Week of Prayer Starts Jan 25
Sign up for one hour of prayer in a quiet, distraction-free space designed to help you focus and connect with God.
It's all about Jesus Christ
OUR MISSION:
To Know Christ,
His Life Changing Power,
And To Make Him Known
We want to know who Jesus is, His character, what He likes and what He doesn't. We want to experience His desire for our lives. He promises to restore us and to redeem us. Then we want to share all of that with others.
Pillars of Community
LIVING FOR GOD, LOVING ONE ANOTHER
We believe we are called to walk alongside one another, encouraging, serving, and growing in faith together as a community. And so we’re committed to living by our 7 Pillars of Community:
Love God: We put God in His rightful place as Lord of our lives by coming together to sing His praise, study His word, give tithes and offerings, and share communion.
Love People: By worshiping together, we put ourselves in our correct place, not above anyone else.
Love God: We communicate to God our Father, not just requests, but also praise and thanks, and we listen to His Spirit, to have a relationship with Him.
Love People: We pray for the concerns and well being of those around us, especially for the salvation of the lost, bringing the power of God into their lives.
Love God: We enjoy the presence of God, through prioritizing time with Him, reading His word, and other spiritual disciplines.
Love People: We enjoy the presence of other followers of Jesus, by spending time together focused on our common union of faith in Jesus Christ.
Love God: We give honor and glory to God by proclaiming His wondrous works in our lives.
Love People: We share the Gospel and how Jesus has changed our lives so others may see what is possible and may desire to have their lives changed as well.
Love God: We seek to become more like Jesus by studying and applying His life as revealed in scripture, and by learning from other Christ-followers.
Love People: We seek to exemplify Jesus to those around us, and work to encourage and equip them to the best of our ability, no matter our own qualifications.
Love God: We ask God for forgiveness, acknowledging His way is better than our own and accepting Jesus’ free gift of taking our penalty upon Himself.
Love People: We forgive everyone, just as God forgives us, giving grace to their faults, and striving for unity and reconciliation.
Love God: We work for the benefit of God's global kingdom and His Church using the talents and abilities He has given us.
Love People: We work to care for the physical, financial, and emotional needs of our fellow disciples, then also those of our local area, and guide them to the fulfillment of their deeper spiritual need.
Statement of Doctrine
We accept the Scriptures as our authority in matters of faith and practice, and adopt the following Confession of Faith as our interpretation of Bible Doctrine:
We believe the Old and New Testaments to be verbally inspired by God; inerrant in the original manuscripts; and the supreme, final and infallible rule and authority in faith and life. The Word of God is the foundation upon which this church operates and is the basis for which this church is governed. We believe that the Word of God supersedes any earthly law that is contrary to the Holy Scriptures.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17; John 10:35, Isaiah 28:13; John 17:17; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:23-25)
We believe in one God, holy, eternal, self-existent and self-revealing in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
(Mark 12:29; John 10:30; Acts 5:3,4; Revelation 4:8)
We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. His virgin birth, His perfect Deity and humanity, His substitutionary atonement for sin, His bodily resurrection, His visible, imminent, premillenial return for His church, His glorious and literal kingdom over all the nations for a thousand years and His eternal reign with the Father in the New Heaven and the New Earth.
(Romans 9:5; Titus 2:13; 1st Thessalonians 4:16-18; Revelation 10:11-21; Luke 1:35; 1st Peter 2:24; Hebrews 4:15-16; John 20:25-28)
We believe in the personality of the Holy Spirit, who convicts the world of sin, regenerates, indwells, baptizes, seals and sanctifies all who become children of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
(John 3:5, 16:8-11; 1st Corinthians 6:11, 12:13; Ephesians 4:30; Romans 8:14)
We believe that man was directly created in the image of God, but in sinning brought both spiritual and physical death to himself and his posterity who have within themselves no possible means of recovery or salvation.
(Genesis 1:26-28, 3:1-14; Romans 3:23, 5:12, 7:18, 3:19)
We believe in salvation by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all true believers have a present possession, eternal life, a perfect righteousness, sonship in the family of God, deliverance and security from all condemnation and every spiritual resource needed for life and godliness.
(Ephesians 2:8-10; 2nd Peter 1:3: John 10:27-30; John 5:24)
We believe in separation from this present world and its evil ways, worldly amusements, unclean habits, and that we should seek the things that are above, walk as He walked and be careful to maintain good works.
(Galatians 2:20; 2nd Corinthians 6:14-18; Romans 12:2; Ephesians 5:11; 1st Peter 2:11; Colossians 3:1; 1st John 2:6; Titus 3:6; 2nd Corinthians 5:19)
We believe in the personality of the Devil, the arch enemy of God and man and in eternal conscious punishment of the lost in a literal hell of torment.
(Matthew 4:1-11; Revelation 12:9-11; Revelation 20:11-15; Luke 16:19-31)
We believe that the Church is an elect company of believers, the body of Christ chosen by God to glorify Jesus Christ by an aggressive effort to disciple all nations through the preaching of the Gospel.
(John 15:16; Ephesians 1:10-12; Matthew 28:18-20)
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has gone to prepare a place for all the saved, that their souls go to be with Him at death, and that their bodies will be resurrected or transformed at His second coming at which time they will be rewarded according to their works.
(John 14:1-6; 2nd Corinthians 5:1-10; 1st Corinthians15:12-50; Revelation 22:12)
We believe that the Church shall, in all of its endeavors, be supported by God's financial plan of “Tithes and Offerings”.
(Malachi 3:10)
We believe that the ordinances of the Church, given by our Lord, are baptism (by immersion) and the Lord’s Supper (Holy Communion).
(Matthew 28:19; Acts 8:38-39; Romans 6:3-4; Colossians 2:12; Luke 22:19; 1st Corinthians 10:16, 11:23)
We believe that the Bible defines “marriage” as the exclusive covenantal union of one genetic man and one genetic woman in which such union is a lifetime commitment. Marriage has been ordained and defined by God and cannot be redefined by any other authority (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:24; Matthew 19:1-9; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Ephesians 5:22-33).
This statement of faith does not exhaust the extent of our beliefs. The Bible itself, as the inspired and infallible Word of God that speaks with final authority concerning truth, morality, and the proper conduct of mankind, is the sole and final source of all that we believe. For purposes of Community Church of Portage Lakes faith, doctrine, practice, policy, and discipline, our elder board is the church’s final interpretive authority on the Bible’s meaning and application.