What We Believe

The Bible

We believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God. To summarize the Bible, it is a special revelation of the character of God and His plan to redeem the world through Jesus Christ. The original writings were inerrant, infallible, and God breathed. God has purposed the Bible to be the final authority for faith and life, and He has overseen the events of history to piece together the canon (the 66 books) as we have it today. The revelation of the Bible is complete and no other teachings are to share in the same authority.

2Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Matthew 5:18; John 16:12-13; Psalms 1:1-3; 1 Corinthians 14:37

The Triune God

We believe in one God who has revealed Himself in three eternally existing persons-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit co-eternal in being and in nature, co-equal in power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections.

Deuteronomy 6:4; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Peter 1:2; John 1:1-4; Matthew 3:16-17; 28:19

God the Father

We believe God the Father is uncreated, eternal in nature, unchanging, and the Creator of all things, both seen and unseen. He is omnipotent (He has all power and authority), omnipresent (fully present everywhere), and omniscient (all knowing). God is Holy (all good) and He is over all creation as well as involved personally in the lives of every person and all events. God reveals himself to every person through His creation and peoples’ consciences, and He has specially revealed Himself through His Word and His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus and the Holy Spirit share equally in these attributes, and are both in submission to God the Father.

Romans 1:20; Isaiah 6:3; Psalms 19:1-4; 90:2; 139:7-10; Revelation 1:8; Deuteronomy 10:14

Jesus Christ

We believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, uncreated, eternal and co-equal with the Father. Being obedient to the Father, Jesus temporarily set aside His divine glory and fully took on human flesh, while at the same time remaining fully God. Jesus did this with the purpose of sacrificing his life as an act of final atonement for the sins of man, making forgiveness and citizenship into God’s Kingdom possible through belief and submission unto his Lordship.

Jesus was born of Mary, a virgin birth, conceived by the Holy Spirit. He spent his life ministering to people, preaching the Kingdom of God, fulfilling the Old Testament prophesies regarding the Jewish Messiah, and discipeling the believers who would make up His church.

He was crucified on a cross after being condemned by the Jewish and Roman authorities. After three days he rose bodily from the dead, appeared to his disciples and ascended into heaven where he is now exalted at the right hand of God.

Jesus currently ministers as our high priest before God as our representative, intercessor, and advocate.

Luke 1:35; Romans 3:22-26; 1 Peter 1:3-5; Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Acts 1:9-10; Hebrews 7:25-26; Luke 24

The Holy Spirit

We believe the Holy Spirit is a person of the God-head and as such, is co-equal with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; and, that he is the supernatural agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ, indwelling and sealing them unto the day of redemption.

The Holy Spirit ministers to the church today, continuing the ministry of Jesus Christ. He empowers believers to minister the Gospel, and bestows spiritual gifts to the church for the purpose of edification and evangelism. These supernatural giftings and the personal experiences a believer has with the Holy Spirit are always consistent with the testimony of Scripture.

John 3:5-18; 16:5-15; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; 14:12, 26; Acts 1:5; Romans 8:9; Ephesians 5:18;

The Church

We believe the church is universal (made up of all believers from every age), and local. The church is established by Jesus and he relates to the church similar to how a loving husband relates to his wife. Jesus is the head of the church, and as such He is actively involved in the churches ministry, including the establishment of a leadership structure with the offices prescribed in the New Testament, and discipline within the church; also, as the body of Christ, the church is to be Jesus’ representative on Earth until his physical return, this includes the responsibility of making Christ known.

The church is composed of those who believe in Christ, and offers believers a community for discipleship, prayer, worship, evangelism, and fellowship. Specific ministries to be administered by the church, which are prescribed by the Bible, are the Lord’s supper and water baptism. Participation in, and submission to a local church is an essential component of a believers faith.

Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:11-13; 5:25-27; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14; Acts 2:42-47; Matthew 18:15-20

Sin

We believe mankind and all of creation were originally created by God as good, man was made special in the likeness and image of God. Due to Adams sin, and because we are all descendants of Adam, every person is born with a sinful nature that separates them from God, who is holy and perfect in nature. This sin nature makes it impossible for a person to relate to God on a one’s own strength, will, and merits. The original sin was so severe that is also affected all of creation.

Genesis 1:26-27; 3:1-19; Romans 3:22-23; 5:12, 18-19; 8:8; Ephesians 2:1-3, 12; James 2:10-11

Salvation

We believe salvation is a gift from God, made available to every person, “whosever believes.” Each member of the Godhead has a part in a persons salvation. The Father predestined those who would be saved and sent Jesus his only Son, Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross to pay the price of salvation and intercedes to the Father on the believers behalf, and the Holy Spirit convicts a sinners heart of the truth and regenerates and baptizes them into the body of Christ upon belief in Jesus’ Lordship. Salvation is possible because the atonement sacrifice of Jesus’ blood satisfies the wrath of God, which is the penalty of sin from a Holy God. Receiving salvation justifies a believer before God, because now a person stands before God taking on the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Repentance of one’s own sins must take place before a person receives salvation. A persons decision to repent and believe, and God’s role of predestination, work miraculously and mysteriously together for salvation to take place.

Ephesians 1:4-7; John 1:12-13; 3:16-18; 1 Peter 1:18-21; Galatians 2:20; Acts 20:21; 2 Corinthians 7:10

Christian Living

We believe that after the event of salvation, the redeemed believer is kept by God’s power through the indwelling Holy Spirit, and thus the new believer has security and assurance in their salvation. This assurance stems from a persons new spiritual position found in Christ Jesus. A believer’s new standing before God should become ones new life identity and should therefore effect every attitude and decision one makes. This new identity should produce a life that looks completely different from a believer’s old life, as if one was born again. God is actively involved in the life of a believer, making salvation out to be a process. This process is called sanctification: where the Holy Spirit continually works in a persons life to shape them more and more into the image of Christ, up until the point of death where they will be free from the influences of sin.

A believer will still battle with sin and the flesh, and therefore must live a life of repentance, and submission to God. Concerning the hardships and struggles of life, God has promised to keep and never leave or forsake his children, and therefore a believer with authentic faith can endure all trials and temptations with God’s help. The believers responsibility therefore, is not to analyze the authenticity of everyone's salvation, but to instead live out their own faith by trusting God.

Christian living means always living in tension. This tension is found between the command to be called out from the world and live holy lives, and the command to go out and be a witness to the world in which one lives. Living out either extreme can produce a life of legalism, or a life that is subject to the desires of the flesh, both of these ways are contrary to the Gospel. Guidance on living out the tension of the Christian life within culture can be found in the church, in relationships with others who are also living the same tension, and the Bible.

Romans 8:1; 1 John 3:2; 1 Peter 1:22-23; John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 8:1,38-39; James 4:4

The Return

We believe Jesus has promised to physically return to earth to establish His kingdom, and His return is immanent. When Christ returns, He will come in great power and authority along with all of Heaven, and the believers will be physically transformed to take part in this new Kingdom. A universal resurrection of all people will take place, where people will stand judgment before Jesus, which will result in “every knee bowing” before the Lord; and sin, evil, and Satan will be eliminated, making possible a new creation with a new heaven and a new earth where Jesus will reign as King.

Psalms 72:8-14; Matthew 24:27-51; 1 Corinthians 15:23-28; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-5:4; Revelation 21-22

The Expression of Newness

A new church finds itself celebrating new milestones every week. With every step forward we take, whether it be our first Easter service or completing the framing work on the building, there is a wonderful sense of newness that weaves itself into everything we do. There is one new milestone we reached in August that communicates everything we are about, on a level that is more important than first meetings and completed building projects. I am talking about the celebration of new life within our family, as seen in our biggest milestone yet, our first water baptism!


What makes water baptism so special is that it symbolizes a work that has taken place within the life of a believer. That work being: The Holy Spirit grants newness of life, after one's guilt and sins are put to death through the death of Jesus on the cross. Water baptism communicates this work more effectively and poetically then any blog post, sermon, or theology book can. Every part of water baptism is symbolic: as one goes under the water they identify themselves with the death of Christ and His atoning work, and as one rises up from the water, they do so identifying themselves with the resurrection of Christ Jesus as He arose from the tomb. Water baptism then becomes a celebration of new life, purification, new hope, and joy that accompanies the work God has done within them upon belief.
This is what the term "born again" means, and with smiles and cheers from family and friends it is clear that one is born into a new family--a new community, as they are embraced by their brothers and sisters in Christ.
As a new church, we have several important steps and new projects yet to undertake, and water baptism serves as a clear and powerful reminder, in the midst of the hard work of church planting, why we do what we do: to celebrate God's redeeming work in the lives of His people, and to take that new life to the broken world in the form of a movement--The Redemption Movement.

1 Year Update

We are still here! It has been one year since our last blog post, let this be a testimony to the business of church planting, as well as the need for a technology volunteer. There is so much work to be done, and sadly, the old Mission Oneonta blog has taken a backseat to dry-walling and Bible studies. I want to give an update on the past year because we have been working hard and making progress, and most importantly, we are still here!

Fall 2010

• After initiating the Acts of Kindness ministry in July we continued to serve others. We cleaned more toilets and raked leaves as a practical way to share God's love. We also volunteered our time at Aldi's grocery store bagging groceries the day before Thanksgiving.
  

• Filming began on a promotional video for the church. This video will act as an effective tool to assist us in fundraising efforts.

Winter 2010-11

• Acts of Kindness continued with rinsing salt off cars and pre-loading washing machines with money at local laundry mats.
  

• After months of paperwork and designing floor plans, our building permits for renovating the storefront into a church was approved by the city. Demolition and building new basement steps began immediately in January.

• Before we tore the place up we dedicated the building with a candlelit worship service, complete with worship words sharpied onto the walls.

Spring 2011

• We tackled a community garden for Acts of Kindness! We transformed an empty lot in the back of the property into a garden with 10 garden lots available free to the community. We also had a free garden seed giveaway.

• We completed demolition work, hauling off 6,000 pounds of old walls and plaster, installed all new electrical wiring, and framed all the needed new walls.

• In the midst of all the construction, we celebrated our first Easter service downstairs.

• We drafted, passed, and submitted to the state our official articles of incorporation. As of July we are still waiting for the state to process the documents.

Summer 2011

• Drywall, drywall, and more drywall.

• Throughout the year, while all of this was going on, we had three teaching series that we went over during our Sunday evening small group Bible studies. 1. An in depth look at belief, 2. we went through the book of James, and 3. developing Christ-like character.

• Nice summer weather and long days made for some great church BBQ's.
  

• We are currently pursing a partnership with a church planting network.

Fall 2011

• For Acts of Kindness we showed SUNY Oneonta some love by helping the students move into their dorms.

• Bible study: the book of Ruth.

• We celebrated our first water baptism!