see and experience. We desire God's grace to permeate us so that it flows through us to everyone we encounter.
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To Seek to Live Holy Lives by Walking in the Spirit |
We do not belong to ourselves. God has bought us, and His ultimate calling for us is to give Him all of our lives. This is true holiness, and it is only done by yielding to his Spirit who lives in us and guides us. We see this as a joyful and fulfilling occupation, and we seek to give more and more of our lives to God as we grow to maturity in Him.
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To Reflect God's Love and Live in Unity and Purity. |
God calls us to love all people unconditionally, as He does. This extends to those in our local body, those in the universal body of Christ, and those outside the body of Christ. This love is seen in putting others before ourselves, demonstrating compassion, and seeking the ultimate good of others.
God calls us to unity within our local assembly of believers, setting aside our own rights, privileges, and interests for the good of the body. We enjoy and highly value unity with all genuine believers in Christ. We are called, both as a local body and as individual believers, to love, serve, and bring to maturity the universal body of Christ. At the same time, the wisdom of God is first pure, then peaceable. The purity of Christ's church must never be sacrificed upon the altar of unity. Therefore, there will be times we must take a stand against the apostasy and compromise that creeps into the church. |
To Present Ourselves in Service to God |
We teach that every believer is called to service and ministry. This service should first be demonstrated in and toward a person's local assembly of believers. It should be exercised through the local assembly toward the community, and also by individual members toward those in their spheres of influence.
We highly prioritize the participation and volunteer service of every member of the church. |
To Worship God in Spirit and in Truth |
We seek to worship our Triune God genuinely from our hearts and according to the truth. We value both private and corporate worship as our sacrifice of thanksgiving to our Lord and as a means to know Him better. We seek for our corporate worship to be humble and wholly centered upon Him.
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