What We Believe

We believe the sole infallible rule for the faith and life of the church is the Holy Scripture alone. Nonetheless, we embrace the historic practice of affirming the truth of God’s Word through the use of creeds and confessions. Good creeds and confessions are essentially faithful, instructive, summary statements of scriptural truth for the articulation, preservation, and transmission of the faith from generation to generation. As a church, we are united together by our shared affirmation of a number of creeds and confessions that define our beliefs. Our faith can best be described as Historic (orthodox), Reformed, and Baptist.

Historic (orthodox): The core of our faith is summarized in the major creeds of the early church. These brief, concise statements of faith clearly articulate the most foundational Christian truths we hold dear concerning the nature of God, the person of Christ, the message of the gospel, the character of the church, and the hope of the resurrection. We embrace the historic, orthodox understanding of Christian doctrine affirmed in the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Chalcedon Confession.

Reformed: Having embraced these historic creeds, we also identify ourselves with the Reformed tradition. We broadly affirm the articulation of Reformed doctrine as found in many of the Reformed confessions of the 16th and 17th centuries such as the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort, and the Westminster Confession of Faith (while maintaining Baptist distinctives). We affirm what have been termed the “Five Solas” of the Reformation: the absolute authority of Scripture alone which teaches salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone. We also embrace what have been called the “Doctrines of Grace” which emphasize the depravity of mankind, the absolute sovereignty of God in man’s salvation, the particular redemption Christ has secured for His elect through the cross, and His effectual grace to regenerate, redeem, and preserve those who trust in Christ. Furthermore, as Reformed Christians, we believe that the glory and majesty of God are the center and end of all things. One implication of this truth is that our worship as a church is to be God-centered and is to be regulated by God’s Word alone.

Baptist: We are also committed as a church to Baptist distinctives, meaning we believe that the proper candidates for baptism are those who possess personal saving faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the membership of the church is to be made up only of those who are truly regenerate. As Baptists, we also believe that each local congregation is meant to be self-governed through the leadership of faithful elders as recognized by the congregation. Though we believe each local congregation is to be self-governed, we also believe in the importance of associating with other like-minded churches for the purposes of fellowship, counsel, mutual support, and cooperation.

Our primary confession of faith which all members of the church are required to affirm is the Abstract of Principles. All church officers (elders and deacons) must also affirm the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 (with a few noted exception clauses).