About

What to Expect

Our goal each Sunday is to exalt Christ by exalting His Word – we open each service by reading God’s Word and then singing God’s Word – typically 3 songs at the beginning and 1 song at the end. Our goal is to choose songs that are biblically sound and congregational in nature (meaning songs that are designed for a congregation to sing, new or old). Our pastor then leads us in a “pastoral prayer” in which different themes and psalms are prayed through at this time. 

Preaching

It has been said that the primary means of grace is the preaching of God’s Word. By “means” we mean the primary methods used to communicate or transfer. A study of the Old and New Testament clearly shows this to be true. The Old Testament prophets preached. John the Baptist came preaching (Matt 3:1-2), Jesus continued preaching (Matt 4:17; Luke 4:43), trained his disciples to preach (Mark 3:14), and the distinguishing mark of an elder is the ability to preach and teach (I Tim 3:2; Titus 1:9-11)!

As a result, preaching is the top priority of our church. While a pastor is certainly called to do more than preach, his primary function is to preach. If preaching is the principal work of the pastor for the health of the congregation, then it would assume it is also for the congregation’s principal benefit. If both the pastor and the people are devoted to the preaching of the Word, God’s grace will be received and experienced, leading to godliness.

How this is implemented: As preaching is a great focus for our church, we believe many hours should be spent each week in the study preparing to feed the flock. Generally speaking, two office days will be required for study and prayer to effectively and powerfully preach God’s Word to the church. In addition, our desire is to train and raise up men to preach, which can be done through residencies, cohorts, etc. Lastly, the congregation is called to prepare their hearts and minds for the preached Word, as well as devoting themselves to the activity.

Core Convictions

Prayer

The ministry of Jesus was birthed out of prayer (Matt 4:1-11; Luke 6:12-13). The early church was birthed out of prayer (Acts 1:14, 4:23-31). And one of the primary functions of a pastor is to devote himself to prayer (Acts 6:4). In God’s sovereignty, he uses our prayers to communicate with him and accomplish his purposes (Eph 6:19-20; Col 4:3-4; II Thess 3:1).

We desire to be a “praying church” rather than a “church that prays”. To help develop this culture, we have chosen to give high priority to prayer by having a “Prayer Meeting” on Wednesday night. As Paul Miller said in his book, A Praying Life, “We do most of our work by praying.” Prayer is unnatural, takes effort, requires patience, and doesn’t always lead to immediate results. This, at times, tends to make people avoid Prayer Meetings. While we recognize this reality, we seek to make these meetings enjoyable as we add much variety to them.

How this is implemented: Weekly prayer meetings; Sunday prayer team; Personal time during the week for structured prayer

Practice

What the modern church calls “discipleship”, the Puritans called “personal work”. Personal work includes 3 things: discipleship, counsel, and care. While preaching and prayer are essential, ministry must also

happen “outside the walls” of the church. Authoritative preaching and fervent prayer should lead people to desire community, accountability, and personal growth. Jesus spent many hours behind the scenes investing personally in his disciples. The church is called to bear others burdens (Gal 6:2), prioritize meeting together for encouragement (Heb 10:24-25), and care for those in need (Matt 25:35-40).

How this is implemented: This can look different in every church. Currently, Truth Bible Church does DGroups, which are gender-specific small groups consisting of 3-4 people that meet weekly or bi-weekly for the sake of personal growth, accountability, and community. Personal discipleship can also be done in other ways – organic one-on-one relationships, men’s and women’s classes, community events, etc. The ultimate goal here would be to develop a Titus 2 ministry in which the older are investing in the younger.

Purity

Ephesians 5:26-27 shows Christ’s end goal with his church - to be sanctified that she may be presented to himself without any “spot or wrinkle...holy and without blemish”...pure! A church that is pure should be the result of a church built on a foundation of strong preaching and fervent prayer which leads to personal discipleship. This produces a piety in the lives of the individuals and a precision in the life of the body. As a result, God providentially grants wisdom to his people and builds his church uniquely to accomplish his purposes. We believe the primary focus of the New Testament church was its purity, not its population.

Of course, as a church we desire to make disciples, grow, and reach our community. We desire to be a church that plants more churches or revitalizes existing churches. However, we trust God will, in his timing, do this if we focus on keeping the church pure and holy.

How this is implemented: A strong devotion to church membership and the other 6 convictions

Precision

II Timothy 2:15 says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” Clearly, as believers, we are to strive to be accurate and precise in our handling of God’s Word. The goal is not to be rigid or cast heavy burdens upon people. The goal is knowing the truth, because the truth is freeing (John 8:31-32). The truth produces joy! This conviction is similar to piety. However, we view piety as personal, and precision as corporate. As a church, we desire to be as accurate with Scripture’s commands as we possibly can, rather than being ambiguous.

How this is implemented: How we worship matters - from preaching style to song choice to outreach strategy, etc. We serve a precise God. It has been said that right theology will spill over into rich doxology. That is our end goal - the praise and glory of God!

Confessions

What we believe can be summarized by the two confessions below.

We believe confessions are meaningful as they express important doctrines of Scripture in an ordered and systematic way. The documents linked below are not inspired, but summarizes words that are inspired. 

The primary confession that we use is the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. While there are many great historical confessions, this one most clearly summarizes our beliefs. This confession does not veer away from great confessions of the past, but adds in a few important areas, primarily the biblical view of marriage and the family. 

In addition to the Baptist Faith and Message, the New Hampshire Confession of Faith (1833) is also a confession that helps articulate our views on Scripture. This confession merges and speaks well to the doctrines of the sovereignty of God and the freedom of man. 

Elder-led Church Government

We believe in a Jesus ruled, elder led, and congregationally accountable church in accordance with the principles laid down in the New Testament. As the New Testament describes the role of the pastor/overseer/elder, it always speaks of this role in the plural: Acts 14:23; Acts 15:4, 6, 22; Acts 20:17; Phil. 1:1; Titus 1:5; I Pet. 5:1; James 5:14.

This practice is not only biblical, but also practical. Having a plurality of qualified men to lead and govern the church spreads out the pastoral workload, diversifies giftedness, and provides internal accountability, amongst many other things. Ministry is an eternal work, therefore, requires excellence rather than mediocrity, leading to weariness.

How this looks practically: The Directional Elder Board (Elder Board or Board), in cooperation with the Lead Pastor, is responsible for leading the church in all matters of direction, doctrine, and discipline. The Board is responsible to oversee and evaluate the direction of all ministries and stewardship of the church. The Board along with the Lead Pastor may hire or remove church staff as necessary, establish teams and other boards to assist them in any of their duties, and may delegate authority to qualified individuals as they deem fit. The deacons are responsible for pastoral and ministry support, while leading the charge in maintaining unity within the church. The deacon role is invaluable and God-ordained, but is not responsible to oversee the spiritual direction of the church.

The Congregation is responsible for carrying out the mission of the church. They are also responsible for ensuring that the church remains faithful to its mission as laid out in Scripture. Our church accepts as its Articles of Faith, The Baptist Faith and Message, 2000. A congregational vote will be required for any of the following decisions: (1) selling or buying real estate; (2) borrowing money; (3) approving the call of a new Lead Pastor; (4) approving the annual operating budget; (5) removing members from membership through church discipline; (6) making changes to Bylaws. The congregation may also bring any decision of the Directional Elders under review by following the procedure established in the Bylaws.

Church Elders

  • Ryan Smith

    Pastor

Church Deacons

  • Lynn Schoffner

  • Mike Younger

  • Jason Brown

  • Bryan Schoffner

  • Jim McIver

Our History

Truth Bible Church is a church plant located in Elon, NC that began in May of 2023. Truth was birthed out of Provision Church in Monroe, NC, which began in November 2018. Provision has a heart to make disciples to plant churches in college towns with the hopes of bringing the campus and community together to be an intergenerational church. By God’s grace, Truth Bible Church will be the first of many more church plants to come.

Conservative estimates would say that 90-95% of the student body at Elon University doesn’t have a personal relationship with Christ. Think about this: that means 6,000 plus people within a 1 mile radius need the gospel. I Timothy 3:15 says that the church is the pillar and foundation of the truth. People desire truth and need the truth – and God uses the church to embody the truth.

The call is clear to the church – make disciples. That involves preaching, prayer, and intentional equipping. But while we know where he’s called us to, we can’t say we know exactly what this will look like. Matthew 16 says that God builds his church, not man. Therefore, we will seek to depend upon his Spirit for the methods, techniques, and strategies to carry out our mission.

We are so excited for this challenge and are looking forward to seeing how God will work.

We would love for you to join us in proclaiming the truth in Alamance County.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world.