About the Church
The church is the living body of Christ on earth; Jesus is its head and the source of its life. Every believer is called to be a faithful and participating member of a local church. The church exists to celebrate the life of God, cultivate personal growth in Christ, care about one another in Christ, and communicate the gospel of Christ to the world.
Human beings were created by God in God’s own image – in true righteousness and holiness – to know, love and obey God. While there is inalienable glory and nobility to human beings because they are God’s image bearers, all of us are marred by an attitude of disobedience toward God called “sin”. The human will, originally free and righteous, is now crippled and defective. As a result, human beings are in bondage to sin and subject to God’s holy judgment. Without God’s grace and salvation, we are lost and condemned.
God is a God of Love. In grace, God chooses to show love and mercy. When we were dead in trespass and sin, God made us alive with Christ, saving us by grace through faith, as a sheer gift of sovereign love.
Faith is (a) accepting the message of salvation as true, and (b) trusting God to apply this salvation to us. Faith is “certain knowledge” and “wholehearted trust,” that is created in us by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. In faith alone, we are saved by grace.
Jesus Christ will return one day to judge the living and the dead and will establish God’s kingdom on earth for all believers. When He returns, all believers will receive a new glorified body fit for eternal living. This is the hope of all believers. Those who have been reborn by the Spirit will live with and serve Him forever.