What We Believe

~ We are Confessional; adopting the 1689 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith as our Catechism.

~ We are Covenantal; We believe that God revealed Himself and His plan for humanity to His creation through the use of Covenants. 

Further, that it is through covenants that we interpret the Old and New Testaments (Covenants).

~ We believe in a plurality of Elders. That the church was intended to be led through a group of qualified individuals, as per the scriptures. 

NOTE: This church is transitioning from a "Pastor-Led" model (one man), to a Plurality of Elders, in keeping with the Reformed Baptist Tradition, which we believe is biblical.

~ We believe in "The Ordinary Means of Grace." That God has established and ordained the church on the earth to be the institution used by God to dispense grace to believers throughout the ages.

Examples of this would be:

             The Lord's Table - being a means through which God strengthens and unifies the church, from week to week, as we grow together in grace.

             Baptism - Not only a public testimony, but a supernatural act through which God seals the Christian in the family of God and strengthens the believer in knowing that they have died and been raised back to life in Him.

             Other "Ordinary Means of Grace" would be anything which only occurs in the church - the individual believers, gathered together to worship God as a body - would be:

             Congregational Confession - How we begin service every Sunday. We confess the sins of the past week, silently before the throne of grace, and have the dirt washed off of our feet and minds which we may have accumulated, freeing us to worship the LORD without guilt or condemnation.

             Congregational Prayer - employed every Sunday and every Tuesday at UCC.

Worship by the singing of Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs - which serve to show the LORD our love and subjection towards Him, as well as encourage the believer, lifting them up in faith and strengthening them as we sing, together of the glories and wonder of our God.

             Preaching - Again, something which only occurs in the church of God. We, as group, commit ourselves to listen and to learn, together, the Word of the LORD, opened up and interpreted by the preaching Elder, who has studied diligently to show himself approved of God.

The preaching at UCC is Expository. This means we do not jump all around the bible from week to week, but set ourselves to either preach (a) word by word, verse by verse, through a paragraph, chapter and book of the bible.

This does not remove the ability to (b) preach on topics from various places throughout scripture. Simply put, we try to give you, the listener, disciple and student, what it was that God said, in the context He said it (Book) how He MEANT whatever it is He said in any given set of scriptures.

             The Teaching of God's Word - We believe that the power of the Holy Spirit serves to grow us in the knowledge of God, that we would "know Him more" as we continue to learn His word. We believe this serves also to grow those who attend to grow to together in our common understanding of the doctrines of Christianity, being united in belief and practice of that which we are learning together, week after week on Wednesday evenings at corporate Bible Study.

~ We are Complimentarian. Meaning: We believe that God ordained that His church would be led by Godly, qualified men, and that the preaching of God's word from the pulpit is reserved for those qualified men gifted in preaching and teaching.  

Women do have important functions within the church, coming alongside the male leadership as help-mates. They can teach the women in a women's only setting, mentor and council them, and assist the Elders in the administration and other necessary offices of the church (Treasurer, Hospitality, etc).

~ We are Cessationist. Meaning: We still believe God moves in the miraculous. He can heal anyone at any time, through others or independent of others.

  However, the supernatural giftings (Healers, Prophets, Tongues) placed upon any individual as "their gift" for their specific use, ceased with the passing of the Apostles/the Apostolic era and the infancy of the church. 

~ We believe in the Regulative Principal of Worship. We do our best to interpret what forms musical worship are approved of God according to scripture, regarding with what instruments and genre's of music were and should be used or forbidden. At UCC, we incorporate a mix of Hymns, Psalms and Contemporary spiritual music. The standard is biblically accuracy - that no error be sung in our lyrics.