At Antioch, we have three foundational commitments that our entire ministry is built upon - Up, Out, In. Often people ask, “Hey, what kind of church are you, anyways?” It is our hope that these three ministry commitments would be the very essence of the answer to that question. We have formed these commitments from the original church of Antioch in Acts 11 and 13. They exemplified these commitments in such a way that their city, their region and the entire world has never been the same. We want no less than that for our church!!!
Up
(Acts 11:20, 21, 23)
In Antioch, they had a simple, yet single message that seemed to resound in all of their words and actions. Their message was Jesus. (vs. 20) Their lives seemed to be radically centered around Christ. They spoke of Him, sang to Him, loved like Him, learned about Him, and lived like Him, to the point that that the culture simply had to create a label this whole new category of people. So they were called, “Christians”, meaning, “little Christs”. (11:26) Their lives seemed to reach upward towards the Lord.
Above all things, we desire that Christ would be the center of our church. We really believe that the hope of Jesus Christ is the deep, heart-need that our world is crying out for. Therefore, we want Jesus to be the focus of our preaching and the object of our worship. We want our worship services to be more about God and less about any of us. No matter where people are in their journey of faith, when they come to us, we want them to encounter Christ!
Out
(Acts 11:20, 21, 24, and 13:1-3)
When a church has a passion to know Christ, the natural overflow is a passion to make Him known! In Antioch, the clear result of the hand of the Lord being upon them, (21) was that a great number of people turned to the Lord. They not only proclaimed and displayed the Gospel in their community but they sent out missionaries and planted churches all over the world.
We want to be a church that aligns ourselves with the heart of God in His mission to redeem people from every tribe, language, people, and nation. (Rev. 5) We also believe that God has sovereignly placed us in one of the great gathering points of Warren County, the Countryside YMCA. Throughout History, God has used the people of God, through the avenue of the YMCA, to bring renewal to many countries all over the world. We will continue to be a part of that story as we will plant churches, send out missionaries and continue to build churches that are connected to YMCAs all over the world. We believe that God hasn’t currently called us to merely rent a room, but to be used by Him to proclaim and display His story to the YMCA, to this community and to the world.
In
(Acts 11:25-26)
In Antioch, they recognized that their ultimate goal was not realized in decisions being made for Christ. They knew that people needed to be built into true disciples of Christ. (25-26)
Likewise, we desire that every person in this congregation would be growing in depth in their walk with the Lord and would be equipped to fulfill the Great Commission by making disciples of others. In this way, we are a church that is not only reaching upward and outward, but inward.
We also believe that disciples of Jesus truly grow in the context of authentic community. On Sunday morning, we gather together to sing and learn and laugh and worship! However, we also experience life, together, in our homes. We believe that following Jesus is lived out in relationships. Therefore, we gather around fireplaces and kitchen tables, opening the Bible and opening our lives. We encourage and forgive and find hope and renewal. Our church is committed to helping you reach inward, that you might grow in your own walk with God.
We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.
We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.
We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.
We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus—Israel’s promised Messiah—was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.
We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.
We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.
We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.
We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.
We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.
We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.