What We Believe
At The Chapel, the Gospel of Jesus is at the heart of everything we do from our radical love to our value of being the family of God everyday. We look different from one another and we don’t always vote the same. Some of us are younger and some of us are older. As different as we are and amidst all the distinctions to be drawn between us, the Gospel is the common thread that weaves us together. Below you’ll find the core of what we believe as a Church family.
THE FATHER
The first person of the Trinity orders and directs all things according to His purpose and pleasure. He has created humanity to bring Him glory and honor, through His grace. While He is transcendent, He is also actively involved in His creation — offering an eternal relationship with us through His Son, Jesus Christ.
GOD
We believe that there is only one living and true God, who exists in three distinct persons — God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three, the Trinity, are equal in essence and distinct in function.
THE SON
Jesus Christ is both the eternal Son of God and virgin-born Son of man. Fully God, fully man, He surrendered nothing of His deity during His earthly life. His sinless, sacrificial offering on the cross satisfied the Father’s justice, offering atonement for all of humanity’s sins, for all time. We believe in His bodily resurrection, His physical ascension, and His visible return back to earth to establish His earthly kingdom.
John 1:14-18
1 Corinthians 15:1-11Hebrews 1:3
Colossians 2:9Revelation 20:11-15
THE HOLY SPIRIT
The third person of the Trinity executes the will of God in this world through humanity, by leading, guiding, filling, teaching, and convicting. The Holy Spirit is not merely an impersonal force, but a person, displaying the qualities of personhood (intellect, emotions, and will). He equips believers upon conversion by giving the gifts to be used for the building up of the church, and by bearing fruit through their yielded lives.
John 3:1-8John 16:5-161 Corinthians 12:1-30
Ephesians 1:1Ephesians 2:10Galatians 5:16-25
HUMANITY
We were created in the image of God, destined to enjoy an intimate relationship with God, fulfilling His will here on earth. But because of Adam and Eve’s willful sin in the garden, sin entered into the world, and has infected all of humanity. Therefore, because of our inherent sinful nature received from our father Adam, we are all separated from God, spiritually dead, and destined for physical death and an eternity removed from God.
Genesis 1:1-3:24Romans 1:18-32Romans 3:1-23
Romans 5:6-21Ephesians 2:1-3
SALVATION
We believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins as the only sufficient sacrifice, offering the atonement of sins for all mankind through His death, burial, and resurrection. While salvation is available to all, it is only experienced by those who respond to His gracious gift by faith apart from works. For those who do respond, we are regenerated and baptized by the Holy Spirit, becoming children of God, given a new nature and placed into the universal body of Christ, making us eternally secure in Him. As a result of our new relationship with God through His Son Jesus, we are now called to a life of submission to the Holy Spirit, manifesting spiritual fruit, and walking in good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to do.
John 1:12, 14:6
John 3:16Titus 3:4-7Acts 4:12
Romans 3:21-26Ephesians 1:7Ephesians 2:8-9
Hebrews 10:10-121 John 5:11-13Galatians 3:26
THE BIBLE
We believe that the Bible, consisting of the 66 books of Old and New Testament, is the infallible Word of God. Verbally inspired by God and without error in the original manuscripts. We believe that God’s intentions revealed in the Bible are the supreme and final authority in testing all claims about what is true and right. In matters not addressed by the Bible, what is true and right is assessed by criteria consistent with the teaching of scripture.
NON-ESSENTIALS
We affirm that the doctrines of the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, human sinfulness, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and salvation by grace through faith make up the essential, distinctive nature of Christianity. In regards to these essential doctrines, there can be no conflicting opinions of those who call themselves true followers of Christ. However, we do acknowledge that there are peripheral or non-essential doctrines that are important, but not critical to the follower of Christ as it relates to our salvation. Some of these doctrines include the exact timing and nature of the rapture, the specific functions of women in ministry, the extent and use of certain spiritual gifts, and the relationship between election and free-will in salvation, etc. While our church will be diligent to establish positions as it relates to these non-essentials, we will not allow these peripheral doctrines to cause division within the church. We will accept into our body those who have differing views on the non-essential doctrines, but will not allow those of a different opinion to fracture the church. While we celebrate diversity along all lines (racial and theological), we will ultimately pursue the unity of the church family.