What We Believe
The fundamental and non-negotiables beliefs of a church are of vast importance. These listed beliefs of GraceWorks Church serve as the Christian doctrine which members must agree upon. These beliefs must be held by anyone desiring to be a member of the GraceWorks Church.
Scriptures
The Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, is inspired of God and is the revelation of God
to man. As God’s revelation, the Bible is the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and
conduct.
God
The one true God reveals Himself as the eternally self-existent “I AM,” the Creator of heaven and earth, and the Redeemer of mankind. God has revealed Himself and can be known as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Father
God is our Father not only in that he is our Creator but that he is also our Redeemer; this is what distinguishes the Christian’s relationship to God and what allows us to relate to him as Father. The Father is revealed to us as a member of the Godhead, the one who plans the work of salvation and who sends the Son in order to carry it out. We relate to God as Father, therefore, through Jesus the Son, sharing in his sonship through the adoption we receive through Christ’s redeeming work for us.
Son
Jesus Christ is the only Begotten Son of the Father. He is acknowledged as both fully God
and fully man, “Immanuel” – God with us. Having atoned for our sins, Jesus sat down at
the right hand of God on high, angels and principalities and powers having been made
subject to Him. Having been made both Lord and Christ, He sent the Holy Spirit that we, in His name, might bow our knees and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God.
The Scriptures teach:
His virgin birth,
His sinless life,
His miraculous powers,
His atoning (substitutionary) work on the cross,
His bodily resurrection from the dead, and His exaltation to the right hand of the Father.
Holy Spirit
We can know that the Holy Spirit is indeed a divine person because He possesses a mind, emotions, and a will. The Holy Spirit thinks and knows The Holy Spirit can be grieved. The Spirit intercedes for us. He makes decisions according to His will. The Holy Spirit is God, the third Person of the Trinity. As God, the Holy Spirit can truly function as the Comforter and Counselor that Jesus promised He would be.
Man
God created man good and upright. God said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” By voluntary transgression, man fell and thereby incurred physical death as well as spiritual death, which is separation from God.
Salvation
Man’s only hope of redemption is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Salvation is received through repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Being justified by grace through faith, man becomes an heir of God and receives the promise of eternal life. The inward evidence of salvation is the direct witness of the Spirit. The outward evidence of salvation is a life of righteousness and true holiness.
Sanctification
Sanctification is an act of separation from that which is evil and a life of dedication to God. Sanctification is realized in the believer by recognizing his identification with Christ in His death and resurrection, and by faith, submitting to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Salvation
Man’s only hope of redemption is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Salvation is received through repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Being justified by grace through faith, man becomes an heir of God and receives the promise of eternal life. The inward evidence of salvation is the direct witness of the Spirit. The outward evidence of salvation is a life of righteousness and true holiness.
Ordinances
Baptism is a testimony made by a person who repents and believes on Christ as Savior and Lord. Through baptism we declare to the world that we have died with Christ and that we also have been raised with Him to walk in newness of life.
Enjoyed by all believers, Communion (Lord’s Supper) uses bread and the fruit of the vine as symbols, expressing our sharing the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, a memorial of His suffering and death, and a prophecy of His second coming.
The Church
The Church is the body of Christ with divine appointments for the fulfillment of His great
Commission of making disciples. Each believer is an integral part of the Church. Since God’s purpose concerning man is to seek and to save that which is lost, to be worshiped by man, and to build a body of believers in the image of His Son and grow in intimacy with Christ, the Church’s purpose and priorities are: to be an agency of God for evangelizing the world, to be a corporate body in which believers may worship God, to be a channel of God’s purpose to build a body of saints growing in intimacy with God and being perfected in the image of His Son.
Ministry
Our Lord called and ordained ministry for the threefold purpose of going under the leadership of God into the world to evangelize, worship of God, and build a body of saints being perfected in the image of His Son.
Blessed Hope
Blessed hope is the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior. The resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Christ and their translation together with those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord is the blessed hope of the church. The blessed hope is the joyful assurance that God will extend His benefits to us, and that Jesus Christ will extend His benefits to us and that Jesus Christ will return. Jesus’ imminent return should motivate the believer to live godly lives in an ungodly world.
Final judgment
There will be a final judgment in which the wicked dead will be judged according to their works. Those whose names are not found in the Book of Life, together with the devil and his angels, will face everlasting punishment and separation from God.
Membership
Want to know more about GraceWorks Church, its beliefs, mission, and membership? Please contact one of our Pastors. Our membership is open to all who give testimony of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and who voluntarily subscribe to the tenets of faith of GraceWorks. The worship and ministries are primarily to be overseen and coordinated by the Pastors. The Board of Trustees are entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the administrative areas of facilities and financial matters.