Rooted in Scripture, centered on Christ.

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction, with God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth — without any mixture of error — for its matter. All Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us and is the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

There is one and only one living and true God — an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being; the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections, all-powerful and all-knowing, and His perfect knowledge extends to all things. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes but without division of nature, essence, or being.

Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image, male and female, as the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and endowed with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race, so that his posterity now inherit a nature inclined toward sin. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image and that Christ died for man; therefore every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

1. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ — a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit, to which the sinner responds in repentance and faith.
2. Repentance and faith are inseparable: a genuine turning from sin toward God, and the acceptance of and commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
3. Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal of all sinners who repent and believe, bringing the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.
4. Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes and grows toward maturity through the Holy Spirit.
5. Glorification is the culmination of salvation — the final, blessed, and abiding state of the redeemed.

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes, and each member is accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. The New Testament also speaks of the church as the Body of Christ, which includes all the redeemed of all the ages.

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper.

The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming. We observe this ordinance at least once a quarter and on other occasions, reflecting upon our Savior's great love for us, His call upon our daily lives, and the promise of His return.

God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society, composed of persons related by marriage, blood, or adoption. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime — God's unique gift picturing the union between Christ and His church.

Husband and wife are of equal worth before God, both created in His image. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church and to provide for, protect, and lead his family; a wife is to respect her husband and serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation. Children are a blessing and heritage from the Lord; parents are to teach them spiritual and moral values and lead them by example and loving discipline, and children are to honor and obey their parents.