God loves. Everyone reborn of God knows God and lives in His love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We believe in one God, the Creator of all things from nothing, infinitely holy and eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Jesus calls us His beloved children. We believe He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Him. He is co-equal with God the Father, born of the Virgin Mary, and lived a sinless life. We believe in His words, works, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the promise of His return. He inaugurated His kingdom here on earth and will see its eventual fulfillment. We are grateful He is our intercessor with God the Father, subordinating His interest for our interest. He provides salvation by grace through faith in Him as Savior and Lord. He lived and died to restore men and women to fellowship with God.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is the Spirit’s fruit, made manifest in us in the world. The Holy Spirit is co-equal with God the Father and will teach us all things and bring to us the capacity to abide in Jesus Christ, the true vine. He helps us in our weakness, indwelling us and empowering with spiritual fruit of love and spiritual gifts to live godly lives. He is powerful, and His presence brings unity and peace, which transforms lives, communities, and the world in the advancing of God’s kingdom.
Alive and active, the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is the divinely inspired, infallible, and only authoritative word of God—supreme and final in its authority in matters of faith and practice. As a lamp unto our feet, it is not merely to be heard, but to be believed and obeyed. It can divide bone and marrow and judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Redemption is the forgiveness of sins through Christ’s atoning death and is a gift to His children. Because of this, we can return to Him in fellowship, over and over, and invite others to do so as well. We are to testify to the sacrifice He offered of Himself and the freedom redemption affords.
The Church is Christ’s body, composed of all people who by grace receive Christ in faith and commit their lives to His Lordship. It is sacred and holy, the very bride of Christ. In the model of Acts, people share lives, it’s where life happens. Its members have unique gifts given by the Spirit and are called to come into His presence in sacrament together and welcome those outside of God’s family, demonstrating extraordinary love.
The local church is wherever people gather to worship God in spirit and truth, share the good news of Jesus Christ, fellowship with one another, and prepare disciples to fulfill their God-given purposes. It’s more than a place to go, it’s an identity to assume under Christ’s Lordship (we “are” the church). We believe everyone of God has a part to play, and trust when someone engages with their local church, they are both encouraged and challenged in transformation unto Christlikeness.
The Christian life is a process of falling more in love with Jesus every day and being transformed into His likeness by God’s grace. We are to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. In that, we are called to submit completely to Christ, to study His Word, and to repent when we fall short. The two great commandments embody and fulfill the Christian life: to love God with all our hearts, souls, strength, and minds; and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This will lead to the generous extension of all we have, to meeting human needs and needs of the whole creation all around us.
Everyone spends eternity somewhere. When by grace one comes into transformative relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, eternal life with Him begins. Neither life nor death, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God. Those who reject Christ as Savior and Lord are separated from Him eternally.
