Primary*

Jesus

Jesus. His name sums us up in 1 word. He is our all in all, our everything, our Savior, our Lord, the Son of God. Without Jesus, we are nothing, and we can do nothing.

Jesus is God revealed in human form. His name is above all other names. His name is the only name that saves.

We believe in the truth of who he is because of what he’s done for us. Jesus died for us and then rose from death conquering sin and death proving he is the one and only Son of God, Savior of the World.

Only by faith in his name can we be saved, set free from our sins, and be made right with God.

Through faith in Jesus’s name we receive God’s righteousness and await the full blessing of this precious promise when Jesus returns, sets all things right one day, and resurrects us to eternal life where all those who believe in Jesus as the Son of God will see him face to face, become like him, and be with him for all of eternity.

Love

Love is the binding force that joins all believers together and aside from faith in Jesus’ name is the key proof that we are God’s children (1 John 3:23 & John 13:34-35).

The importance of love in a believer’s life cannot be overstated. But this love is not a love that comes from the World. It comes from God.

It’s a feeling, an action, an emotion, a motive, a state of being, a way of life. It’s summed up as the Greatest Commandments (Mark 12:28-34). The Greatest Commandment is loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, which means loving God with all that you are, with all of your being. The Second Greatest Commandment is loving your neighbor as yourself, or as Jesus puts it in John 13:34, love everyone as Jesus has loved you.

From the Greatest Commandment flows the Second Greatest Commandment and all other right living as a believer (Matthew 22:40).

Without this love, we cannot live for God. Even more, without this love, we are not God’s children (1 John 4:8).

We love by what we believe, by what we say, and by what we do (Matthew 12:33-37, Luke 6:43-45, & 1 John 3:18). This is why love is a lifestyle and why loving God is the Greatest Commandment.

When we are totally in love with God, consumed by him, and always focused on him, loving him becomes our lifestyle and who we are. And when we love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, we can love everyone as Jesus has loved us.

Good News

We believe in the Good News of Jesus. The Good News of Jesus is that he is the Messiah, the Savior of the World, the Son of God because he died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the 3rd day.

This good news is the only message that brings about salvation. It is the good news of God’s grace. There is no other message that saves.

This is because we are saved by grace through faith in the name of Jesus only. There is no other way to be saved. There is no other way to Heaven. There is no other way to be right with God.

A person cannot be good enough to be saved, do enough good to stay saved, or do something bad to lose their salvation. Salvation is all by grace so that it might be by faith.

Likewise, a person cannot be baptized to be saved nor does a person do any other ritual, good deed, act of service, or any other thing to be saved, stay saved, or keep from losing their salvation.

Salvation, or being right with God, is only by grace through faith in the name of Jesus. Any other so-called good news or way to be saved is not true.

God’s Word

We believe that God’s Word is the perfect Word of God as revealed to us in what we know today as the Bible.

God’s Word is without error in the original texts of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. It is made up of 66 books that were written by about 40 authors over a period of more than 1500 years. These 40 authors had about 19 different occupations, lived on 3 different continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe), wrote in 3 different languages (Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic), and wrote in many different writing styles including history, prophecy, biography, poetry, and songs.

When you consider the above facts, you begin to marvel over how something can maintain such perfection, beauty, and consistency over such a long period of time with so many different people being involved. Such facts lead you to see that the Bible is nothing short of a miracle. Even more, when you taste the goodness of God through experiencing his Word, you see that the Bible is not a mere work of man. No, it is something more, something supernatural. The Bible truly is God’s Word.

There is no additional revelation from God today. His revelation to us is complete in his Son Jesus and in his Word. We have no need of a different or additional revelation. We are complete in his Son Jesus and have a complete revelation of who God is, who Jesus is, how we are to be saved, and how we are to live for Jesus in God’s Word.

Any additional revelations, deletions, or changes to Jesus or God’s Word is unnecessary and not to be trusted.

We also believe you can trust many older and newer translations of the Bible into English. We believe it is possible to preserve the intent and authenticity of God’s Word through translation; thus, a person does not have to know the original languages to understand God’s Word, come to know Jesus, believe in him, or live for him.

*The above primary beliefs are what we believe to be the most important beliefs. These are essential, or closed handed, beliefs that we believe to be the essence of what makes a person a believer and a group of believers a church. Agreement on the above beliefs is essential for our unity in the faith. Beliefs not listed above are Secondary and are matters of individual and collective conscience and liberty.

Secondary**

Abundant Life

We believe through faith in Jesus's name we can not only have life, but life more abundantly. This abundant life is found in following the Greatest Commandments.

If we follow the Greatest Commandments, we will have abundant life not only in this life, but in the life to come. Living the abundant life means we store up treasures in Heaven, treasures that we will be able to enjoy for eternity.

Living the abundant life does not save us. Salvation is only by grace through faith in the name of Jesus.

Living the abundant life is a blessing and privilege we get to enjoy as children of the King.

Living the abundant life does not mean we will never suffer, endure trials, or endure persecution. Suffering, trials, and persecution are a part of the believer’s life and are a part of the abundant life. Living the abundant life gives us the peace, joy, and contentment to get through these challenging times in our lives.

Not living the abundant life as children of the King does not cause us to lose our salvation. It causes us to lose the joy of our salvation in this life and to suffer the loss of rewards in the next.

Holy Spirit

In order to live the abundant life, we must be filled with and surrendered to Jesus’s Holy Spirit. We cannot live the abundant life in our own strength.

God’s Holy Spirit dwells in us at the moment of salvation. The moment we first believe in Jesus, his Holy Spirit begins to live in us.

Jesus’s Holy Spirit assures us of our salvation, comforts us, guides us, and enables us to live for him.

Failing to be filled with and surrendered to God’s Holy Spirit will not result in us losing his Holy Spirit. Jesus’s Holy Spirit dwells in all who believe in him. Failing to be filled with and surrendered to Jesus’s Holy Spirit will lead to an unfruitful life, one that is not abundant, lacks joy, and fails to store up treasures in Heaven.

Everywhere

We live the abundant life everywhere we go. We follow the Greatest Commandments everywhere we go. We live filled with and surrendered to the Holy Spirit everywhere we go.

When this happens, people hear about the good news of Jesus from us, they feel his love through us, they see his love in us, they receive salvation through faith in Jesus’s name from our proclaiming the Good News of Jesus, and they learn to live for him from our teaching of God’s Word and from the example of our lives.

Living this way brings joy to God, glorifies him, pleases him, and results in a fruitful and faithful life. Living this way will result in us hearing one day from God, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” Amen.

**The above secondary beliefs are what we believe to be the most important of the secondary beliefs. However, these beliefs are just that: secondary. Secondary beliefs are open-handed, not essential, do not affect unity, and are matters of individual and collective conscience and liberty.

There are more Secondary Beliefs than what we have listed above. The above are just the Secondary Beliefs that we believe to be the most important for us as a church. Every church can and will have a different take on what Secondary Beliefs are the most important. Disagreement on Secondary Beliefs does not affect unity in the faith.

Further, Secondary Beliefs do fall into 2 categories: wrong in themselves and not wrong in themselves but they do not matter for salvation in Jesus or fellowship in the Holy Spirit as the true universal Church and Kingdom of God.