What we believe at CLC:

1.    Christian Life Center is a community church.

We are not affiliated with any denomination.  Because of that, we are quite diverse in our backgrounds, traditions and beliefs.  People from all kinds of upbringing and experience are welcome here to fellowship in an atmosphere of love and acceptance.  In a community church, we will teach the truth of God’s word. 

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2.    The Trinity is an essential belief at Christian Life Center.  It is tied directly to how we perceive who God is.  We believe there is only one God and that He has revealed himself in three distinct persons:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Each person of the trinity is equally God, each has all the attributes of God, but each has a different function with all the same purpose.

 

3.    The Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testament are inspired of God and are the revelation of God to man.  With everything that we believe as Christians, the Bible is the starting point.  Without it, we would not have any direction as to what God would expect of us, or as to the way of salvation.  The Bible is everything we need to know for how we are expected to live our lives on earth.   

 

The scriptures declare the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and set Him forth as the eternal Son of God.  They further declare:
a.    His Virgin birth
b.    His sinless life
c.    His miracles
d.    His substitutionary work on the cross
e.    His bodily resurrection from the dead
f.    His exaltation to the right hand of God
g.    His sending forth the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost
h.    His promise to personally return and receive His church to himself

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4.    Man was created in the image and after the likeness of God and was therefore sinless.  However, Adam by voluntary transgression incurred physical and spiritual death.  All of us as descendants of Adam suffered spiritual death as well.

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5.    The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.  We receive salvation through repentance of sin and faith in the complete atoning work of Jesus Christ. Repentance is defined as changing the mind about the wrong things.  When I repent of the things I have done, I have realized that those things hurt God and I begin to see sin the way that God sees it.  So I will choose not to do those things because I want to please and be obedient to God.  The inward evidence of salvation is the direct witness of the Holy Spirit.  The outward evidence is a life of righteousness and true holiness.

 

We also believe in Sanctification, the process by which we are perfected to be like Christ. Although we may desire to be perfect right now, as long as we continue to dwell in these imperfect earthly bodies, we will not be perfect.  We will still make mistakes, and we will sin.  With the Holy Spirit convicting us of sin, we learn to submit to the leadership and direction of the Holy Spirit for continued growth.

 

We also learn through the study of the Bible.  The Bible not only sets forth the way of salvation, but also the moral standard of conduct for the life of a Christian.  This has become increasingly difficult to teach and get believers to grab hold of because we are complexly inundated by today’s culture.  Because we believe that there is one God and we are His creation, we do not set the standard for how we live.  We do not dictate to God how we will live our lives.  God sets the standard for His created beings, and those standards are set forth in the Bible.  Our understanding and application of those standards is our path towards the holy living that God desires.  It is also the threshold of the blessings of God in our lives.  This process will be completed when we are transformed and brought into the presence of God in the resurrection.  

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6.    The Ordinances of the Church are Baptism in water and Holy Communion.  
a.    Baptism in water is commanded in scripture.
b.    The Lord’s Supper, consisting of bread and the fruit of the vine, is the symbol expressing our sharing the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

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7.    The Church is the Body of Christ.  God has placed inside each individual a purpose of what He wants you to do with your life.  Finding your place within a community of believers such as CLC is a big part of realizing that vision.  We are here specifically to help you realize your identity – to find your role in God’s plan.  I Corinthians 12-14 gives a clear teaching what the gifts of the Spirit are and their uses.  We also recognize that not all believers may be endowed or demonstrate all the spiritual gifts.  

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8.    We believe in divine healing whether it be directly through the work of God in a miracle or through the hand of a physician.  We do not dictate how God chooses to heal, but we believe that God does do healing according to His will and good purpose.  According to James 5:14-15, we will call on the Elders of the church, let them pray over the sick, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.  

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9.    There will be a final judgement.  We believe there is a Heaven and there is a Hell.  There will be a day when we all will stand before God and will have to answer for how we lived and what we did with Christ while we were here.  Those who trusted in Christ in this life will have all eternity in His presence.  All those who did not will have eternal punishment in hell and the Lake of Fire. God tells us in His word that he desires that none should perish but that all shall come to repentance.  

Helping you grow in your personal, spiritual walk with Jesus

Christian Life Center as a church and as a ministry staff has a responsibility to you – to train you, to guide and direct you in the ways of the Lord and help give you the tools that you need for ministry. It is the body of believers that are responsible for taking advantage of the opportunities given them for spiritual growth.  Personal spiritual growth and maturity can only be accomplished as you put the time, energy, and prayer into it.  It is also important to apply these teachings to your life as follows: 

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1.    Studying the Word of God.  Without the Bible, there is no Christian Faith.  The Bible is that objective standard for truth.  
A. The Bible is inspired of God.  God wrote the scripture through the writers by the utterance of the Holy Spirit.  It is the Word of God.
B. The Bible is our absolute standard for Christian faith and practice.  The Bible is considered our absolute, unchanging standard for Christian faith and practice.  So, how do we permit the Word of God to get into our hearts and produce action in our life?

• Hear it.  Hearing the Word of God spoken through Godly pastors and teachers is a way to begin understanding the Bible.  We continue to come together for church services, Bible studies, Home Groups, etc., for the purpose of gaining a broader understanding of the Bible.  

• Read it.  There are reading plans that will assist you to read through the Bible in order to have comprehension.

• Study it.  Learn to take notes on what you are learning through God’s Word and then study your notes as well.

• Memorize it.  Memorizing scripture is one of the keys that we have to living the Christian life and to defeating Satan.  If Jesus used the Word of God to defeat the enemy, how much more can we do the same thing if we will take the time to apply God’s Word to our hearts to make it ready for use at any time?

• Meditate on it.  Meditation can be said to be the process by which the Bible goes from the head to the heart.  Think about the meaning of the scripture and how it applies to your life.  

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2.    Living a Life of Prayer - The Lord’s Prayer is an outline for prayer that can be followed.  Jesus was teaching His disciples a pattern by which to pray to be more effective in their prayer.  A strong part of a good prayer life is getting your will lined up with the will of God.  We know that we are to ask God to forgive us of our sins on a daily basis.  Sin cuts us off from our relationship with God, and to maintain strong communication with Him, it is a good thing to keep short accounts with Him.  As you develop habits to get to know God through His Word and prayer, you can begin to have faith-filled experiences with God as you begin to develop a maturity in your faith – a maturity that knows who God is from a personal perspective.  You will have your own testimony of how God has moved in your life and what He has taught you and shown you.  And as you mature, you will see the needs of others and be able to share Jesus with them so that their lives may be changed as well.  

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3.    Your Part in the Worship - There are certain things that we do in our Worship Services to honor God and to promote Jesus Christ as Lord.  Your participation in these worship services is a vital role in the life of our community as someone who actively participates in each facet of the Worship service.

• Praise and Worship – As we come together for a worship service, our main desire is to experience His presence and to hear God speak through His Word.  We offer Him thanksgiving and praise at the beginning of the service through the singing of songs.  These words have been written to help us express ourselves to God for worship.

• Prayer Partners –once into His presence, we take the opportunity to bring our needs before God.  We have Prayer Partners who are trained and prepared to pray with us as you bring our requests before the Lord.

• The Word of God –A relevant message is brought from the Word of God through our Pastor.  Each topic discussed lets us hear God speaking through the words of the message.  

• The Ordinances of the Church – Two very special opportunities to worship God are offered to every believer through baptism and partaking in communion.  

Baptism becomes our public confession of who we have become through the saving work of Jesus in our life.  As we go down into the water, it symbolizes our death to sin.  As we are brought out of the water, it symbolizes the newness of life that we have in Christ Jesus.  Baptism cannot be concluded of as an essential for salvation for two reasons.  First, there are examples of those such as the thief on the cross in Luke who did not have opportunity to be baptized, yet died and went to be with the Lord.  Second, to say that baptism is required for salvation would be to say that you have to do something on your part to be saved.  The only work that had to be done for our salvation was the work that Jesus did on our behalf on the cross.  

 

We take Holy Communion together as a church to remember what Jesus has done.  One does not gain salvation from eating the bread and drinking the cup, but only by trusting what Jesus did on our behalf that is symbolized in the Lord’s Supper.