What We Believe

What We Believe...

We recognize the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 as our statement of belief. You may reference it here http://www.sbc.net/BFM/bfm2000.asp for a more detailed account and supporting scripture.

God:
We at Champion Fellowship believe that there is one living and true God, perfect in love and righteous in all His ways, one in essence, existing eternally in the three persons of the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).

God the Father-
He reigns over His universe, His creatures, and human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving and all wise. God is sufficient in Himself, and does not stand in need of any creature that He has made. He draws mankind to Himself through His Son Jesus, forgiving their sin and delivering from death those who come to Him through Christ for salvation.

God the Son-
We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. He is the only mediator between God and mankind. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, fully shared in our humanity and fulfilled our life with a life of perfect obedience to God the Father. By His death in our place, He revealed God’s divine love for us and upheld divine justice, removing our guilt and reconciling us to God. Having redeemed us from sin, the third day Jesus Christ rose bodily from the grave, victorious over death and the powers of darkness. He ascended into heaven where, at God’s right hand, He intercedes for his people and rules as Lord over all. One day He will return to earth at His Father’s bidding to judge His creation and at His return, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.

God the Holy Spirit-
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired men to write the Scriptures. He enables us to understand truth, exalts Christ, convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgment. He is the One who calls us to the Savior and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

Scripture:
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, divinely inspired and without error in the original manuscripts, written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that it has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct. It is fully authoritative and our only absolutely trustworthy guide for life and faith. The word of God will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

Creation:
We believe that God created all things visible and invisible for His glory. God created mankind in His image. He created male and female as the crowning work of His creation and thus the gift of gender is part of the goodness of God’s creation. When God created man he was innocent of sin and endowed by God with the freedom of choice. It is by his free choice that man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Man fell from innocence and inherited a nature inclined toward sin. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable him to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of all humanity is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for every man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

Salvation:
We believe that salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. We further believe that the work of Christ on the cross for our sin warrants and impels a universal offering of the gospel to all persons, so that to every person it may be truly said, “God gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life.”

God’s Purpose of Grace:
We believe that election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility. All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

The Church:
We believe that a New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors, elders and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men, as qualified by Scripture. We also believe that the New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper:
We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

The Kingdom:
We believe the Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ. Christians ought to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come and God's will be done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.

Stewardship: We believe that God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual responsibility to the whole world, to share the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Christ with their time, talents, and material possessions; and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement of the Redeemer's cause on earth.

God’s Mission for His People: We believe that it is the duty and privilege of every follower of Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of man’s spirit by God’s Holy Spirit means the birth of love for others. Missionary effort rests upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life, and is repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal and non-verbal witness, undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, by love, and by other actions in harmony with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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