Providence:
– This identifies the Supremacy of the Lord’s hand in all things.
We believe that God is sovereign in ALL things and it is through the orchestration of His symphony, the universe, that He accomplishes ALL things according to His good pleasure and purpose for His ultimate glory. Providence is the means by which our Lord carries out this very act.
Reformed:
– This identifies our theology.
From our belief that the Lord is sovereign over ALL things, we hold to what the reformers proclaimed as the doctrine of grace. We stand on the shoulders of past giant reformers from the Apostle Paul, to Saint Augustine, to Martin Luther, John Calvin and espouse the very doctrine that the Puritans loved and John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon and the likes gave their lives to proclaim. We hold to the hallmarks of the 5 solas; Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone), Sola Gratia (Grace Alone), Sola Fide (Faith Alone), Solus Christus (Christ Alone), and Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God Alone). From this we believe that our final authority in all manner of life is derived by God through His Word; so reconciliation to God is found by the Justification of sinners by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone, by the mighty works of Jesus Christ Alone, for our hope and joy to the Glory of God Alone.
We do not consider the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith exclusive to our held beliefs, nor infallible, however the 1689 LBCF moulds our theological basis, from which we use as a guide and boundary in our theological trajectory.
Reformed thus marks our theological inclinations and foundation to our preaching and teaching.
Baptist:
– This identifies our practice.
Our church practice is influenced through a congregational model and strong emphasis is placed on the importance of baptism for believers only. We believe that the local church body is autonomous and therefore self-governing. The local congregation has its voice through the membership of professing and baptised believers. The congregation under the head of Christ has the authority to appoint all those who will lead, serve and be members.
We believe that full bodily immersion is what is described for us in the bible and thus strongly exhort those who have been drawn by God to the Son are baptised by full immersion in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Baptist thus marks our church structure and application to what we believe as examined from the bible.
Church:
– This identifies what we are.
We believe that God has positioned various groups, in diverse settings so as to reflect His holiness to the watching world. Each geographically positioned group of God’s people when assembled for fellowship, the receiving of grace from the Lord’s Table, the praise and proclamation of God, is regarded as the church. No building, project, movement or ideology should ever posses the designation reserved for the actual people of God. Hence, our belief that when we come together as the people of God, in local worship, we are the Church. Church marks what we are when we are assembled in the name of God.