ABOUT US

Our Values and Beliefs 

 

TO KNOW AND FOLLOW JESUS

As a church, we are committed to the disciple-making mission Jesus has given us. We understand the disciple-making pathway by these four challenges.

Challenge 1 

Come and see

(John 1:35-39)

To those that are spiritual seekers, the challenge is to “come and see” Jesus. God is at work; the seeker has a searching or a longing in their heart and mind that brings them to Jesus.

 

To truly see Jesus is to be confronted with our own evil and spiritual deadness and to then see the gracious work of God through Christ. It is only by trusting in Christ’s work that we can be rescued and saved.

Challenge 1 Resources

Challenge 2

Follow me

(John 1:43)

This second challenge is for believers in the Lord Jesus. This person trusts in Christ and transformation is occurring on the inside.

 

"Follow me" assumes a commitment to learn and to become like the one we are following. We are following Jesus in His character and priorities. Paul captures the essence of the endeavor in 1 Corinthians 11:1 when he implores the church at Corinth to be imitators of him as he is an imitator of Christ.

Challenge 2 Resources

Challenge 3

Fish for people

(Mark 1:16-20)

The third challenge is for the believer to become a worker in God’s harvest (Matthew 9:37). The worker is concerned about the health of the church body and bringing the Gospel to those that don’t yet believe.  

 

Being a fisher of people (or a worker) means that a person is actively engaged in helping others to trust Jesus Christ and to follow Him. The worker is others-oriented and actively participating in the mission of Jesus.

Challenge 3 Resources

Challenge 4

Go and bear fruit

(John 15:1-5)

The fourth challenge is to make disciples who make disciples. They have engaged in a lifestyle of helping others progress through the other three challenges.

 

The key to the fourth challenge is abiding in Christ. The fruit of multiplication flows from a relationship with Christ built on love, trust, and obedience. There is an ever-deepening relationship with Him as we walk as He walked.

Challenge 4 Resources

STATEMENT OF FAITH

God

We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.

 

The Bible

We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.

 

The Human Condition

We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.

 

Jesus Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus—Israel’s promised Messiah—was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.

 

The Work of Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.

 

The Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.

 

Church

We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.

 

Christian Living

We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.

 

Response and Eternal Destiny

We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.

 

 

EFCA Statement of Faith