Our beliefs

We are affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, which originated in 1881 after Presbyterian minister Albert Benjamin Simpson resigned from his prestigious pastorate in New York City in order to start  “an aggressive spiritual movement” to reach the city’s neglected nonbelievers. Over its history, the Alliance has sought to raise up and send Missionaries to those who haven’t heard the Good News of Jesus, and encourage Christ-followers to walk deeply with Jesus through submission to the Holy Spirit.

 

Learn more about our history and distinctives at Alliance 101.

History

Statement of Faith of the Christian & Missionary Alliance

There is one God (Deut. 6:4), Creator of all things (Rev. 4:11), who is infinitely perfect (Matt. 5:48), existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).


Jesus Christ is the true God and true man (Phil. 2:6–11). He was sent by the Father (John 20:21), conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin, Mary (Luke 1:34–38). He died on the cross, the Just for the unjust (1 Pet. 3:18), as a substitutionary sacrifice (Heb. 2:9), and all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood (Rom. 5:9). He rose from the dead according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3–4). He is now at the right hand of the Majesty on high as our great High Priest (Heb. 8:1). He will come again to establish His Kingdom of righteousness and peace (Isa. 9:6–7).


The Holy Spirit is a divine person (John 14:16–18), sent to indwell, guide, teach, gift, empower, and bear His fruit in every believer (John 16:13; 1 Cor. 12:4, 11; Acts 1:8; Gal. 5:22–23). He convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:7–11).


The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were verbally inspired by God and are a complete revelation of His will for our salvation. They constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice (2 Pet. 1:20–21; 2 Tim. 3:15–17).


Man was originally created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27): he fell through disobedience, incurring thereby both physical and spiritual death. All men are born with a sinful nature (Romans 3:23), are separated from the life of God, and can be saved only through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20–23). The portion of the impenitent and unbelieving is existence forever in conscious torment (Revelation 21:8); and that of the believer, in everlasting joy and bliss (Revelation 21:1–4).


Salvation has been provided through Jesus Christ for all people (1 John 2:2). Those who repent and believe in Him are justified by grace through faith (Rom. 3:21–24), born again of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4–7), delivered from the dominion of darkness, transferred into the Kingdom of God’s Son (Col. 1:13), granted the gift of eternal life, and adopted as the children of God (Rom. 8:14–16; John 1:12).


It is the will of God that each believer should be filled with the Holy Spirit and be sanctified wholly (1 Thessalonians 5:23), being separated from sin and the world and fully dedicated to the will of God, thereby receiving power for holy living and effective service (Acts 1:8). This is both a crisis and a progressive experience wrought in the life of the believer subsequent to conversion (Romans 6:1–14).


Provision is made in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ for the healing of the whole person (Isa. 53:4–5; Matt. 8:16–17). Prayer for the sick and anointing with oil are taught in the Scriptures (James 5:13–16) as privileges for the Church in this present age (Acts 4:30).


The Church consists of all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are redeemed through His blood, and are born again of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church (Ephesians 1:22–23), which has been commissioned by Him to go into all the world as a witness, preaching the gospel to all nations (Matthew 28:19–20).


The local church is a body of believers in Christ who are joined together for the worship of God, for edification through the Word of God, for prayer, fellowship, the proclamation of the gospel, and observance of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper(Acts 2:41–47).


There shall be a bodily resurrection of the just and of the unjust; for the former, a resurrection unto life (1 Corinthians 15:20–23); for the latter, a resurrection unto judgment (John 5:28–29).


The Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is imminent (Hebrews 10:37) and will be personal, visible, and premillennial (Luke 21:27). This is the believer’s blessed hope and is a vital truth which is an incentive to holy living and faithful service (Titus 2:11–14).

 

Beloved, this is God’s message to us today—‘Go deeper!’ Perhaps you have exhausted all the store of truth and experience that you have so far found. Give up trying to spread to wider fields, and sink to deeper depths, and you will find new and undiscovered riches, and the depths will lead you to the heights, and the death to the life of the risen Christ and the fulness of His ascension power. ‘We have received the Spirit that is of God that we might that we might know the things,’ and then know that they are ‘freely given us of God.’ Shall we meet the light? Shall we accept the love? Shall we go deeper?

A. B. Simpson

We know that people spend a lot of time talking about a deeper Christian life, but few seem to want to know and love God for Himself. The precious fact is that God is the deeper life! Jesus Christ Himself is the deeper life, and as I plunge on into the knowledge of the triune God, my heart moves on into the blessedness of His fellowship. This means that there is less of me and more of God—thus, my spiritual life deepens, and I am strengthened in the knowledge of His will!.

A. W. Tozer