Our Beliefs

The Bible is the inspired word of God, is reliable, and is the final authority for faith and practice.

There is one creator God, who exists eternally as three persons equal in power and glory.

Jesus is fully human and fully God and the only way to eternal salvation.

We believe the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, sanctifies, empowers, and gifts people for his work in this world.

Our sin revokes our relationship with God, others, and our life purpose.

We believe water baptism is for ‘believers’—an action that follows a personal conversion. We practice believers’ baptism.

We are aware that many Bible-believing Christians experience water baptism differently. We respect their view and see this issue as one that Christians can disagree with each other on and not part ways.

If believers in our church choose not to be baptized our way, because of biblical conviction (not just convenience or tradition), then we respect their views and we enthusiastically welcome them as partners.

We practice baptism by immersion but do not see this as a major issue. What if there is a shortage of water? Christians can and do disagree on many aspects of baptism, we still recognize that baptism is an important step of obedience to Jesus Christ, to symbolize that he has saved us, and we testify we are his.

We do not believe baptism is necessary for salvation; for it is by grace alone through faith we are saved.

We believe that every Christian receives the Holy Spirit when they trust Christ as their Savior. The Holy Spirit resides in the saved believer to teach, lead, guide, direct, and empower. This filling grafts the person into the body of Christ at the time of conversion.

There can also be a different, non-technical use of the word “baptize.” God invites followers of Christ to seek daily renewal and empowerment by the Holy Spirit. One might pray “Lord, fill me with Your Holy Spirit today” or “Holy Spirit manifest your power through me today”.  We are encouraged to seek the Holy Spirit for Gods gifts and for us to bear his fruit.

Some segments of faith believe that the spiritual gift of tongues is THE evidence for either salvation or to prove one has the Holy Spirit living in them properly. We would not demand a physical manifestation of tongues to determine someone is filled by the Holy Spirit.

We believe the Holy Spirit distributes all the spiritual gifts today, there were not some gifts that ended at some time in the past. A person receives the Spirit of God with or without the manifestation of one singular gift. (See 1 Corinthians 12:13). In addition, no one gift is for everyone, neither does one have all or many of the manifested gifts. Gifts can manifest as needed based on the circumstance and the Holy Spirits will in the moment.

We believe that Jesus Christ is coming again, and those who have believed on Him as their Savior will be gathered with Him at that time. We do not specify, in our core beliefs, the exact timing of such an event, or the different views that believers have of the specifics prior to or following that event. Our teaching will emphasize we need to live ready for Jesus’ return and for all of the eschatological events God plans (See Matthew 24; Revelation 6-20; 1 Thessalonians 4).

We believe eternal security exists for those who offer themselves in true repentance and regeneration. Any person who, in simple faith, places their trust in Jesus Christ receives the gift of eternal life. Because the gift is not earned it cannot be unearned. All sin is forgiven at repentance and salvation. We are freely given right standing with God. Every child of God is sealed by the Holy Spirit and safe and secure. A Christian can lose their fellowship, joy, power, and rewards in this life, but their relationship with God is eternal. (See John 5:24,6:47, 10:27-30, Romans 3:21-31, 8:28-39, Ephesians 2:1-10). A person can make a pretense of salvation or rely on others for their personal salvation without choosing regeneration.

Generational sin advocates that people suffer from some kind of judgment or curse because of the sin of the parents or some other ancestor, and that you need to renounce this sin to get freedom from it so you can walk with God rightly and be free from a curse.

We understand the nuance here but cannot affirm something that potentially undermines and misunderstands the work of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. Jesus, through the work of salvation, sets us free from sin, death, condemnation, and its curse. When we trust Christ as Savior, we are set free. We are a new creation. We are under no condemnation. We have forgiveness for all our sins. This is our identity in Christ.

Therefore, our identity in Christ is under no such curse of sin because of our ancestors. Obviously, there are consequences of sin that hurt us regardless of ancestry. For example, if my parents were trapped in an addictive cycle that was riddled through the family, I could suffer biological consequence for their sin. We also know that one family might have addictive cycles of one kind over another that seem to repeat. If my family chooses immoral lifestyles, there are psychological impacts, and I will need to break free from those patterns. If my parents were divorced, I may have a skewed understanding of relationships. These examples of consequences can affect several generations. The point is that God is not imposing this judgment or curse for us to renounce or repent from. We are only responsible for our own sin and must rely on God’s grace and power to end the cycles of malediction.

The Generational Sin teaching is derived from several passages in the Old Testament that are misunderstood. The seminal passage in Exodus 20 clarifies that God visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children of those who hate him. Yet, God also clarifies in Ezekiel 18 that no one is punished for the sins of others.

Importantly, generational sin is absent from the New Testament teachings. If this is an important post resurrection part of the spiritual life, we would find it referenced in the New Testament writings. There is no single mention. Therefore, we believe this teaching is misconstrued and denies the work of Jesus Christ on the cross to set us free from all sin.