We are men and women gathered from diverse backgrounds unified by the common desire to engage in conversations related to the defense of our Christian faith in a way that reflects grace and truth. We desire to show the existence and character of God, not only with our lips but in our lives.

God

We believe there is one God, the transcendent Creator and Sustainer of all things visible and invisible. This one God is triune, existing eternally and simultaneously as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three persons in the Godhead are co-equal in nature, majesty, and glory.

Scripture

We believe that God has spoken and continues to speak in and through Scripture, which consists of the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments. Scripture is a gracious self-communication from God, containing all things necessary for salvation. Scripture ought to be the authority and unchangeable standard for Christian faith and life.

As a “God-breathed” revelation, we believe Scripture is inspired and without error (historically, scientifically, morally, and spiritually) in its original writings. 

Creation

We believe that the physical universe (the realm of nature) is the visible creation of God. It gives a trustworthy revelation of God’s existence and character. An honest study of nature can prove useful in a person’s search for truth. Properly understood, God’s Word (Scripture) and God’s world (nature) are two revelations from the same God and will never contradict each other.

The Father

God as Father reigns with providential care over His creation and human history according to the purposes of His grace. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all people. He extends common grace to all and saving grace to His children by His sovereign will.

Jesus Christ

We believe that the historical Jesus Christ of Nazareth is both fully God (the second Person of the Trinity) and fully man (the Incarnate Son of God). We also believe in the historical events surrounding Jesus Christ’s life, including: His eternal preexistence, His birth to the virgin Mary, His attesting miracles, His sinless life, His sacrificial physical death on the cross, His glorious bodily resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, and His present work in heaven is as High Priest and Advocate.

Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit (the third Person of the Trinity) is coequal with the Father and the Son. We also believe in the ministry of the Holy Spirit in salvation, convicting humanity of our sin, imparting new life to sinners, and indwelling believers in order to empower them to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Humankind

We believe that God communicates His goodness to all creatures, but in particular to human beings, whom He has made in His own image, both male and female, and that all men, women, and children have been graciously bestowed with inherent dignity from the moment of conception.

We believe God created all humans in His image and likeness (having rational, moral, relational, and spiritual capacities). Human beings are the crown of God’s creation, and thus distinct in kind from all other life on earth. Adam and Eve, the first human beings, were direct and miraculous creations of God. They chose to disobey God and go their own autonomous way. As a result, all of mankind became separated from God, the image of God in man became distorted, and the sinful nature was passed on to all their descendants. The only ultimate remedy for sin and separation from God is redemption through faith in Jesus Christ.

Salvation

We believe God took initiative to bridge the gap that separates humanity from Himself. He sent His Son, Jesus, “to give his life as a ransom for many.” Through the birth, life, death, burial and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, He brought about reconciliation between God and humans for those who believe in Him, repent, and receive His grace. In the atoning death of Christ, both God’s love and God’s justice are fully manifest. The righteousness of Jesus Christ in perfectly fulfilling the law of God has been graciously credited to all believers. Redemption is a work of God’s grace, received exclusively through faith in Jesus Christ.

We believe Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no one comes to the Father but by Him. All who receive, by faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, have been born again of the Holy Spirit, and have become children of God.

Life of the Christian

We believe that Christians are called to follow the law of Christ’s love and live in the power of the Holy Spirit so that they will bear fruit consistent with the repentance from sins to the glory of God. We believe that it is the mission of every Christian to give a reason for the hope that is within them, to proclaim the gospel to “every tribe and tongue” on the Earth, and to make disciples.

The Church

Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, which is composed of all people in all times and places, including the living and dead, who have been joined to Him through saving faith. The Lord Jesus Christ commanded all believers to proclaim the gospel throughout the world and to disciple people from every nation. The fulfillment of that Great Commission requires that Jesus’s disciples be willing to endure suffering for the sake of Jesus. 

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers observing the two ordinances (baptism and communion) of Christ; maturing in wisdom and character; exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word; and seeking to extend the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation and each member is accountable to Jesus Christ and His will as revealed in Scripture.

The Kingdom 

The Kingdom of God signifies God’s rule and reign on earth. The role of the Church is to be ambassadors of this kingdom — living in light of God’s rule and spreading His message. His message is the good news that the King has come in the person of Jesus, who inaugurated God’s Kingdom through His earthly ministry by teaching and embodying the virtues of the Kingdom. He reigns as Lord in the lives of all who believe in Him and He empowers the Church to live out the Kingdom virtues by His Spirit. The Kingdom of God is both social and personal, spiritual and physical, diverse and unified. The Kingdom will be fully realized at the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Future Things

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. We look forward to the blessed hope of Christ’s second coming to this earth, personally, bodily, and visibly, to establish His glorious reign in a kingdom that will never end. Jesus will resurrect and judge all humanity. Those who have rejected His offer of life through the gospel will enter into eternal conscious separation from the Lord in hell. Those who have received His offer of life through the gospel will go to eternal blessings in the afterlife.