From time to time we are asked, “Is everyone welcome to worship here?”
The answer is YES AND.
Yes, and…it is important to define two terms:
Welcome
Worship
Welcome means that all are invited to come and hear ALL the Scripture teaches, and worship means to honor God first and foremost through a life of obedience to God (Rom 12:1).
As a church, our goal is to uphold the full counsel of God’s Word in all areas, topics and subjects (Acts 20:27, 2 Tim 3:16-17).
We do not believe we have the right to define what God requires, but that the Lord defines that and does so in the Bible (Is 5:20, Ps 19:7-10). At a genuine New Testament church, every believer or unbeliever should be challenged to submit their beliefs and lives to Christ as Lord through obedience to Him (James 1:22, James 4:7-8, Jn 14:23, 1 Jn 3:10, 2 Cor 10:5, Rom 1:5, Lk 11:28, 1 Pet 1:14, James 1:25).
To provide a synopsis of our Christian Community Policy which reflects our beliefs and practices and standards on gender and sexuality, stated most simply, we are a Bible-believing church and hold to a historic, orthodox, Biblical, Christian viewpoint on gender and sexuality.
We believe the Scriptural truth that God makes us male and female (Gen 1:27, Mk 10:6-8), as determined by one’s biological sex at birth (Ps 139:13-14), and therefore, we reject the modern notion that we can decide this.
Additionally, we affirm the Scriptural truth that God has instituted marriage as a lifelong covenant relationship between one man and one woman (1 Cor 7:2, Mt 19:4-6, Gen 2:24) and calls husbands and wives to exclusive sexual fidelity (Eph 5:25-33, Heb 13:4) and unmarried singles to abstain from sexual relations (1 Cor 6:18, 1 Thess 4:3-5).
God’s Word is consistent and without exception that sexual relations outside of marriage are sin. This includes heterosexual or homosexual relations (Gen 19:1-11, Lev 18:22, Rom 1:26-27, 1 Cor 6:9-11, 1 Tim 1:8-10, Jude 7).
Our goal as a community is to honor God with lives that are wholly devoted to Him, in all areas, and His will and ways as He has revealed in Scripture.
There is not one of us who is perfect. We all sin (1 Jn 1:8) and all are in need of God's mercy and forgiveness, which He makes available through repentance. And none of us is strong enough on our own to overcome sin; we all need the power of His Spirit to do that.
Due to this reality that we all sin and all are incapable of holiness on our own, many today are advocating a licentious/lawless faith that does not require repentance. However, God is clear in His Word that we must confess and repent (turn away from) of our sins to receive His merciful forgiveness. (Lk 24:47, Acts 2:38). At the same time, we should not confuse being tempted toward sin as the same thing as sin (Heb 4:15).
While our society defines love as acceptance, biblical love does not give approval to anything that God does not (Rom 12:2), does not celebrate anything God defines as evil (1 Cor 13:6), but love does what is best for another as God defines it. This includes leading one another to repent from sin and turn towards God (James 5:20).
As it pertains to all areas of our lives (and our individual, specific areas of struggle with sin), our call as the people of God is
to agree not disagree with God, embracing His Word as truth
to seek to be faithful and obedient to what He says
and to repent, and not resist Him, when we fall short and sin (in any area)
Knowing, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).