STATEMENTS OF FAITH & VALUES

STATEMENT OF FAITH

The ministry’s general purpose and overall goal is to encourage individuals to grow and develop their relationship with the Lord, following the values that Christ and his Apostles taught.

All decisions are to be guided by Christian principles found in the Bible and in this Statement of Faith; see 1 Thessalonians 5:11-24, 2 Timothy 1:13-14,2:15 and 3:10-17.

The Statement of Faith is as follows:

1. We believe the Bible to be God’s Word to us, at least infallible for faith and practice, and sufficient for all that we need to know about Him and life. It is the supreme authority for doctrine and practice, in a category by itself.
2. We believe in the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God in Three persons.
3. We believe that God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus Christ, to live and die on earth as the perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins.
4. We believe that Jesus Christ physically and bodily rose from the dead…
5. and that as we, who deserve hell, repent and trust Him as Savior, He gives to us the gifts of forgiveness, adoption and eternal life.
6. Believers must persevere to the end of their lives to receive eternal life.
7. We reject the belief that all people will be saved, rather many will spend eternity away from the presence of God.
8. We believe that the true church is spiritual and universal, one in the Holy Spirit, and composed of all believers in Jesus Christ; and …
9. that the local assembly exists to worship Him, to nurture believers, and to proclaim Him to the world.
10. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells each believer in that our bodies become His temple, and that He strengthens us to live and serve in a dynamic and fulfilling way, as we learn to depend upon Him.
11. We believe that Jesus Christ will return to earth for His Church and resurrect believers’ bodies, glorify believers, and make a new creation where we will dwell with God and behold Him directly.
12. All the language in this Statement shall have its natural historical meaning

Additional Statements About Issues of Faith and Practice:

1. Ultimate relationship with God. We believe in the biblical union of love with God in Christ. We don’t believe in a union of essence with God; we will not be merged into God’s nature. We are distinct from God; He is the Creator and we are creatures and it will always be that way. He wants to preserve and perfect our personalities and have an intimate united relationship bonded by love.
2. Universalism. We believe in Jesus Christ as the only true Saviour from God. All other religions and philosophies (“religions”) are mixtures of discovered wisdom, incomplete understandings, misunderstandings, and usually some untrue ideas. Thus, universalism of all kinds is rejected. God does give light to all whether Christian or not, and some religions do have truths mixed into them. We do not condemn followers of other religions but rather ask them to consider whether Jesus and his teachings are a completion of what is missing, unknown or misunderstood in their religion. Romans 2:14-16 (ESV) explains that those who “don’t have the law” have a “conscience” and their “thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”  Thus, it appears it will be God’s judgement as to whether there is forgiveness for those who don’t have the law, which presumably would include those who haven’t heard about Jesus. But God will not absolve those who are aware of Jesus and reject him for if they were truly seeking God and what is good why would they reject Jesus? They will not be able to use hypocrites or misunderstanding of Christianity as an excuse if they could have investigated for themselves. Some people reject Christianity because they don’t think it is true or because it seems too good to be true, but very few reject it because they don’t think it is good. Anything less than Jesus and his teachings does not lead to the goodness, completion, creativity, love, and community that God intends for his people.
3. Personal Experience. We reject any kind of gnosticism and any form of elevating personal experience to equality with or supremacy over Scripture, which includes the elevation, in practice, of prophecies as equal in authority to Scripture. Accordingly, we reject the practice of making the pursuit of the felt presence of God the most emphasized practice in a congregation, or higher than the practice of pursuing Christlikeness.
4. Science. We reject science denial. This universe is part of God’s message to us and we need to honor that. For example, we reject flat-earth and young-earth ideas.
5. Politics. We reject the idea that it is okay for Christians living in nations with free speech to be silent about substantial immorality or unethical behavior on the part of politicians. Regular lying, belittling of others, disregard of the rule of law (in nations governed by the rule of law), neglect of the poor, and favoring the wealthy are all examples of behavior that must be spoken against. The fact that a politician does in fact promote some wise policies or support the free exercise of religion does not abrogate Christian responsibility to speak out, otherwise, Christians are prostituting their convictions for favors from politicians. Furthermore,   Christians can support specific policies advanced by a specific politician and express disapproval of other behavior at the same time. President Trump of the United States is an example of someone who has engaged in substantial immorality and unethical behavior while in office (extensively documented by members of his own political party) therefore it is unethical for Christians to express blanket support for him. For the sake of the spiritual well-being of America Christians need to speak out against his behavior at least as loudly as they express support for any of his policies.
6. Prosperity teaching. We reject the teaching that God promises financial prosperity to his faithful followers in this age. We reject teachings similar to this. This teaching is not found in the New Testament. The prosperity prophecied in the Old Testament for believers will be fulfilled in the next age after Jesus returns and lives with us on the New Earth (see Revelation 21-22.) We also reject the teaching that tithing is a way to produce financial prosperity for believers. This is also absent in the New Testament.
7. Cessation of some spiritual gifts. We reject the teaching that the manifestly supernatural spiritual gifts (see I Corinthians 12-14 for a discussion) ceased after a certain time in the early church (usually taught as ceasing after the death of the Apostles.) On the contrary, we believe that all the spiritual gifts are for today and the teachings in the New Testament regarding spiritual gifts should be practiced today.
8. Prejudice. We believe racism, especially against African Americans, has been a glaring and tragic part of American history. We agree with  Martin Luther King Jr.‘s Ten Commandments for Social Change. We disagree with any ideologies that result in discriminating against, stigmatizing or shunning people based on gender, race, age, ethnicity, economic status, actions of ancestors and benefits from ancestors; therefore, we reject the distinctive teachings of Marxism, Critical Race Theory, Decolonization and similar ideologies.

STATEMENT OF VALUES AND PRACTICE

Doctrine without practice is useless. The practice of the faith is just as important as doctrine for Jesus taught that the greatest commandments are to love and to love others – commandments of practice. For summaries of Christian practice, one can read Sermon on the Mount, Romans 12, Galatians 5, Ephesians 4 and 5, Colossians 3, and I John 3 among other chapters in the New Testament.

We value:

1. Christlikeness
2. Community of love with believers
3. Community of love with God
4. Unity with God in Christ
5. Humility
6. Cross and Resurrection lifestyle
7. Honesty
8. Openness to leading by the Holy Spirit
9. Openness to our own weaknesses and sinfulness
10. Openness to others about our own weaknesses and sinfulness
11. Kindness
12. Forgiveness of others, especially leaders
13. Expression of one’s thoughts with kindness
14. Accepting the expression of others’ thoughts with kindness
15. Patience
16. Growth through the mutual exercise of spiritual gifts

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