Missional

We focus our times together on building up believers and encouraging one another to take the Good News of salvation into the community, region, and world.

Family-Integrated

We place high value on the health of families, and our corporate meetings are multi- generational in that children remain together with families in the meetings to allow and encourage families to function and grow together.

Covenant Membership

Covenant membership involves all members’ commitment to be subject to one another for the sake of the integrity and spiritual growth of the Church. It is both a solemn and joyful matter—a deep agreement between regenerated believers that welcomes discipline for the sake of the greater good of sanctification.

Expositional Preaching

We, in our corporate presentation of Bible texts, will deal exegetically with each passage, taking as our main point for the sermon the main point of the text and attending to each issue presented in that text.

Reformed Southern Baptist

God, with absolute sovereignty, accomplishes the salvation of his people by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and for the glory of God alone. He uses his people as His means of spreading the gospel of eternal salvation; we, therefore, being Southern Baptists, cooperate with other churches in supporting mission efforts worldwide.

Plurality of Elders

Elders are the scripturally mandated positions of leadership in the Church. Biblically qualified leaders are shepherds, guiding the body towards accomplishing congregationally selected goals and adhering to Scriptural values; thus, the church is led by the Holy Spirit and guided by multiple elders.

Gospel-Centered Counseling

We acknowledge the Bible as the chief authority on healthy, fulfilled living. As such, pastoral counseling is first and foremost the application of Biblical truth to guide us through our lives.

Those who know me or have read old posts in this blog know that many of those topics have been addressed in this blog, especially the last one.

You may think I’m crazy writing about how pastors should be counseling their people, since I’m majoring in counseling. Actually, I write this precisely for this reason. Counseling, when done in a biblical context, takes place in the local church and in a body of believers – it is not a separate entity. It employs accountability in the body and will utilize church discipline in the case of unrepentance.

Let me flesh this out a bit. Here’s how I see counseling operating within the context of the local body: 90% of the counseling is done as one-another ministry. If you have something with which you need help, you first go to your brother or sister (same sex) in Christ, and they will help you from the God’s Word. 90% of counseling would end there, as we have the Bible from which to counsel.

If there is a problem that seems too large for one-another ministry, the “another” should bring in an elder in the church. If the elder feels unqualified for a certain problem, they should bring in a counselor trained in that specific problem – from a biblical perspective. This progression is similar to church discipline. We are called to help one another and that is the method I proclaim. As 1 Thessalonians 5:14 says: “And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle (or disorderly, or undisciplined), encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.”