OUR BELIEFS

About the Bible

We believe that God speaks, and has moved upon the hearts of men who penned what He said under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is without error and is the final authority on all matters on which it speaks. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)

About God

We believe in one God, who exists eternally in 3 persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - each having the attributes of deity and each operating in perfect communion and relationship with the others. (1 Chronicles 17:20; John 10:30; Acts 5:3-4)

About mankind

God created mankind in His image and desired that we would enjoy unhindered fellowship with Himself, which in turn was broken by mankind's willful disobedience and sin. (Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3:1-6; Romans 5:12)

About Jesus

Jesus was born of a virgin and was fully God and fully man in a way that we may not fully comprehend. Because He was a man, His sinless life made Him the only person who could offer himself as a redemptive sacrifice for fallen mankind. Because He was God, He forever established the reality that God desires to restore the broken relationships that have resulted from the fall of mankind into sin. (John 3:16; Romans 5:8)

About salvation

Salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins. (Ephesians 1:7, 2:8–10; John 1:12; 1 Peter 1:18–19)

About the Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit empowers us to point people to Jesus. He comforts us, teaches us, fills us, and gives us gifts that encourage the body of Christ. We believe that all Christians should seek the promised power of the Holy Spirit so that they can be fully equipped for the task of bringing a lost world to Jesus. (Acts 1:8; Acts 2:4; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; Galatians 5:22-23)

About the Christian Life

Jesus did not save us to make us religious, but rather to make us contagious. We believe that followers of Jesus should be the most generous, selfless, compassionate, loving, courageous and influential people on the planet. The Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation, but rather in relation with other followers of Jesus. The most important aspects of the Christian life - giving, studying, praying, serving - are the ones that we must be the most intentional about. When we live our lives in this way, we believe that others will see our good deeds and will give God glory. (Matthew 5:13-16; Acts 2:42-47)

About the Church

There is no other organization on the planet that God is more committed to than the church, because no other organization on the planet carries the message of redemption. When sinful men place their hope in the salvation that Jesus offered through His death and resurrection, they become part of a global family of redemption and are entrusted to be carriers of the redemptive message. The local body of believers is the place where the redeemed are planted so that they can become better equipped as followers of Jesus and carriers of His grace. Through the use of the gift ministries (including prophets, evangelists, teachers and preachers), each member of the local body of believers is equipped to do the redemptive works that God created for them so that men far from God can be brought near Him. We believe that Jesus instituted two unique traditions that are to be practiced regularly in the local body: water baptism, as an outward sign of our new life in Christ, and communion, as an outward sign of our new life in His body. (Acts 16:5; Ephesians 2:10; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 3:16-21; Hebrews 10:25)

About the End

We believe that the end is really just a beginning, and that how men respond to the redemptive message of Jesus in this life will determine where they will spend eternity: the believers in a literal heaven and the unbelievers in a literal hell. (John 14:2-3; Revelation 7:15-17; Revelation 20:10-15; Revelation 21:1-8)

Sunday is the least important day of the week.

For a lot of churches, Sunday is Gameday. For us, it is the endzone, complete with celebration dances and spiked footballs. We believe that what we've done on the other six days matters a whole lot more than what we do on one morning, and that our faith is defined more by our daily walk than our weekly worship. (Luke 9:23; Matthew 6:11)

Serving others is the best thing you can do for yourself.

It sounds a little selfish, but the best way to achieve your destiny is by helping others achieve theirs. We take serving very seriously at The Gathering, because after all that Jesus has done for us, we believe that it's an honor to serve others. We believe that we are never more like Jesus than when we are serving the needs of another, and that service sets us apart as His followers. (Mark 10:42-45)

Kingdom legacies are bigger than earthly legends.

Lots of people try to make a name for themselves, their churches or their causes. We want to make a name for Jesus because we realize that His kingdom will last long after we're gone. Earthly legends last until a better legend comes along, but what we do for the kingdom of God will become a legacy that lives eternally. (Psalm 127:1; Hebrews 12:28-29)

Your greatest enemy is isolation.

You've heard the battle strategy "divide and conquer" before. The reason you've heard it is because it works. The Bible says that our enemy comes to do only 3 things - steal, kill and destroy - and the way he does it is by trying to separate us from each other. We are tenancious about guarding unity because we believe that if you are alone, you are a target. Life is hard enough when we do it together; it's almost impossible when we do it alone. (John 10:10; Romans 14:7)

Grace takes time.

Life is like a movie, and everyone has good and bad scenes. Grace takes - and gives - time to work in the lives of others, and we place a high premium on not judging people based on a moment, but rather loving people based on the movie. The Bible is clear: God finishes what he starts in each of us. It just takes time, and we love God and others enough to give it. (Philippians 1:6)