Our Beliefs
Our Mission Statement is
"Building Bridges to Christ through Relationships and Service"
Our 4 Core Values are
1. Community (welcoming, diverse, and authentic)
2. Service
3. Discipleship
4. Family
Here is a brief summary of our core beliefs...
About God
We are “Trinitarians”, as are all orthodox Christians. This means that we believe there is only one living and true God, who has made and continues to preserve all things. Yet in the unity of the “Godhead” there are three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This dynamic three-in-one nature of God is perhaps the most beautiful mystery of our faith. It speaks of a relational essence between persons in the single deity that is God.
About the Father
Understood as the first person in the Trinity, God as “Father” was revealed only through the revelation of the Son, Jesus Christ. And what an amazing new understanding of God he revealed! Jesus Christ referred to Almighty God in the most personal of terms (“Abba”) and welcomed his disciples to understand and refer to him in exactly the same way! (see Matthew 6:9, Luke 11:2)
About the Son, Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the one and only begotten of the Father. He came to earth, “conceived by the Holy Spirit” and “born of the Virgin Mary”. Jesus Christ is God Almighty manifest in human flesh. His incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection is the means through which God the Father intends to reconcile the world to Himself. We gratefully acknowledge that He is our Savior, the one perfect mediator between God and us.
About the Holy Spirit
As the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. He is equal in power, deity, and majesty. He is God effective in Creation, life, the church; and in revealing, interpreting, and glorifying the Son. He is also the administrator of salvation to the world (see below). He is the effective agent in our conviction, regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. He is the Lord’s ever-present self with us—the ultimate gift of God to his people.
Salvation
Salvation is an elevation in status in the most awesome sense. Left to ourselves, we are selfish sinners bent on pleasing our strongest appetites and headed toward destruction. Yet the Loving God who made us had a plan to rescue us from this ugly end. God the Father sent Jesus Christ the Son to model holy living and die a sacrificial death in our place. Only in this way could sinful persons like us be forgiven and admitted into God’s Holy Presence in Heaven and experience it on Earth. Only through faith in Jesus Christ is salvation possible.
Faith
Faith is the spiritual capacity to believe. But faith is much more than cognitive agreement. For Christians it involves an intentional and complete association with Jesus Christ, including confession of sins, repentance, and continuing obedience to God’s Word. Such an on-going association with His life, death on the cross, and resurrection alone merits the present and future benefits of Christ’s salvation offer to the world. The offer of salvation may be received individually and privately, but its manifestations are always public. God longs for the whole world to enjoy Him forever, and His chief ambassadors of the salvation story (or “gospel” message) remain his believing followers.
Christian Community
At LLIV, we believe in the benefits of Christian community—especially small groups. Community begins with the sharing of life’s highs and lows within a group of like-minded persons. While care, encouragement, and emotional support are common in many contexts of community; Christian community includes elements which are unique. In community gatherings (small group meetings, discipleship groups, etc.), we always include study and references to God’s Word and Christ-centered prayer for one another and the world. We believe wholeheartedly in the power and effectiveness of prayer (in Christ’s Name) to change circumstances, events, and lives.
