Core Beliefs

We subscribe to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 (view here).

Along with so many of our Southern Baptist forebearers, we also see a wonderful amount of Gospel-truth in the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 (available here for viewing).

Below is a more succint summary of our essential beliefs:

God's Gospel

In the beginning of the universe (yes, it had a beginning), God was all that existed. He existed then just like he exists today: one God in three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Nothing existed outside of him.

As Genesis 1-2 record, God made everything by the simple authority of his Word.

Man did not evolve; God made him! He made him special in all of creation. Mankind was made to image God. That means that we were created to reflect the character, function, and glory of God.

Unfortunately, Adam and Eve did not live how God created and desired for them to live. Instead, they rebelled against him and entered into cosmic treason. The punishment of their rebellion was two-fold: they had to die, and they, along with all of their descendants, would be cut off from fellowship and eternal life with God because of their sin (past, present, and future).

As the Old Testament unfolds, we learn that God has not given up on his purposes to have a race of men who obey him, serve him, and fellowship him (a group of men and women who accurately and joyfully reflect his glory). He begins to rebuild that group of people when he calls Abraham and when he establishes the nation of Israel.

But ultimately, the effects of Adam and Eve's sin is not undone until God sends his Son to be born as a man. His name was Jesus. Jesus lived for us, died for us, and he even rose and ascended to heaven for us.

In Jesus, God took the sins of all of those people who would be part of his new race, and he punished Jesus for their sin and rebellion. But when Jesus died, that sin was done. It was gone. There was no more payment needed for God's people. So Jesus actually rose from the grave three days later. He was showing the world that, for God's people, death was dead and the power of sin was destroyed. Then he ascended into heaven and received a new, death-free, Spirit-filled body.

Here's the point: today, God extends the invitation to us to become part of that new race that he is creating in Jesus! He commands us to repent (which means to turn from living for and serving ourselves and to come under his authority) and to believe (which means to acknowledge that reality of this Gospel and to trust that our only hope for being reconciled to God is Jesus Christ).

When we repent and believe, God has actually given us a new heart. And now he adopts us into his eternal family and he gives us the new life that Jesus himself secured for us.

Our Twin Pillars

Our pastor often says that we are supported by our twin-pillars of truth: God is sovereign, and God is good.

God is sovereign means that the Bibles knows a God who is in control of all things and who delights to execute his will. (Ephesians 1:11) The wonderful truth that God is sovereign supports us "in the whelming flood" because we know that nothing overtakes us apart from his good purposes.

God is good means that, in the midst of his will being accomplished, he is also doing his people good. He is pursuing their good even in the pains and trials of life.

So the combined pillars of God's sovereignty and goodness leave us on an unshakable foundation as those who have repented from their sins and been born-again as they trust in God.

The Bible

We also firmly believe that the Holy Bible is inspired and without error in the original manuscripts. So we preach, teach, and hold authoritative every word.

When we preach, we try to allow the main message of that section of God's Word to be the main message of our sermon. We also try to take the flow and the points of the text as the struction of the sermon. In this way, we hope to allow God's authoritative Word to set, not only the content, but also the agenda.

Because God has fully revealed himself in Jesus Christ as recorded by his Word, our worship is summarized like this (taken from Ligon Duncan): read the Word; sing the Word; pray the Word; preach the Word.