Our church is part of the historic stream of the Christian faith. We believe that God is a Trinity -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). We believe that a person is saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus and His death on the Cross for our sins (Eph. 2:8-9, John 1:12). We hold a high view of the Scriptures believing the Bible is the Word of God (2 Tim. 3:15-16). Beyond those core doctrines, below are some things that explain a bit about who we are and what matters to us when it comes to how we live out our faith:
- The Bible teaches that our Creator knew us in our mother’s womb so we are "pro-life" advocates embracing the sanctity of life (Jeremiah 1:5).
- We believe marriage was God’s idea, and as its designer, He has the right to define it! We hold to the traditional biblical definition of marriage as being between one biological man and one biological woman (Gen. 1:26-27).
- We are affiliated with Vineyard USA (founded by John Wimber) which is a charismatic expression of the Christian faith. As such we believe the Holy Spirit should NOT be the “forgotten member of the Trinity" (1 Cor. 12; Rom. 8:14).
- While we are advocates of social justice as it is defined by the Bible, we do NOT embrace "progressive" Christianity (Matthew 25:31-46).
- Our pastors quote from a variety of translations/versions including NIV, NLT, ESV, NKJV, The Message, and Amplified.
- Some of the favorite songs we sing on Sundays come from Bethel Music, Hillsong, Elevation Worship, Jesus Culture, Chris Tomlin, and Vineyard Worship.
- Some of the pastors and authors that our lead pastor reads and listens to: Randy Clark, Bill Johnson, Michael Brown, Remnant Radio podcast, Eric Metaxas, Pete Scazzero, Max Lucado, Lee Strobel, Priscilla Shirer, Dallas Willard, Francis Chan, Dallas Jenkins (The Chosen), C.S. Lewis, Mark Batterson, John Bevere, and N.T. Wright. That being said, he doesn’t necessarily agree with everything each of them has ever written or said. As he likes to say, “Let’s chew the meat and spit out the bones!”
- Our co-founders have Catholic roots to their faith and while they don’t agree with all aspects of Catholic theology, they are thankful for the spiritual foundation it gave them. Our pastor even has friendships with some Catholic priests (John 17:20-23).
- We believe women have a key role in ministry and can hold leadership positions and preach on Sundays (Judges 4-5, Acts 18:24-26; Rom. 16:1-7 ).
- When it comes to politics, we are primarily citizens of the Kingdom of God, so while we love our country and are proud to be Americans, we do not believe our ultimate hope is found in who is or isn’t President (Psalm 47; 1 Peter 2:9-12).
- The Covid pandemic was extremely divisive in both the world and in churches. While our church was closed down for 13 Sundays, we were one of the first in the region to reopen and we offered two services: one with masks required and one with masks optional.
- We do NOT believe a “fire and brimstone” approach is the best way to share our faith (Romans 2:4).