What We Believe

Sola Scriptura — The Bible is the sole written divine revelation and alone can bind the conscience of believers absolutely (Matt. 4:4; 2 Tim. 3:16).

Sola Fide – Justification is by faith alone. The merit of Christ imputed to us by faith is the sole ground of our acceptance by God, by which our sins are remitted (Rom. 5:1; Gal 2:16).

Solus Christus – Christ is the only mediator through Whose work we are redeemed (John 14:6; John 3:16).

Sola Gratia – Our salvation rests solely on the work of God’s grace for us (Rom. 2:4; Eph. 2:8-10).

Soli Deo Gloria – To God alone belongs the glory (Isa. 42:8; Col. 3:17).

1. The Word of God is rightly preached in full conviction and truth,

2. The Sacraments of the Lord’s Supper & Baptism are practiced as symbols of what Christ has done and is doing,

3. Church discipline is taken seriously for the glory of God and the good of each believer,

4. The church submits to Christ as her only head and ultimate authority.

A plurality of Elders/Pastors, where the church is ruled by a team of godly men who meet the Biblical qualifications of an Elder/Pastor (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1).  Elders are godly men who have been trained, examined, and ordained to oversee, govern, and shepherd the church.  We believe that Deacons should be installed to assist the Elders in the affairs of the church and to provide care to the church congregation and community.  Deacons are godly men who have been trained, examined, and ordained to fulfill these duties. We also install qualified women, wives of ordained leaders, to assist the Deacons in the work of diaconal ministry.

Read the Westminster Confession of Faith

Read the Heidelberg Catechism

Is the Creator of heaven & earth out of nothing (ex nihilo), and by His power sustains all that He has made.  He made all things for His glory and by His amazing grace sent His only Son, Jesus, to earth to die so that we could live in communion with Him. 

Jesus Christ in the only Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born to the virgin Mary.  He is God in the flesh (incarnate), both fully God and fully man.  He lived a perfect, sinless life, died a brutal death on a cross, and conquered death by being resurrected from the grave three days later to make a way of redemption for God’s chosen people.  He was fully obedient to His Father in all He did and provides mankind with their only hope of being brought into right standing with God.  Jesus now sits at the right hand of God the Father, as Lord over all, and will one day come again to judge the living and the dead and make all things new.  

The Holy Spirit is the Giver of life and the one who draws men and women into belief and repentance of Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit inhabits the life of each believer in Christ and empowers us to offer our lives in obedience to God.  The Holy Spirit is fully God and deserving of all of our honor and worship.  

We believe in one God who eternally exists in three distinct persons; God the Father, God the Son, & God the Holy Spirit.  Each member of The Trinity is distinct in their person and role, but co-exist eternally in full communion with each other.   One God - Father, Son, & Holy Spirit - is the foundation of Christian belief and faith.

We believe that the Bible, the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament, are the inspired, written Words of God.  God, through the Holy Spirit spoke through human men to write the Scriptures in a specific context and time, yet these words provide authoritative truth through all contexts and times.  We believe that the Bible, in its original form, is free from error in all it’s teachings and provides the truth and rule for all of life.  The Bible is the full authority for the Christian life and should be submitted to in all circumstances.  The Bible is fully sufficient, therefore nothing should be added or subtracted from its teachings.  The Bible is divine revelation of God and the Gospel and is the source for all of our teaching, belief, and doctrine.

God created man and woman, in His image, to glorify Him through obedience and life lived in communion with Him.  Through the temptation of Satan, man and woman willingly disobeyed God’s law and became subject to God’s wrath.  Through the first man’s sin, sin is now a part of all mankind from birth and separates us from God.  Man is totally depraved and incapable of restoring, on his own, communion with God.  

The Gospel is God’s plan for restoring His people back into communion with Himself.  Totally depraved, man needed God, in His amazing grace, to step-in and provide a way for man to be restored into communion with his maker.  Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection was this solution which appeased God’s wrath toward sin.  God’s wrath required a perfect blood payment to be made on behalf of all mankind, and Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross provided that perfect and full payment that we could not pay on our own.  Jesus, in his atonement and shed blood, paid the sacrificial price for our sin.  In what Martin Luther coined as The Great Exchange, on the cross Jesus took on our sin and gave us His righteousness so that we could be in communion with the Father.  Our belief in the Gospel is our only source for life and communion with God, and all mankind will be judged eternally on this basis alone.

Salvation, both in this life and eternally, is found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ alone!  We are only saved by belief in the Gospel and repenting that we are in need of Christ’s full work to restore us to God.  There is nothing that we can do on our own to earn God’s favor or salvation, and the work of salvation is fully God’s.

In response to what Christ has done, each believer, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is called to fight sin and strive to live a life of obedience to God as fully found in the Bible.

Each believer in Christ is a part of the historic universal church, made up of all true believers from every time throughout history.  Each member of the universal church is called to be a part of and invest in a local church congregation.  The local church is God’s instrument to proclaim the truth of the Gospel and the Scriptures to local communities and neighborhoods.  The local church is called to worship God in spirit and in truth and to make disciples of all nations, tribes, and tongues.

There are two sacraments in Scripture: Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Baptism is a rite of initiation which replaces circumcision (Col. 2:11-12), a sign of the Old Covenant with Israel, as the unique mark placed upon God's people and their children (Acts 2:39). Baptism is a sign and seal of the New Covenant given in Christ Jesus and also of entrance into the visible church.

The Lord’s Supper, on the other hand, is a rite of fellowship.  The Jewish Passover, as an Old Covenant meal, corresponds to the Lord’s Supper, as is made clear in the Gospel accounts of its institution (Matt. 26; Mark 14; Luke 22).  Bread and wine represent the body and blood of Jesus. Worthy receivers of this meal are those who profess faith in Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 11:26-30). By faith in Christ alone, believers spiritually feed on Christ, show forth His death, and receive nourishment as they partake of the elements (John 6:35, 53; 1 Cor. 11:26). 

As the church, we believe that we are to grow and mature in the knowledge of God's Word.  It is through this knowledge that we will come to know our Creator and Savior more deeply and be challenged to live obediently, as the church in our homes, workplaces, and communities for the glory of God.  Therefore, we believe that all of our teaching should come directly from God's Word, so each week we will walk verse by verse through a chosen book of the Bible so that we can strive to know Christ more deeply, live our lives more obediently, and learn how to read and study Scripture for ourselves on a daily basis.