What We Believe
We affirm the Holy Bible as the inspired Word of God and the basis for our beliefs. The church subscribes to the following doctrinal statement:
Scriptures
The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were given by inspiration of God, and are the only sufficient, certain and authoritative rule of saving knowledge, faith and obedience. The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.
God
There is but one God, the Maker, Preserver and Ruler of all things, having in and of Himself all perfections, and being infinite in them all; and to Him all creatures owe the highest love, reverence and obedience.
The Trinity
God is revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.
Humanity
The creation of humanity in the image of God is the climax of God’s creative work. Sin is humanity’s rebellion against God, resulting in separation from God that can only be healed by the redeeming work of Christ made available through the Holy Spirit. Each person is competent to interpret the Scriptures and to exercise saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is God present in the world as the Spirit of Christ, leading persons to conviction, repentance and faith, and it is the Christian’s privilege and duty to heed and obey the Spirit of Christ in all things.
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the unique incarnation of God in history and through His perfect life, atoning death, triumphant resurrection, and present intercession redeems humanity from sin and spiritual death to eternal life and Christian service.
The Experience of Salvation
In response to the witness of the Holy Spirit, each person must repent of sin, trust and obey Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and undertake to live as a dedicated disciple of Christ.
Sanctification
Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual perfection through the presence and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.
The Church
We believe in the universal church, a living body of which Christ is the head and all regenerated persons are members. We believe in the local church, an autonomous body of baptized believers in Christ who are associated by covenant in the fellowship of the gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, committed to His teachings, and seeking to extend His kingdom to all mankind. It operates through democratic processes in which the members share equal franchise and responsibilities.
The Culmination of History
God in God’s own time and way will bring history to its culmination in the personal return of Christ, and in the resurrection and final judgment.
The Ordinances
As Baptist, we believe Christ gave the church two ordinances: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. They are symbolic reminders of the essence and central teachings of the gospel, and as such are to be observed in obedience to Christ as Lord.
- Baptism by immersion of the believer on profession of faith in Christ symbolizes the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus for the redemption of humanity and the spiritual death, burial and resurrection of the believer in transition from the old life in sin to the new life in Christ.
- The Lord’s Supper symbolizes the atoning love unto death of Jesus Christ for human redemption; and it symbolizes the church being constituted as the body of Christ through its reception and participa¬tion in His shared body and blood and, thus, also in His eternal life.
Biblical Marriage
We stand on the Biblical conviction that marriage is, by definition, the physical and spiritual uniting of one man and one woman in an exclusive covenant commitment for their joint lifetime. Christian Marriage is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church.