Statement of Faith
(a) First, we are Christians, which distinguishes us from other world religions and cults. Therefore, we adhere to the Apostles’, Nicene, Chalcedonian and Athanasian Creeds.
(b) Second, we are Evangelicals and therefore:
- We believe the Bible to be the only verbal plenary inspired, infallibly authoritative word of God. And for this reason we hold that it is all sufficient for faith and practice.
- We believe that there is one God, existent in three distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; these Persons are co-eternal, co-equal and same in essence.
- We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His becoming fully human through the virgin birth and yet always remaining fully God, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood on the cross, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father and in His personal return in power and glory, to judge the living and the dead.
- We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential, which empowers them to exercise saving faith in the Gospel.
- We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
- We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
- We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.
(c) Third, we are Missional and therefore:
- We believe that we must be faithful to the content of unchanging Biblical doctrine (Jude 3).
- We believe that we must be sensitive to the continually changing context of the culture(s) in which we minister (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).
- We believe that it is our mandate to train people to serve as missionaries.
(d) Fourth, we are Reformed and therefore:
- We believe that God created the heavens and the earth.
- We believe that God created man and woman in a state of sinless perfection with particular dignity as His image bearers on the earth.
- We believe that our first parents (Adam and Eve) sinned against God and that everyone since is a sinner by nature and choice. Sin has totally affected all of creation including marring human image and likeness so that all of our being is stained by sin (e.g. reasoning, desires, and emotions).
- We believe that because all people have sinned and separated themselves from the Holy God and that He is obligated to save no one from the just deserved punishment of hell. We also believe that God in His unparalleled love and mercy has chosen to elect some people for salvation.
- We believe that the salvation of the elect was predestined by God in eternity past.
- We believe that the salvation of the elect was accomplished in Christ, by His sinless life and substitutionary atoning death for their sins. The sufficiency of Jesus Christ’s atonement is evidenced by His literal physical resurrection on the third day.
- We believe that the salvation of the elect, by God’s grace alone, shows forth in the ongoing repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ that produces good works.
- We believe that by God’s saving grace all who are effectually called will undoubtedly convert and persevere.
- We believe that the gospel should be faithfully and clearly proclaimed to all people so that all who believe may be saved through the preaching of God’s Word by the power of God’s Spirit.
- We believe that true Christians are born again of God’s Spirit and will be kept by God throughout their life, as evidenced by personal transformation that includes an ever-growing love of God the Father through God the Son by God the Spirit as well as love for brothers and sisters in the Church, and a love for the lost.
- We believe that God is Lord over all and that He providentially rules all space and time.
- We believe that the worship of God is the end for which people were created and that abiding joy is only to be found by delighting in God throughout all of life, including hardship and death, which is gain.