OUR MISSION
OUR MISSION
KNOWING CHRIST, MAKING CHRIST KNOWN
First Baptist Church is a family of believers. We are a Bible-believing church which strives to know Christ and make Christ known. We strive to be a church where Jesus is first, people are loved, and the gospel of grace is center stage. We are serious about God’s truth and Jesus’ mission. We love God and each other, we grow together in God’s word, and we seek to serve others with authentic grace and humility. Come and see FBC, experience spiritual renewal, and discover God’s heart for you!
WHAT WE BELIEVE
WE BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER
We believe in God the Father, creator and sustainer of all things visible and invisible, who is true holiness, eternal power, infinite love, perfect justice, absolute truth, the Alpha and Omega, the “I AM THAT I AM.”
WE BELIEVE IN THE SON OF GOD, JESUS CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, that He was conceived and born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, and sacrificed Himself to be punished in substitution for sinners. By the blood of His cross and His resurrection from the dead, He obtained for us eternal redemption, the forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting. He was raised bodily and ascended to the right hand of the Father. He will return to the earth personally and visibly to consummate His kingdom.
WE BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
wWe believe the Holy Spirit is a divine person who moved holy men of God to write the Scriptures. We believe the Spirit convicts of sin, quickens in the new birth, seals and is the earnest of our inheritance. We believe the Spirit permanently indwells the believer with power for holy living and service..
WE BELIEVE IN THE TRINITY
We believe God exists as three persons in one God, known as the Trinity. This is a term not stated in scripture but observed throughout its pages. We believe the Trinity (God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) communed together in perfect harmony in eternity past and continue to do so. The Trinity planned our redemption, which was purchased by the Son and is being preserved by the Spirit..
WE BELIEVE IN SALVATION
We believe that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. No ritual, work, or any other activity is required in order to be saved. This saving grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, also sanctifies us by enabling us to do what is pleasing in God’s sight in order that we might be progressively conformed to the image of Christ. We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever.
WE BELIEVE IN BAPTISM, COMMUNITY, & THE CHURCH
We believe that water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are to be observed until the time of Christ’s return. They are not a means of salvation. Baptism in water is by immersion and a direct commandment of our Lord for believers only. Water baptism is an action that symbolizes the Christian’s identification as a follower of Jesus Christ. It portrays what He has done for us through His death, burial and resurrection.
We believe that the church is God’s primary instrument through which He is fulfilling His redemptive purposes in the earth. To equip the saints for the work of ministry, God has given evangelistic, pastoral and teaching gifts to the church. We also affirm the priesthood of all believers; the ability to come directly to God through Christ. We believe it is important that each Christian be joined with and actively involved in a local community of believers. God has called the church to preach the gospel to all nations, to carry out the Great Commission.
WE BELIEVE IN THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
We believe that at the present the Lord is calling out a people for His Name and that those who receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior constitute the Family of God. We believe that the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then the living in Christ which are alive and remain shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. We believe in the personal, visible, pre-tribulational, pre-millennial rapture of the Church, and we believe in the pre-millennial return of Christ to the earth to reign in power and glory for one thousand years.