Our Polity
“ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Our Polity Reflects Our Theology
We believe the local church exists to proclaim & protect the what and the who of the Gospel—according to Matthew 16:18–20, 18:15–20, and 28:18–20.
For this reason, our polity—the structure of our local church—aims to reflect our theology. Everything below flows from two questions: What is the Gospel we protect, and who is entrusted to guard and proclaim it?
What—of the Gospel?
The Gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ; it’s the best news you will ever hear. It’s the story of His creation, man’s rebellion, His redemption, and our restoration.
In the beginning, God—who is Trinitarian: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, totally self-sufficient, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, who is the essence and the embodiment of everything good, perfectly holy and righteous—created the universe out of nothing to display His glory. God created man in His image that man may delight in His presence and creation.
Although all of man’s needs and desires were provided for in the garden of Eden, man rebelled against God, succumbing to the temptation and deceit of satan, choosing to be a god unto himself. As a result, man was eternally separated from God, unto a path of consequential and eventual spiritual and physical death—totally depraved and incapable of saving himself from an unfulfilled life and eternal condemnation, due to inherent and progressive sin.
But God, being rich in love, mercy, grace, and justice, planned from the beginning to redeem man from their sins through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ—who is the Son of God, who is God, the fulfillment of the law and of the prophecies, the complete and final word and the fullest expression of God, being truly God and truly man—having taken on flesh through a virgin birth, lived a perfect, sinless, obedient life, paid the punishment of all the sins of mankind past, present, and future, and took man’s place as a substitute on the cross, satisfying the wrath of God on sin. By His death sins are forgiven; by His resurrection sin, satan, and death are defeated and conquered; by His ascension He takes the rightful place as Lord and King over all eternity, creation, church, and humanity; and by His return He will restore all things to their original order. In Christ’s finished work, sinners are saved, justified, and sanctified by grace through faith once and for all, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Therefore, in light of what God’s sovereign plan has accomplished through Christ, upon the hearing of this good news, we have the joy of responding to this glorious Gospel by confessing our sins and repenting of all unrighteousness, believing with our heart that Christ has risen from the dead, calling on Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, trusting and obeying Him daily through His Word and prayer, covenanting with a local church by partaking in baptism, gathering together regularly in fellowship with other believers through the Lord’s Supper, and participating in fulfillment of the Great Commission.
Who—of the Gospel?
We believe the New Testament teaches elder-led congregationalism as the model which accomplishes Jesus’s discipleship program. In order to foster and fulfill Christ’s Great Commission, we seek to be a community of covenanted converts as opposed to a community of consumers, modeling our church government after the clear biblical pattern—where the elders equip the members for the work of the ministry and the members fulfill the work of the ministry.
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”