MISSION STATEMENT
Grace Bible Church is a community of people on a journey to become like Jesus in our relationships with God, one another, and the world.
VALUES
The leadership at Grace Bible Church has identified three basic themes we want to emphasize in our congregational life.
Mission
We use this word to refer to the mission of God. It is not our mission but his. We desire to live out God's mission in our everyday lives and in our communities. Following Jesus' example, we believe that this looks like making intentional spaces to love our neighbor and each other. Rather than plan our mission and ask God to bless our plans, we want to discern the movements of the Spirit and follow where he leads.
Transformation
The call of God for every believer is personal transformation.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12: 1-2
We desire to cultivate an authentic environment for lives to be transformed. We understand this to mean that none of us has "arrived" spiritually. We know we are broken people, but we also believe that the Lord wants to begin mending our brokenness now. We will not be content with a stagnant Christian life.
Prayerfulness
In prayer we communicate with God. We speak and we listen. We rejoice in his love for us, we look to him for provision and protection, we offer our lives for his service, and we seek direction. We believe that increasing the frequency and quality of our praying is essential to the health and growth of our congregation.
Statement of Faith
1. GOD is the triune God who exists eternally in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Each is co-equal in their deity; each is a person in that they possess intellect, emotions, and will, yet they are God in harmonious being and relationship. Genesis 1:26; Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; John 10:30; 14:6-26; 15:26; 16:13-15; Acts 5:3-4; 2 Corinthians 13:14.
2. GOD THE FATHER is the first person of the trinity, who orders and arranges all things according to his own purpose and mission. He is sovereign in creation, providence, and redemption. His fatherhood involves both his designation within the Trinity and his relationship with mankind. As Creator he is Father to all people; in the plan of redemption he is Father in a special way to believers, whom he calls distinctly his children. Genesis 1:1-31; Psalm 103:19; 145:8-9; John 1:12; Romans 8:15; 116; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:4-6; 3:9; 4:6; Hebrews 12:5-9; 1 John 3:1.
3. JESUS CHRIST is the second person of the trinity, the eternal Son of God. Sent by the Father, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and is fully God and fully man. He willingly, humbly, and obediently came to earth as the sinless, substitutionary final sacrificial lamb to take away the sins of the world by his shed blood. Having accomplished this by his death on the cross, burial, and bodily resurrection, God exalted him in a place of authority and glory to be the advocate and intercessor for all believers. He now sits at the right hand of God the Father, until the just restoration of all things, commissioning and empowering the Kingdom mission he inaugurated to and through his followers by his life, death, and resurrection. Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 53; Matthew 1:18-22; 28:18-20; Luke 24:1-51; John 1:1,14; 1 Corinthians 15:1-7, 20-28; Galatians 4:4; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 1:3; 7:25; 9:11-26; 10:12; 1 John 2:1.
4. The HOLY SPIRIT is the third person of the trinity. He convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Spirit regenerates, seals, indwells, enlightens and empowers those who commit themselves to Jesus Christ. The Spirit works to bring understanding of the Word he inspired among the people he indwells; and leads God’s people through his transforming work in individual believers, in the church body as a whole, and in and through servant leaders that he raises up and empowers. He further gives gifts to believers and followers of Jesus Christ, as he will, to edify and equip the saints in order to do the work of his Kingdom here on earth. John 3:3-8; 16:5-18; Acts 1:8; 5:3-4; Romans 8:9-11; 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16; 3:16; 12:4-11; Ephesians 1:13; 4:11-12; 6:13-18; 1 Timothy 3; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 13:7-9, 17; James 3:13-18.
5. The BIBLE is complete in the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament. This book is the inspired, infallible word of God. God divinely superintended the writers so completely as to secure, through the writers’ styles, his very thoughts and expression of these thoughts. Therefore, the writings of the apostles and prophets, inspired and preserved in the canon of Scripture, represent the very word of God, without error in all it affirms, and as such we engage with and submit to God’s word together as our final authority in every matter of faith and life. Psalm 12:6; Matthew 4:4; 22:29; John 17:17; Romans 1:12; 3:2; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 5:12; 2 Peter 1:21.
6. HUMAN BEINGS are created in the image of God. God’s image is reflected in his creating people as male and female with distinct functions and roles in marriage, family, church, and community life, while being equal in value, essence, and divine image-bearing; the unity-within-diversity and essential equality-within-functional-differentiation manifested in male-female relationships (marriage, in particular) forms a picture of how likewise the distinct persons of the Godhead are a community of unity-within-diversity. Because people are created in the image of God, human beings, redeemed, sanctified and empowered by the Holy Spirit, through Christ, can take up, resume, and forward the purposes of God in the world as he originally intended at creation. This original calling forms an aspect of the mission to which the church is called until Christ’s return. Genesis 1:26-28; Genesis 2:18-24; Matthew 13; John 14:8-29; 16:3-15; 17:18-26; 1 Corinthians 11:2-12; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 5:21-33.
7. HUMAN BEINGS REBELLED AGAINST GOD and thereby brought the curse of sin and death upon all humankind and all creation. The curse of sin involves not only physical death, but also spiritual death which is separation from God. As a result of this original sin, all people are born with a sinful nature. The sinful nature is demonstrated through active rebellion and passive indifference to God. Humans have no personal ability or way to merit God’s favor, change their own nature, or their spiritual condition. Isaiah 64:6a; Romans 3:10-18; 5:12; 6:23; 8:12-25; 1 Corinthians 15:22; Ephesians 2:1-10; Titus 3:5a; Revelation 20:11-15.
8. SALVATION comes only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We deserve God’s judgment because of our sin. He paid the penalty our sin deserves by dying on the cross. Everyone who confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord and trusts that he died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and raised on the third day, is born again by the Spirit and thereby becomes a child of God. Each born again child of God is sealed by the Holy Spirit and preserved unto the day of redemption. The salvation that God accomplishes in the disciple of Christ involves forgiveness, restoration, redemption, and continuous overcoming of sins and injustices: personal and communal, individual and systemic, past, present, and future. Matthew 13; John 1:12; 3:5; 10: 27-30; Romans 4:18-25; 6:23; 8:35-39; 10:9; 1 Corinthians 15:1-6; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 1:13-14; 2:8-9; 4:30; Titus 3:4-7; 1 Peter 1:1-5.
9. The CHURCH is comprised of believers in Jesus Christ. It is the body of Christ and Jesus is its head. The church under the combined leadership and service of its elders and deacons is called to meet regularly for worship, edification, equipping, fellowship, and correction so that God is glorified, the gospel is proclaimed, believers pursue maturity, and God’s mission is engaged. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are prescribed practices and are for believers. Baptism is a testimony portraying the believer’s union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper so that we will remember his death until he comes again. Matthew 18:15-18; 28:19-20; Acts 6:1-4; Romans 6:1-5; 16:1; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 11:23-32; Galatians 5:16-23; Ephesians 1:20-23; 2:19-22; 4:3-6,12,22-24; 5:23-27; Colossians 1:18, 28-29; 3:2-5, 12-15; 1 Timothy 3:1-12; Titus 1:5-9; Hebrews 10:24-25.
10. The BELIEVER’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE WORLD is that they are called to be in the world, but not of the world. Believers are sent into the world for the purpose of forwarding God’s great mission, including engaging and summoning those who are seeking or lost and not yet believing. Believers are not to conform to the world, but instead, resisting the world, the flesh, and the devil, are to be a holy people bringing faith, hope, and love to the world. Matthew 4:18-20; 5:13-16; 28:19-20; Luke 19:10; John 17:13-23; 20:21; Acts 1:8; Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 5:14-20; 6:14-18; 1 John 2:15-17.
11. The FUTURE will bring the return of Christ for his Church. At that time, the bodies of believers who have died will be resurrected and reunited with their spirits. Those believers, along with believers who are living, will be united with Christ in the air and, at our Lord’s second coming, he will come to earth in power and glory to establish the full implementation of his kingdom. All will be judged by God, Satan and his followers banished, which will result in the eternal state of blessing for the believer and punishment for the unbeliever. John 5:28-29; 14:1-3; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; 15:51-53; 2 Corinthians 5:8,10; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:1-6, 11-15.
