CHURCH SHOPPING PHASE ONE

CHURCH SHOPPING PHASE ONE

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Dear fellow travelers,

  Would you believe that I visited a church where I had to repeatedly ask for a copy of their doctrinal statement? There was none in the literature rack. I finally asked the pastor and he had to look about to find one. Should we consider participating in this sort of church? Then there was a church I visited and was without asking provided their doctrinal statement.

  When church shopping, checking on their doctrinal statement with Bible references on record is important though not the whole exercise thereof. After reading it we should follow up with investigating if it truly is their faith and practice. Are you beginning to get the idea that church shopping Biblically goes beyond “It’s a friendly church.”? It does. Below is a sample doctrinal statement.

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_______ Church is actively involved in equipping believers to make disciples of Jesus Christ throughout the world. We teach truths about God and us from the Bible.

  We believe in the power that God has to transform our lives.

Jn.3:3; 2Cor.5:17

  We believe in the one true living God who is perfect, infinite, and eternal, and who coexists in three persons, namely God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Deut. 6:4; Matt. 28:19; John 4:24
  We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, that He came in the flesh and took upon Himself the form of man to teach us and to redeem us by suffering and dying in our place on the Cross of Calvary. We believe that He was raised from the dead (bodily) for our justification and is now at the right hand of God interceding for us.
John 1:1-3; Hebr. 1:5; 1 Pet. 2:24
  We believe that God the Holy Spirit, often referred to as the third person of the Trinity, convicts, regenerates, empowers and indwells the believer.
Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 6:19; Gal. 5:22-23
  We believe that the Bible, in its entirety, is the Word of God – true, inspired and without error in its original autographs.
2 Tim.3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:21

  We believe that Satan tempts, seduces and accuses us, but that he was judged at the cross and will ultimately be defeated and cast into the lake of fire.
Job 1:6-7; Isa. 14:12-15; John 16:11; Hebr. 2:14; Rev. 20:10-15
  We believe that all people are born sinful and in need of redemption. We believe that salvation is a free gift of God’s grace, offered to us because Jesus Christ paid our debt on the cross. We believe that this gift is received personally by faith in Jesus Christ, and that makes us secure, delivers us from the guilt, penalty and power of sin, makes us righteous before God, and promises us future glorification in God’s presence.
Gen. 3:1-24; Rom. 3:23, 5:12; John 3:14-18; 10:17-18; Acts 20:21; Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 2:11-14
  We believe in the personal, visible, imminent, premillennial return of Christ, with the rapture occurring before the tribulation.
Acts 1:11; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Pet. 4:7; Rev. 3:10; 19:11-18