Our Vision

We believe the Bible, comprising the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is God’s written Word. It is inspired, infallible, inerrant in the original writings, authoritative over every domain to which it speaks, clear in its essential message, and sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do. The Bible is to be believed in all it teaches, obeyed in all it requires, and trusted in all it promises.
Note: We value Second Temple Jewish literature as historical and literary context that can illuminate the world of the New Testament, while affirming that only the canonical Scriptures are binding for faith and practice.

We believe in the one living and true God, Yahweh, eternally existing in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three are coequal, coeternal, and consubstantial, perfectly holy, infinitely loving and just, and worthy of all worship. God created all things, sustains and governs all things, and works all things according to the counsel of his will for the praise of his glorious grace.

We believe the Father is the source of all that exists, creating all things through the Son and by the Spirit. He upholds and governs creation in wisdom, power, and love, hears and answers prayer, and saves from sin and death all who come to him through Jesus Christ.

We believe the eternal Son became truly human without ceasing to be truly God. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, Jesus lived a sinless life, taught with divine authority, worked mighty works, and offered himself as our substitutionary sacrifice. By his death he bore our sins and satisfied divine justice; by his bodily resurrection he conquered sin, death, and Satan; by his ascension he reigns at the right hand of the Father as our Mediator, High Priest, and King. He will personally and visibly return to consummate his redemptive mission and manifest his kingdom in fullness.

We believe the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son to glorify Christ. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment; regenerates, indwells, seals, sanctifies, guides, instructs, equips, and empowers believers for Christlike living and service. We affirm the present, orderly exercise of all biblical gifts, with love as the supreme evidence of the Spirit filled life.

We believe God created humanity, male and female, in his image, to know him, reflect his character, and steward his creation. Adam and Eve were created to complement one another in a one flesh union that typifies Christ and his Church. Through Adam’s sin, humanity fell under sin’s guilt and corruption, becoming alienated from God and subject to death. All people are sinners by nature and by choice and stand in need of God’s saving grace.

We believe the gospel is the good news that God saves sinners through the person and work of Jesus Christ, crucified for our sins and raised for our justification. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. In union with Christ, believers are pardoned and declared righteous on the basis of his obedience and atoning death, adopted into God’s family, indwelt by the Spirit, and kept by God’s power. Genuine faith is exemplified in repentance, love, obedience, good works, and perseverance.

We believe the kingdom of God is already inaugurated in Christ’s first coming and will be fully realized at his return. By the Spirit’s power, the kingdom invades and plunders the dark kingdom, liberating people to live under King Jesus. As citizens of God’s kingdom, believers live as salt and light, doing good, loving neighbors, and bearing witness to the King until the day creation is renewed and Christ is all in all.

We believe the universal Church is the body and bride of Christ, comprised of all who are born again by the Spirit. It is manifested in local churches under Christ’s headship, devoted to the Word, prayer, worship, fellowship, the ordinances, mutual edification through spiritual gifts, loving discipline, and mission. We cherish a plurality of qualified elders who shepherd the flock, and we affirm the unity and love that mark Christ’s people.

We believe men and women are equal in dignity, value, and salvation, and complement one another in God’s design for the home and the Church. In the home, husbands are called to loving, sacrificial headship and wives to glad, intelligent submission as unto the Lord. In the Church, men and women serve broadly in Christ’s manifold ministries; the governing/elder and primary preaching roles are reserved for qualified men, grounded in God’s creational design, according to Scripture and the pattern of the apostles.

We believe the Lord Jesus instituted two ordinances for the Church:

• Baptism, the public sign of union with Christ, ordinarily by immersion, identifying the believer with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection.

• The Lord’s Supper, the ongoing covenant meal that proclaims Christ’s death, nourishes faith, unites the body, and anticipates his return. Participants should partake in faith and with self examination.

We believe worship is the loving, joyful, whole life response to God’s worth, spiritual, intelligible, Christ centered, and fruitful. In Christ, we are set free to delight in God, to pursue holiness, and to live in unity with one another for the fame of King Jesus. In our gatherings we choose to sing songs, new and old, hymns and spiritual songs that reflect our deeply held theological beliefs and that uphold orthodox Christian beliefs.

We believe God created humanity male and female and ordained the covenant of marriage as the lifelong, exclusive union of one man and one woman for his glory, the good of society, and the picture of Christ and the Church. All sexual behavior outside this covenant falls short of God’s design. By grace, the Church welcomes all people to repentance, faith, forgiveness, and renewal in Christ.

We believe the Holy Spirit continues to distribute gifts for the building up of the body and the advance of the gospel. These gifts are to be pursued and exercised in love, humility, biblical order, and submission to the Word.

We believe it is the privilege and calling of every believer and every local church to participate actively in the Great Commission, making disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded, and bearing witness to his kingdom through word and deed until he returns.

We await the imminent rapture of the Church, our blessed hope, when all believers will be caught up to meet the Lord before the time of tribulation that will come upon the earth. We believe that the Second Coming of Christ with His saints to rule on the earth will be personal, visible, and premillennial. We also believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost: the lost to judgment and eternal wrath in hell, and the saved to eternal joy in the new heaven and new earth in the manifested presence of God.