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Our Principles |
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Scripture The Word of God shall be the first and final authority on all matters of faith and life in our church. We are a people of one Book. The teaching of the Word of God shall fuel, support, and sustain every ministry. We desire our people to grow in grace and in knowledge of Jesus Christ and that happens through love of the Bible (Luke 24:44; 2 Timothy 3:13-17; 2Peter 3:18). We recognize the tendency in our age to "learn how to read the Scriptures" rather than to learn the Scriptures and apply it. We sense a growing disconnect between the "spirituality" that many desire and the "spirituality" that comes through sanctification from studying and praying over the truths of the infallible and inspired Word of God. The Bible is a"Word from another World" that is necessary to bring salvation and sanctification(Psalm 19:7; Luke 8:11; Romans 10:17; Revelation 1:3).
The Great Commission The main thing that we do as followers of Christ is to go and teach the nations the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, to baptize them, and to bring them into the reign of Christ in all their lives. This is our passion and our God-given mandate that we seek to apply from our own families to our community to our nation and to our world (Matthew 28:18-20).
Reformed Faith We are distinctively Presbyterian and reformed. We do not hide our faith but believe those doctrines so articulated in the Westminster Confession of Faith and its Larger and Shorter Catechisms, are, in fact, the doctrines of the Bible. We believe that Presbyterian - that is, representative government - is the teaching of the Bible.
We look to the British and American Puritans of the Seventeenth Century to be a model in faith and life. This means we emphasize the Reformed spirituality distinctiveness of reverent worship, expository preaching, use of Psalms in congregational singing and responses along with the best in Christian hymnody, observance of the Lord's Day, family home worship, and an emphasis on the salvation of souls and Covenantal nurture. We, thus, are committed to supporting missions and missionaries who share our faith. We are ambitious to propagate the Reformed Faith and in doing so, believe that we are advancing the church order and life ordained by God
In the fast paced, ever changing world at the beginning of the 21st century, this commitment to the "old paths" represents a solid rock on which to stand. Our faith becomes, then, a refuge from a relativistic postmodern society that is sowing meaninglessness and reaping immorality and tragedy.
We stand in this faith - not as one in a closed citadel of orthodoxy - but, as those who have found shelter in the storm and who actively give out an invitation for many others to come in.
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