Church Distinctives

  1. We are a Christ-centered, caring family of believers.

    2. We are a group of believers striving to make Jesus Christ central in our lives. He is the "head" of the church and it is around Him that our vision, values, priorities, practices, and goals revolve. Our church is like a caring family that values unity, loyalty, commitment, fellowship, and love.

  2. We are fundamental in our doctrinal convictions.
    1. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God and therefore our only authority in matters of faith and practice.
    2. We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ; that He is the very God by Whom and for Whom "all things were created."
    3. We believe in His virgin birth; that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and is therefore God manifest in the flesh.
    4. We believe in salvation by faith alone in Christ's sacrifice; that the Son of God gave "His life a ransom for many" and bore "our sins in His own body on the tree."
    5. We believe in the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and in His own presence at the right hand of God as our Priest and Advocate.
    6. We believe in the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.
    7. We believe in the universal depravity of mankind; therefore, we believe in the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit of God and faith in Jesus Christ.
    8. We believe in the immersion of the believer in water as the only biblical baptism, prerequisite to church membership, and the ordinance of the Lord's Supper as a "memorial" service for those who are believers in Christ.
    9. We believe that the New Testament definition of a local Church is a body of baptized believers, organized, independent, self-governing, and voluntarily associated together for the service of God.
    10. We believe in the command given by our Lord to His Church to evangelize the world, and that this evangelization is the great commission of the Church.
    11. We believe in the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that He will come first for His Church (the rapture), then with the Church to judge and rule.
    12. We believe in the reality and personality of Satan.
    13. We believe in the Heaven of endless bliss for the righteous and in the conscious and endless punishment of the wicked in Hell.
  3. We are an independent church.

    4. We are autonomous and self-governing. As a congregation, we choose our own pastors; we elect our own officers; we send our own missionaries; we settle our own internal affairs; we determine our own fiscal policy, etc.

  4. We are Baptists.

    5. We believe in the biblical principles that distinguish Baptists from other groups, primarily:

    B — Biblical Authority (II Timothy 3:16)
    A — Autonomy of the local church (Acts 13:1-3)
    P — Priesthood of all believers (I Peter 2:9)
    T — Two ordinances: Baptism & the Lord's Supper (Acts 2:41-42)
    I — Individual soul liberty (Romans 14:5, 12)
    S — Separation of church and state (Matthew 22:21)
    T — Two offices: pastors and deacons (Philippians 1:1)
    S — Saved church membership (Acts 2:41, 47)

  5. We are committed to outreach and evangelism.

    6. We believe that Christ's instruction to His disciples about evangelism and discipleship is still the "marching orders" for churches today. Acts 1:8 states, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." We desire to be faithful to this Commission in our "Jerusalem" — as we reach out in our local community; in our "Judea and Samaria" — as we participate in church-planting efforts here in the Midwest and in other parts of North America; and "to the ends of the earth" — as we faithfully support evangelism efforts in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

  6. We are part of a national "association" of independent churches.

    7. We "fellowship" with other Baptist churches of similar belief and practice in the Flint area as well as regionally and nationally through the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC). None of these associations exert any external control over our church. However, we benefit through mutual encouragement and prayer support, Bible Conference ministries, youth activities, etc. We also believe that the Bible instructs us as a local church to maintain our doctrinal convictions without compromise and to separate ourselves from apostasy and ecumenism.

  7. We desire to mutually encourage each other in our daily walk with God.

    8. We believe that every Christian has been called to unconditional surrender of his/her total life to Christ. It is our desire, therefore, that as a church family, we encourage one another to establish and develop an intimate relationship with God. It should be one that is not characterized by a legalistic or judgmental attitude, but one where we seek holiness in our everyday activities and associations as well as God's leading for our life goals and aspirations. As a "family" of believers, we take seriously our responsibility to "build" one another toward these important objectives.