Mission and Purpose Statement:
To glorify God and obey the commands of Scripture, Northwest Baptist Church has been established to evangelize the lost and to exhort, edify, and encourage the believers, to make an eternal impact in individuals, families, our community, and ultimately the world.
There are several ways we accomplish our mission.
Preaching – We believe that preaching is an important part of our worship service. In Hebrews 4:12 God tells us, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Therefore, we preach the Word of God so that the Holy Spirit can use His Word to convict the hearts of men.
Teaching – Our primary teaching time is during Sunday school. We have classes for different age groups, and the lessons in each class are tailored for that age group. All of our lessons have a solid Bible content so that we can help build a firm foundation in the lives of each individual. Another part of teaching is helping a new believer “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” We desire to hold Bible studies to help young Christians grow. These can either be done as a group or individually. If you would like to know more about our Sunday school or if you would like to participate in a Bible study please feel free to contact us.
Music – Our music is designed to honor and glorify God, and edify the believer. The music used during the service is to prepare the hearts for the preaching of God’s Word. Therefore, all music used will be traditional and conservative. Our music is aimed at the heart, not the head or the body. From time to time, we will have a guest speaker give us Biblical principles for God-honoring music.
Evangelizing – The Bible clearly commands us to “preach the Gospel to every creature.” We endeavor to carry out this commission by telling others how they can know that they have eternal life by accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. We actively go door-to-door in the community to share the Gospel with others. If you have any questions about what will happen to you in eternity please click on “Heaven” in the blue tab to have God’s plan of salvation explained to you.
Praying – On Wednesday evenings, we dedicate a portion of our service to taking prayer requests. It is important that we pray for one another, our community, our country, and those serving around the world. God answers prayer, and we desire to be a praying church.
Missions – In our effort to reach the world for Jesus Christ, we support missionaries who carry the Gospel to places that we cannot go.
Other Fellowships – We have other fellowship time to encourage one another. This includes monthly ladies’ meetings, Teen & Jr.- age activities, holiday banquets, and many more church-wide activities.
Our Beliefs
Doctrinal Statement
The Scriptures
We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Bible, as it is in truth, the Word of God… (I Thess 2:13). We believe in verbal, plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, and God’s preservation of His pure words to every generation (II Tim 3:16, Psa 12:6-8). The Masoretic Text of the Old Testament and the Received Text of the New Testament (Textus Receptus) are those texts of the original languages we accept; the King James Version of the Bible is the only English version we accept and use. The Bible is our sole authority for faith and practice.
God
We believe there is one and only one living and true God, an infinite Spirit, the Maker and Supreme Ruler of heaven and earth, inexpressibly glorious in holiness and worthy of all possible honor, confidence and love; that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost—equal in every divine perfection, and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption. Exo 20:2,3; I Cor 8:6, Rev 4:11; I John 5:7.
Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and is true God and true man; that He died for our sins as a vicarious sacrifice; that He arose in the very body in which He had been crucified; that He ascended to Heaven and is now seated at the right hand of God interceding for His redeemed people. Heb 7:24; Heb 9:24, Gen 3:15; Mat 1:18-25; Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6;
I Cor 15:3,4.
Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature; that He was active in the creation; that in His relation to the unbelieving world He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose is fulfilled; that He convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; that He bears witness to the truth of the gospel in preaching and testimony; that He is the agent in the New Birth; that He seals, endues, indwells, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies and helps the believer. Joh 14:16,17; Mat 28:19; Heb 9:14, Joh 14:26; Luk 1:35; Gen 1:1-3; Joh 16:8-11; Acts 5:30-32; Joh 3:5,6; Eph 1:13,14; Mar 1:8; Joh 1:33; Acts 11:16; Luk 24:49; Rom 8:14-27.
Devil or Satan
We believe that Satan is Lucifer the fallen angel of Isa 14:12-15, and in the personality of Satan, that he is the unholy god of this age and the author of all the powers of darkness, and is destined to the judgment of an eternal justice in the lake of fire. Mat 4:1-3; II Cor 4:4; Rev 20:10.
Creation and of the Fall of Man
We accept the Genesis account of creation and believe that man came by direct creation of God and not by evolution. We believe that man was created in innocence under the law of his Maker, but by voluntary transgression fell from his sinless and happy state in consequence of which all mankind are now sinners, not only by constraint, but of choice; and therefore under just condemnation without defense or excuse. Gen 1-2; Col 1:16,17; Joh 1:3; Gen 3:1-6; 24; Rom 5:12; 10-19.
Heaven and Hell
The eternal destiny of the soul of man is either heaven or hell. The unbelieving and unregenerate soul will spend eternity in hell, a place of conscious suffering and torment. The soul that is trusting Christ will spend eternity with Him in heaven, a place of conscious rest, blessedness and joy. Luk 16:19-31; Rev 20:15; Psa 9:17; II Cor 5:8; Joh 14:1-6; Rev 6:11; 14:13.
Virgin Birth
We believe that Jesus was begotten of the Holy Ghost in a miraculous manner, born of Mary, a virgin, as no other man was ever born or can ever be born of woman; and that He is both the Son of God and God the Son. Gen 3:15; Isa 7:14; Mat 1:18-25; Luk 1:35; Joh 1:4.
Atonement for Sin
We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace through the mediatorial work of the Son of God, in that He freely took upon Himself our nature, yet without sin, honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins; that His atonement consisted not in setting us an example by His death as a martyr but was a voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinner’s place, the Just dying for the unjust; that having risen from the dead, He is now enthroned in Heaven; He is in every way qualified to be a suitable, a compassionate and an all-sufficient Saviour. Eph 2:8; Act 15:11, Rom 3:24; Joh 3:16; Mat 18:11, Phi 2:7; Heb 2:14; Isa 53:4-7; Rom 3:25; I Joh 4:10; I Cor 15:3.
Grace in the New Creation
We believe that in order to be saved, sinners must be born again; that the new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus; that it is instantaneous and not a process; that in the new birth the one dead in trespasses and in sins is made a partaker of the divine nature and receives eternal life as the free gift of God; and that as a result of the new birth we become sons of God in Christ Jesus.
Justification
We believe that justification is that aspect of our salvation whereby God not only forgives our sin and removes both the guilt and penalty of it, but also judicially declares the believer to have a righteous standing before Him. Acts 13:38,39; Romans 8:1,33,34; Rom 3:28; 5:1; 5:9; Heb 9:22; I Cor 1:30; II Cor 5:21.
Faith and Salvation
We believe that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only condition of salvation. Acts 16:31.
Sanctification
We believe that the essential meaning of sanctification is “set apart to God.” For the believer there are three aspects of sanctification: Positionally, we are sanctified the moment we accept Christ. (Heb 10:9,10); in our experience we are being sanctified daily (II Cor 3:18); final and complete sanctification will come when Christ returns (I Joh 3:2). NOTE: The laxness in Christian living and the loss of the concept of God’s holiness requires special emphasis today on holy living. Similarly the departure from the faith by great bodies of professing Christians neces¬sitates an emphasis on ecclesiastical purity. II Cor 6:14-17; Eph 5:11.
Security of the Saints
We believe that all who are truly born again are kept by God the Father for Jesus Christ. Phi 1:6; Joh 10:28,29; Rom 8:35-39; Jude 1.
Local Church
We believe that a local church is a congregation of immersed believers associated by covenant of faith and fellowship of the gospel observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His laws and exercising the gifts, rights and privileges invested in them by His word; that its officers are pastor and deacons whose qualifications, claims, and duties are clearly defined in the scriptures. We believe that the true mission of the church is the faithful witnessing of Christ to all men as we have opportunity. We hold that the local church has the absolute right of self-government free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations and that the one and only superintendent is Christ through the Holy Spirit; that it is scriptural for true churches to cooperate with each other in contending for the faith and for the furtherance of the gospel; that each local church is the sole judge of the measure and method of its co-operation. On all matters of membership, of polity, of government, of discipline, of benevolence, the will of the local church is final. Acts 2:41,42; I Cor 11:2; Eph 1:22,23; 4:11; Acts 20:17-28; I Tim 3:1-15; Col 1:18; Eph 5:23,24; Act s15:13-18.
Baptism and The Lord’s Supper
We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, with its effect in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life; that it is a prerequisite to the privileges of a church relationship. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is the commemoration by the believer of Christ’s death until He comes, and should be preceded always by self-examination. Acts 8:26-39; Joh 3:23; Rom 6:3-5; Mat 3:16; Col 2:12; I Cor 11:23-28.
Civil Government
We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interests and good order of human society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored, and obeyed except in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the only Lord of the conscience and the coming Prince of the Kings of the earth. We further believe in the absolute separation between church and state. Rom 13:1-7; II Sam 23:3; Exo 18:21,22; Acts 23:5; 5:20, 4:19,20; Mat 22:21; Dan 3:17,18.
Resurrection; Personal, Visible. Premillennial Return of Christ; and Related Events
We believe in:
The Bodily Resurrection: Mat 28:6,7; Luk 24:39; 24:2-6; Joh 20:27; I Cor 15:4.
Ascension: Act 1:9-11; Luk 24:51; Mar 16:19; Rev 3:21; Heb 12:2.
The High Priesthood: Heb 8:6; 2:17; 5:9,10; I Tim 2:5; I Joh 2:1.
The Imminent Return of Christ: Joh 14:3; Acts 1:11; I Thes 4:16; Heb 9:28.
The Resurrection of the Righteous Dead: I Thes 4:13-18; I Cor 15:42-44; 15:52.
The Change of the Living in Christ: I Cor 15:51-53;I Thes 4:13-18; Phi 3:20,21.
The Throne of David: Luk 1:32, Isa 9:6,7; Act 2:29,30.
The Millennial Reign: I Cor 15:25; Isa 32:1; 11:4,5; Psa 72:8; Rev 20:6,14.