WHAT WE BELIEVE
Our God
We confess one true God, who created and sustains all things. He is holy, sovereign, and supreme, and He exists eternally and personally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is thus a Trinity: one Divine Being in three, coequal Divine Persons. As a Trinity, God is love. However, the distinct Persons of the Trinity are not three different gods. In God there are no divisions of essence or will.
Our Humanity
We affirm that from the beginning, human beings have been created male and female as God’s royal image-bearers. We are charged to fill creation with godly image bearers and to exercise godly dominion over it. Marriage between one man and woman reflects God’s good design for human sexuality and is a picture of Christ and the Church. Our highest purpose is to know, love, enjoy, and glorify God forever.
Our Need
We believe that through mankind's fall, sin entered our world. All people are now born under its influence and penalty, and are therefore subject to death. We affirm that sin includes both actions and attitudes that oppose God’s holy will, whether done consciously or unconsciously. Our sin separates us from our holy and righteous Creator, leads us to suppress His truth, and renders us spiritually dead. Apart from God’s grace, we can do nothing to overcome it.
Our Savior
We confess Jesus Christ as God’s eternal Son, truly God and truly man, the King of kings and Lord of lords. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived without sin, bore our sins, and suffered under human rulers. With his human will, He wholeheartedly obeyed the Father, even to the point of death on the cross. On the third day, He rose bodily from the grave, confirming that He is the Messiah and Lord. He later ascended bodily into heaven and now reigns at the Father’s right hand, interceding for His people.
Our Salvation
We believe God rescues sinners by His sovereign grace, through the saving work of Christ, our representative, substitute, deliverer, and Lord. By His life, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession, Christ secured redemption, pardon, righteousness, new life, and eternal life for His people. Through union with Christ, we are adopted into God’s family and participate in the Trinity by the Spirit. This salvation is offered freely and is received through the gift of faith, so that no one can boast.
Our Helper
We confess the Holy Spirit as fully divine and truly personal. He is the Lord and Giver of Life, and He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and coming judgment. He gives new birth, makes believers holy in union with Christ, and is sent to dwell within them. He strengthens us for holy living, distributes gifts for our ministry to the body, and leads us into the truth. As the Spirit of adoption, He also draws us into Christ’s relationship with the Father and is God’s pledge of our inheritance still to come.
Our Church
We affirm that there is one holy and universal church that Jesus promised to build and that His apostles and prophets laid its foundational teachings. As part of Christ’s church, God’s people across all ages are united in a heavenly assembly of believers from every tribe, tongue, and nation.
We also affirm that in every age, Jesus sends His church on earth to shine as a witness in the world and to disciple the nations. He does this through local congregations of baptized believers, who together submit to Christ’s authority in Scripture.
Our Affiliation
We hold that denominational affiliation can serve as an aid in faithfully and convictionally discipling the nations. Without dividing ourselves from the rest of Christ’s faithful churches, we are members of the Southern Baptist Convention. We believe that the New Testament model for local churches is that of autonomous, covenanted communities that appoint pastors and deacons to lead them, but which ultimately discern God’s will together. We also gladly practice believer’s baptism and the Lord’s Supper as Christ’s enduring ordinances and gracious gifts.
Our Bible
We receive the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments as God’s written Word and the final rule for the church’s faith and life. All of Scripture is perfect in truth and is living and active because it is breathed out by God. It is sufficient to teach, correct, and train God’s people in righteousness.
Our Conflict
We believe that humanity is caught up in a conflict between good and evil, and that our enemy is not flesh and blood. From the beginning, Satan has led mankind in rebellion against God, but Jesus has come to destroy the works of the devil. The church participates in that warfare through prayer and Gospel ministry. As the Word goes forward in the power of the Spirit, God both rescues His people from spiritual danger and delivers sinners out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of His beloved Son. We believe that the stakes are high, as those who do not believe in Jesus receive everlasting punishment alongside the Devil and his angels in Hell.
Our Hope
We have hope because we believe that we are not our own, but belong to Jesus, who will hold us fast until He comes again to judge the living and the dead and make all things new. We who belong to Him will not only be raised from the dead but will be made like Him in glory. We will reign with Him bodily in everlasting joy in the New Heavens and Earth, and we will behold the face of God.