Church Of The Highlands

Beliefs

To invite those who are far from God and those who are near to God to live in grace.

To create a safe place to be who you are and become who God made you to be.

GRACE	There is nothing we could ever do to make God love us less and nothing we could ever do that would make God love us more. Grace is the motivation for all that we do. Grace motivates our giving not rules or percentages.
	SCRIPTURE: Romans 8:1; Romans 8:35-39; Romans 5:20; Romans 6:2; Titus 2:11-13

LOVE	We make the Christian life more difficult than it has to be. The whole Bible can be summed up in one word: love. If we asked ourselves, “What is the loving thing to do?” we would almost always do that which is pleasing to God. The highest and best motivation for the Christian life is love. Augustine said, “Love God an do whatever you want.” Augustine knew that a person who loved God would do what God wanted. A guiding principle of life is, “We live for what we love.” The goal of ministry is to help people order their loves.
	SCRIPTURE: Matthew 22:34-40; Matthew 6:19-20; Luke 14:26; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3; Galatians 5:6

POSSIBLE	It is possible to live the Christian life. Failure in the Christian life is less about desire than it is having a practical plan or process to successfully live the Christian life. To live as Jesus lived we must arrange our life as He arranged His life and engage in the activities that He himself engaged in. We need to stop trying so hard and start training.

WORSHIP	We were created by God to be worshippers. We fulfill our highest destiny when we give God worship. Worship is both a corporate and individual discipline. The church is to be a worshipping community. God wants us to praise Him in the presence of other believers. Corporate worship should be expressive involving mind, body, emotion and will. We individually worship God with every action of our lives. There is no sacred/secular dichotomy. Our work, our marriages, our parenting, our leisure, our every breath is to be an act of worship.
	SCRIPTURE: John 4:23-24; Revelation 4:8-11; Psalm 22:22 Psalm 22:25, Psalm 35:18; Psalm 40:9

ONE ANOTHER	The Bible knows nothing of a Christian without connection. Every believer is to be connected in a community with other believers who can encourage, support and challenge to full devotion. Life change happens best within the context of relationship. We need one another to reach full devotion to Jesus Christ. Discipleship involves modeling and mentoring. More is caught than is taught in Christianity.
	SCRIPTURE: Mark 3:14; Romans 12:5; 2 Timothy 2:2; John 13:34-35

MINISTRY	We believe that every member is a minister. There is no distinction between clergy and laity. Every member has a spiritual gift and should be serving in the body of Christ.
	SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 2:9-10

LEADERS	All ministry begins with a leader. When God wants a ministry to be done, He raises up a leader. A spirit-gifted, impassioned leader insures excellence and prevents burn-out. We will start no ministry without a called leader.
	SCRIPTURE: Romans 12:8

WITNESS	Evangelism is a process, not an event. Evangelism begins with establishing a relationship with lost people. People don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care. Evangelism is both show and tell. Every believer should be able to share a verbal witness about their relationship with Christ. However, most people don’t trust Christ the first time they hear a verbal witness. Therefore, the church must assist believers with evangelism by teaming up so that all the spiritual gifts can be used in evangelism. Once a believer gives a verbal witness, they should be able to invite their lost friend to a service that will assist them in their evangelistic outreach.
	SCRIPTURE: John 1:29; Mark 5:18-20; John 1:35-41; John 9:24- 25; Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 19:10

THE WORLD	There can be no impact without contact. We are called to engage with the world. We are not to withdraw or isolate ourselves from the needs of the world. True religion is meeting the needs of the world. Christ wants us to establish meaningful, authentic relationships with those who don’t know him and follow him. We should send the clear message that Christianity isn’t about rules, but is about a relationship with Christ. We should paint an attractive picture of Christianity through our freedom in Christ.
	SCRIPTURE: John 17:14-18; Matthew 11:19; Luke 15:1; 1 Corinthians 5:9-11; Romans 6:14; Galatians 5:1, 13; James 1:27; Amos; Matthew 5:13-16

RELEVANCE	We believe that the church must be culturally relevant while remaining doctrinally pure.
	SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

THE BIBLE

We believe that God’s word, Old and New Testaments, is God’s Word to all men. It is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice. It is inerrant in the original writings, infallible, and God-breathed. It is truth without any mixture of error.

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Ps. 119:105,160 & 12:6

GOD

We believe in the triune nature of God. He is the Creator and Ruler of the universe and has eternally existed in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are co-equal and are one God.

Scripture: Genesis 1:1, 26; Ps. 90:2; Matthew 28:19; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Cor. 13:14

THE PERSON AND WORK OF JESUS CHRIST

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man. He lived a perfect, sinless life while on earth and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sons of all men by dying on a cross. He arose from the dead after three days to demonstrate His power over sin and death. He ascended to Heaven’s glory and will return again to earth to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Scripture: John 1:1-18, 14:10-30; 1 Cor. 15:3-4; Acts 1:9-11; Romans 1:3-4; 1 Tim. 6:14-15

THE PERSON AND WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity. When a person trusts Jesus Christ as Savior, they are baptized by the Holy Spirit and sealed into the body of Christ. At salvation believers are sealed and indwelled by the Holy Spirit. One gets all of the Holy Spirit that one will ever get at salvation. As we grow, we yield more and more of our lives to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the power source of the Christian life. It is important that believers be filled with the Holy Spirit, which is an ongoing, moment-by-moment process. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin and draws men to Christ. The Holy Spirit also distributes spiritual gifts to believers at conversion.

Scripture: John 16:7-15; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 2:10-16; Gal. 5:25; Eph. 1:13-14, 5:18

MAN

We believe that man is made in the spiritual image of God. According to Genesis 3 both man and woman were corrupted when they disobeyed God, rebelled and acted out of self-will. Man fell short of God’s standard and was subject to a curse. The image of God was defaced, but not erased. From Genesis 3 to the present time all humanity is sinful by both nature and deed. Men and women continue today to sin by choice. Total depravity does not mean that nothing good dwells within man. It simply means that man cannot merit salvation based upon good works.

Scripture: Genesis 1:26-28; Romans 3:22-23; Eph. 2:1-3; Gen. 3

ETERNITY

Man was created to exist forever. He will either exist eternally separated from God by sin, or in union with God, through forgiveness and salvation. To be eternally separated from God is Hell. To be eternally in union with Him is eternal life. Heaven and Hell are places of eternal existence.

Scripture: John 3:16; 1 John 5:11-13; Romans 6:23; Rev. 20:15

SALVATION

We believe that salvation is by God’s grace through faith in Jesus death, burial, and resurrection plus nothing else! Any addition to the gospel of salvation by faith is heresy. Man in no way merits salvation. All merit is found in the giver of the gift, not in the receiver of the gift. Men and women do have a free will and a choice in the matter of salvation.

Scripture: Eph. 2:8-9; Romans 6:23; John 3:16; John 1:12; Titus 3:5; Acts 4:12

ETERNAL SECURITY

Because God gives man eternal life through Jesus Christ, the believer is secure in that salvation for eternity. Salvation is maintained by the grace and power of God, not by the self-effort of the Christian. It is the grace and keeping power of God that gives this security.

Scripture: John 10:29; 2 Tim. 1:12; Heb.7:25, 10:10-14; 1 Pet. 1:3-5

BAPTISM

We believe that baptism is the next step in one’s spiritual journey after trusting Jesus Christ as one’s Savior. We do not practice infant baptism. We practice baby dedication, which expresses the desire of the parents and congregation to see the child trust Jesus Christ as their Savior and follow him fully. Baptism in no way saves but is a personal expression of one’s decision to trust Jesus Christ as Savior. Baptism is an outward expression of an inward reality. We practice baptism by immersion. However, we honor all modes of baptism. The act and symbolism of the act are most important. The amount of water used is incidental.

Scripture: Matt. 3:13-17; Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:38; Acts 8:12; Acts 8: 36-38; Acts 9:18; Romans 6:1-13

SPIRITUAL GIFTS

We believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at conversion and is the placing of the believer into the Body of Christ. At that moment every believer receives one or more spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are supernatural abilities given by God. Spiritual gifts are for the expressed purpose of edifying the church body, not personal edification. We believe in the existence of all the gifts, but all gifts must be used in accordance with the Scriptures.

Scriptures: 1 Cor. 12-14; Ephesians 4:7-16; Romans 12:3-8; 1 Peter 4:10-11

SANCTIFICATION

We believe God gave us everything necessary to be successful in the Christian life. Jesus Christ not only paid the penalty for sin, but He also defeated the power of sin on the cross. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are no longer sinners in identity. We are saints by identity, which means we still have the capacity to sin, but sinner is no longer our identity. We are in Christ. We are perfect in Him. We are complete in Him. This doctrine is extremely important because our beliefs determine our behaviors.

Scriptures: Romans 6:1-13; Romans 8:15-17; Gal. 2:20; Gal. 3:1-3, Gal. 4:5-6; Col. 1:27; Col. 2:6; 2 Peter 1:3-11

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. To grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ requires effort on the part of the believer. We cannot expect to live as Jesus lived if we do not arrange our life as He arranged His life and engage in the activities that He Himself engaged in. Disciplines are any activity that helps us to achieve by direct activities what we cannot presently do by direct activity. The basic principle is that practice precedes performance.

Scriptures: 1 Cor. 9:24-27; 1 Tim. 4:7

THE CHURCH

We believe that the church is Jesus’ bride and His body in this world made up of born-again persons. The church is Christ’s expression in the world. Christ came not just to die for man’s sin but also to establish His church. One cannot love God and not love that which He loves most. Full devotion to Jesus Christ requires full devotion to His body. The church is to be led by a plurality of leaders called Elders.

Scriptures: Matt. 16:18; Eph. 5:22-33; Eph. 1:20-23; Heb. 10:24-25; 1 Tim. 3; Titus 1; Acts 14:23

THE FUTURE

We believe that the physical, personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ is imminent. Though the timing of this “Blessed Hope” is a mystery, the fact of it is as certain as the first coming of Christ.

Scripture: 1 Thes. 4:13-18; John 14:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:51-57

Leadership:

Pastor - Lance Hahn

Youth Pastor – Jacob Kesling

Worship Leader – Ryan Miller

Children's Pastor – Gayle Jones

Administrative Assistant, Bookkeeper - Deborah Simpson, Debe Jenkins

Elders – Randy Jenkins, Candy Jones, Terry Root, and Mark Thompson