Our Beliefs

Our beliefs can be found in creeds and statements such as: The Nicene Creed, The Apostle's Creed, The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.

Other basic beliefs we hold are:

• The Lord’s Supper celebrated weekly as a full, fellowship meal and as the main reason for the weekly church meeting (Ac 2:42 , 20:7, 1Co 11:18 -20, 11:33 ). The mood of the meal is to be joy, not solemn reflection, because the focus of the Lord’s Supper is the excitement of the Second Coming. It is a rehearsal dinner for the future Wedding Banquet of the Lamb (Re 19:6-9)!
• Church meetings that are interactive and spontaneous, per 1 Corinthians 14, rather than performances by professionals. Every one of the brothers is to be free to contribute to the meetings (via a teaching, a song, a testimony, a prayer, etc.). Open participation is to be the norm, not the exception. The over arching directive for anything said in the meeting is that it must edify the church (1Co 14:26 ).
• A commitment to New Testament patterns (apostolic tradition) for church practice (1Co 11:2, Phlp 4:9, 2Th 2:15) and well as apostolic teaching for church theology (Ac 2:42). Concerned questions, and the burden of explanation, ought to fall on those who seek to deviate from apostolic tradition, not on those who wish to keep it.
• Consensus decisions made by all the brothers, following Christ as Head of His church. Thus, elder-led more so than elder-ruled churches. Though elders are very important to the functioning of the church, decisions are generally to be made by the church corporately, not by its elders only (Mt 18:15-20, Lk 22:24-27, 1Pe 51-4).
• Home-sized and home-based churches (thus, smaller rather than larger fellowships) that are linked together into networks of other autonomous house churches (Ro 16:5, 1Co 1:27-29, Col 4:15, Phlm 2). City-wide church activities might include larger rented facilities where evangelism, leadership training, the equipping of the saints, multi-church Bible studies, public worship, etc. occur. However, the regular Lord’s Day meeting of the local church is to be in homes. Primary and weekly are the local house church meetings; secondary (and optional) are larger (multi-church) gatherings.
• Church as more of a family than a business. Meeting in homes helps foster community, accountability and intimacy among the members of the body. Further, churches are to be family friendly. The church and the family are to be integrated, not segregated. Age-graded Sunday School and Children’s Church only serves to further divide families. Children belong in church meetings and Bible studies with their parents.