Our Beliefs
Core Convictions
Preaching
God chooses to reveal himself through various means. By “means” we mean methods used to communicate or transfer. Preaching is one of the primary means in which God reveals truth and builds his church. 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 a 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.
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 seek to weave it into everything that we do from Sunday worship to midweek studies to a prayer team on Sundays.
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 informs and guides our practice. As a church, we desire to be as accurate with Scripture’s commands as we possibly can, rather than being ambiguous.
Practice
While preaching, prayer, and precision are vital to our health, without practicing what we hear, we are deceived (James 1:22). Paul says in Philippians 4:9, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me - practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” We desire to be a church that not only hears the Word but obeys the Word.
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! Titus 2:14 says that Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” 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 precision and practice. 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.