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God the King
and the Holy Trinity
WE BELIEVE that God is the Eternal King. He is an infinite,
unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power
and love. From all eternity, He exists as the One, Living and True God
in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
equal in power and glory.
God the King: The Creator and Ruler of All Things
WE BELIEVE that God's kingdom is everlasting. From His
throne, through His Son, His eternal Word, God created, upholds and governs
all that exists: the heavenly places, the angelic hosts, the universe,
the earth, every living thing and mankind. God created all things very
good.
Counterfeit Kingdom: Satan and Demonic Hosts
WE BELIEVE that Satan, originally a great, good angel,
rebelled against God, taking a host of angels with him. He was cast out
of God's presence and, as a usurper of God's rule, established a counter-kingdom
of darkness and evil on the earth.
The Kingdom in the Creation of Man, the Fall and The Doctrine
of Original Sin
WE BELIEVE that God created mankind in His image, male
and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under
the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing
sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall,
Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation
now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human
beings are born in sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive
to Satan's kingdom of darkness.
God's Providence, Kingdom Law and Covenants
WE BELIEVE that God did not abandon His rule over the
earth which He continues to uphold by His providence. In order to bring
redemption, God established covenants which revealed His grace to sinful
people. In the covenant with Abraham, God bound Himself to His people
Israel, promising to deliver them from bondage to sin and Satan and to
bless all the nations through them.
WE BELIEVE
that as King, God later redeemed His people by His mighty acts from bondage
in Egypt and established His covenant through Moses, revealing His perfect
will and our obligation to fulfill it. The law's purpose is to order our
fallen race and to make us conscious of our moral responsibility. By the
work of God's Spirit, He convicts us of our sin and God's righteous judgment
against us and brings us to Christ alone for salvation.
WE BELIEVE that when Israel rejected God's rule over
her as King, God established the monarchy in Israel and made an unconditional
covenant with David, promising that his heir would restore God's kingdom
reign over His people as Messiah forever.
Christ the Mediator and Eternal King
WE
BELIEVE that in the fullness of time, God honored His covenants
with Israel and His prophetic promises of salvation by sending His only
Son, Jesus, into the world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the
Virgin Mary, as fully God and fully man in one person, He is humanity
as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered
by the Holy Spirit, inaugurating God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering
the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of
salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead.
Gathering His disciples, He reconstituted God's people as His Church to
be the instrument of His kingdom. After dying for the sins of the world,
Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, fulfilling the covenant
of blessing given to Abraham. In His sinless, perfect life, Jesus met
the demands of the law and in His atoning death on the cross, He took
God's judgment for sin, which we deserve as law breakers. By His death
on the cross, He also disarmed the demonic powers. The covenant with David
was fulfilled in Jesus' birth from David's house, His Messianic ministry,
His glorious resurrection from the dead, His ascent into heaven and His
present rule at the right hand of the Father. As God's Son and David's
heir, He is the eternal Messiah-King, advancing God's reign throughout
every generation and throughout the whole earth today.
The Ministry
of the Holy Spirit
WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the
Church at Pentecost in power, baptizing believers into the Body of Christ
and releasing the gifts of the Spirit to them. The Spirit brings the permanent
indwelling presence of God to us for spiritual worship, personal sanctification,
building up the Church, gifting us for ministry, and driving back the
kingdom of Satan by the evangelization of the world through proclaiming
the word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus.
WE BELIEVE
that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that
He is our abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. We believe in the filling
or empowering of the Holy Spirit, often a conscious experience, for ministry
today. We believe in the present ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise
of all of the biblical gifts of the Spirit. We practice the laying on
of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing, and for recognition
and empowering of those whom God has ordained to lead and serve the Church.
The Sufficiency of Scripture
WE
BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of Holy
Scripture so that the Bible is without error in the original manuscripts.
We receive the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as our final,
absolute authority, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
The Power of the Gospel Over the Kingdom of Darkness
WE BELIEVE that the whole world is under the domination
of Satan and that all people are sinners by nature and choice. All people
therefore are under God's just judgment. Through the preaching of the
Good News of Jesus and the Kingdom of God and the work of the Holy Spirit,
God regenerates, justifies, adopts and sanctifies, through Jesus, by the
Spirit, all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord
and Savior. By this, they are released from Satan's domain and enter into
God's kingdom reign.
The Church: Instrument of the Kingdom
WE BELIEVE in the one, holy, universal Church. All who
repent of their sins and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior are regenerated
by the Holy Spirit and form the living Body of Christ, of which He is
the head and all are members.
Baptism and the Lord's Supper
WE BELIEVE that Jesus Christ committed two ordinances
to the Church: water baptism and the Lord's Supper. Both are available
to all believers.
The Kingdom of God and the Final Judgment
WE BELIEVE that God's kingdom has come in the ministry
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it continues to come in the ministry of
the Spirit through the Church, and that it will be consummated in the
glorious, visible and triumphant appearing of Christ; His return to the
earth as King. After Christ returns to reign, He will bring about the
final defeat of Satan and all of his minions and works, the resurrection
of the dead, the final Judgment and the eternal blessing of the righteous
and eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. Finally, God will be all
in all and His kingdom, His rule and reign, will be fulfilled in the new
heavens and the new earth, recreated by His mighty power, in which righteousness
dwells and in which He will forever be worshipped.
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We value THE PURSUIT
OF GOD. We are hungry to know God's presence, hear His voice
and follow hard after Him. (Psalm 63:1-3)
We value CHRISTLIKENESS. We desire that through the power
of the Holy Spirit, Jesus' love, mercy, grace, truth, purity, power, and
integrity would shine through all that we are and do. (Ephesians 5:2)
We value BEING SPIRIT-LED. We honor Jesus as our Head
and the Holy Spirit as our Counselor. We seek to be responsive to the
Holy Spirit in life and ministry. (Galatians 5:5; Romans 8:14)
We value PRAYER. We believe that prayer is essential,
because it is our primary means of communion with God, and because it
is God's primary means of accomplishing His purposes in the world. (1
Thess. 5:16-18; Philippians 4:6)
We value DISCIPLESHIP. We aim first to grow as disciples
of Christ ourselves and then to make disciples of others. (Matthew 28:18-20)
We value THE KINGDOM OF GOD . We aim to move in the signs of the present
fulfillment of the kingdom, invoking the Spirit's powerful presence, ministering
through the Spirit's gifts, and seeing God heal and work wonders. (Mark
1:14,15)
We value the MERCY OF GOD. We believe that mercy is fundamental
to all that God does in salvation. We, therefore, aim to extend mercy
to one another and to all to whom we minister. (Colossians 3:12,13)
We value INTEGRITY. It is important for us to speak the
truth, deal honestly, and live uprightly. (Ephesians 4:15)
We value SERVANT
LEADERSHIP. We believe that Christ has put significant leadership
authority in the hands of the pastor and associates. We aim to exercise
that authority with humility, selflessness, grace, care for the sheep,
and a sincere desire to build up the Body of Christ. (Mark 10:37,44-45)
We value THE INDIVIDUAL , single or married, and we want to enable and
support mature relationships and family growth. (Romans 12:9,10)
We value UNITY.
We are convinced that all who belong to Christ are one in His Body, the
Church. We aim to maintain unity by honoring all who call on Jesus' name
and by seeking reconciliation with all parts of the Church. (John 17:21-23)
We value COLLEGIATE
RELATIONSHIPS. We are honored by every person whom God adds to
the Vineyard. We aim to work together to build the Church through maintaining
mutual respect, open communication, determined cooperation, and believing
and speaking the best about each other. (I Corinthians 13:4-7)
We value REALITY
. We aim to walk in the Spirit and see real supernatural works of God.
We aim also to function on the natural plane based on God's leading in
conjunction with excellent, relational thinking. (James 1:5)
We value SIMPLICITY
. We wish to do nothing for "religious effect" but rather to
operate in natural low-key, non-hype patterns. We desire to do the ministry
of Christ with joy. (Philippians 4:4)
We value being CULTURE
CURRENT. We aim to develop an atmosphere of ease, and to speak,
act, and dress in ways in which our culture can respond positively. For
example, we reflect this value through worship music that is of a popular
style. (I Corinthians 9:19-23)
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