Statement of Faith
· We believe the Bible to be the inspired and inerrant Word of God. It is infallible in all that it proclaims. We accept the Bible as the final authority for Christian doctrine and practice.
· We believe in only one God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created the heavens and the earth and is self-existent.
· We believe that God created humanity perfect, sinless, and in His image. Humanity was given the freedom to make moral choices and functioned in fellowship with God. Man and woman chose to sin and this brought death upon the entire human race.
· We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. He was born of the Virgin Mary, lived a sinless human life, died on the cross for the sins of humankind, rose again bodily from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father. Jesus Christ will return to earth to consummate history and to fulfill the eternal plan of God.
· We affirm that people can be saved only by grace through repentance and personal faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death on their behalf. Salvation cannot be earned by personal goodness, discipline, or effort.
· We believe in the ministry of the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus Christ, to convict people of sin, righteousness and judgment, and to empower believers to live Christ-like lives. The Holy Spirit indwells all believers and is at work today within the Church through His gifts, ministries, and fruit.
· We believe that the Church Universal was established through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and consists of all individuals who have put their faith in Him. The Rapture of the Church will occur when Christ returns.
· We believe that a local church is a community of believers who meet for worship, prayer, instruction, encouragement, and mutual accountability. Through a local church, people invest their time, energy, abilities and resources to fulfill the Great Commission of making disciples of all nations.
· We believe that believers should be baptized in water upon the confession of their faith in Jesus Christ.
· We believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is promised to every believer and given to those who ask for it. With the baptism of the Holy Spirit, believers receive supernatural power to be effective witnesses of Jesus Christ.
· We affirm that through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross, provision has been made for the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual healing of people.
· We believe in the resurrection of both believers and unbelievers. Believers will experience eternal blessedness and unbelievers will receive eternal punishment.
· We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female. These two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God. (Gen 1:26-27.) Acceptance of one’s biological gender that is given at conception, amounts to an acceptance of the image of God within that person as well as the embracing of God's plan for that person's life.
· We believe that the term “marriage” has only one meaning: the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture. (Gen 2:18-25.) We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other. (1 Cor. 6:18; 7:2-5; Heb. 13:4.) We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity should be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.
· We believe that any form of sexual immorality (including adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, and use of pornography) is sinful and offensive to God. (Matt. 15:18-20; 1 Cor. 6:9-10.)