Making
Reaching people with the gospel — our guests, our community, Sarasota County and beyond.
What We Believe
What We Believe
Our full doctrinal statement — Reformed, expository, and centered on the authority of Scripture.
Our Mission
Glorify God by making, maturing, and multiplying disciples of Christ through preaching the Word of God.
Maturing
Growing believers through expository preaching, membership, equipping classes, and ministries.
Multiplying
Raising up and sending new servants and leaders for the work of the gospel.
01
The Word of God
We believe the Bible — the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments — is the only true written revelation of God: inspired by the Holy Spirit in every word, without error in its original form, and the complete, sufficient standard for faith and life. Scripture has one true meaning, understood through literal, historical-grammatical interpretation — including creation in six literal days — and every believer is responsible to diligently study it and live it out.
02
God
We believe in one living, true, and eternal God — perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three equal Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each fully God and equally worthy of worship. The Father sovereignly rules all things for His glory. The Son, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin — God in the flesh — accomplished our salvation by His voluntary, substitutionary death on the cross and His literal bodily resurrection, and now intercedes for us at the Father’s right hand until He returns. The Holy Spirit regenerates, indwells, sanctifies, gifts, and seals every believer; the sign gifts of tongues and miracles confirmed the apostles’ message and ceased as the New Testament was completed.
This section covers
- God the Father
- God the Son
- God the Holy Spirit
03
Man
We believe man was created directly by God, in His image and likeness — sinless, endowed with intellect, will, and moral responsibility — to glorify God, enjoy fellowship with Him, and steward His creation. Through Adam’s disobedience man lost his sinlessness, came under spiritual and physical death and the wrath of God, and is wholly unable to please God apart from grace. Salvation rests entirely on God’s grace through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.
04
Sin
We believe Adam’s sin was rebellion against the absolute authority of God. Deceived by Satan, man fell away from God into spiritual and physical death, became guilty before Him, and was enslaved to sin. Because all people descend from Adam, all share his fallen and corrupted nature — conceived in sin, children of wrath by nature, unable and unwilling to do good, and inclined toward evil.
05
Salvation
We believe salvation is entirely of God — by grace alone, grounded in the redemption of Jesus Christ and His shed blood, never earned by works. Before the foundation of the world God graciously chose those He would regenerate, save, and sanctify; yet His election never removes man’s responsibility to repent and believe in Christ. The new birth is an instantaneous, supernatural work of the Holy Spirit; God justifies the believing sinner by imputing Christ’s righteousness to him; He sanctifies us — once for all in our position, and progressively in practice; and He keeps all His redeemed secure forever, so the believer may rejoice in the assurance of salvation.
This section covers
- Election
- Born Again
- Redemption
- Justification
- Sanctification
- Assurance of Salvation
- Perseverance of the Saints
06
The Church
We believe all who trust in Christ are baptized by the Holy Spirit into one body — the Church, the Bride of Christ, with Christ as her Head — begun at Pentecost and continuing until the Rapture. The New Testament centers this life in autonomous local churches, governed by the Word of God, led by elders (also called pastors) and served by deacons who meet the biblical qualifications. The church practices discipleship and, where there is unrepentant sin, church discipline aimed at restoration; the Spirit gifts every believer for the building up of the body; and Christ gave His Church two ordinances — believer’s baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper.
This section covers
- Church Servants
- Church Discipline
- Spiritual Gifts
- Baptism & the Lord’s Supper
07
Marriage
We believe marriage was instituted by God as the union of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive bond. Christian marriage pictures Christ and His Church — the husband loving his wife as Christ loves the Church, the wife responding to his love and leadership as the Church does to Christ — and so believers are to marry in the Lord. God hates divorce, permitting it only for unrepentant sexual sin or desertion by an unbelieving spouse, and marriage is to be legally recognized as well as pledged before God and the church.
08
Civil Order
We believe God established governing authority to protect good and restrain evil. Christians are to obey the civil laws of their country — except where they contradict Scripture — and to pray for those in authority. Military service is a matter of each Christian’s conscience: no one may condemn those who serve, nor compel those who in conscience ask to be exempt from bearing arms.
09
The Spiritual Realm
We believe the holy angels are created by God to serve and worship Him — they are never objects of worship or saving faith. Satan is a created angel who rebelled against the Creator, led a host of angels into his fall, and brought sin to humanity by deceiving Eve. He is the open enemy of God and man — already defeated through the death and resurrection of Christ — and with his demons awaits eternal punishment in the lake of fire.
This section covers
- Holy Angels
- Fallen Angels
10
Last Events
We believe that at death the soul of the believer goes consciously into the presence of Christ, while the souls of the unsaved await judgment — and that there is no salvation after death. Christ will come for His Church before the seven-year Tribulation, reward His people, and then return in power and glory to establish His thousand-year Kingdom on earth, fulfilling God’s promises to Israel. Afterward the unsaved will stand before the great white throne and be cast into the lake of fire, and God will create a new heavens and a new earth, where the redeemed will live in eternal joy and fellowship with Him. “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”
This section covers
- Physical Death
- Rapture of the Church
- The Tribulation
- Second Coming & the Millennial Kingdom
- Judgment
- Eternity
This is a summary — the complete statement with all Scripture references is in the full “What We Teach” document below.