Our doctrinal beliefs are anchored in the historic creeds of Christianity, including the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed. In addition, our Affirmation of Bible Beliefs, which can be found here, explains that our church is evangelical, Bible-based, and Gospel-centered. For those interested in doctrinal study, you may enjoy Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem.
Our leaders desire to become servant leaders. While none of our leaders are perfect, we seek to be formed into the image of Jesus. This means in part that we obey the Bible's authority and Jesus' will for our lives. In turn, as part of good leadership, we lovingly disciple others to do the same.
Our church is led by a Board of Elders. No single leader possesses sole decision-making authority; instead, decisions are made prayerfully by the Elders as a whole pursuant to our Bylaws. Elders are men chosen based on whether they fit the qualifications spelled out in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. In addition, we choose deacon leaders who are men or women who fit the leadership qualifications laid out in the Bible.
We believe the Bible teaches that there must be unity in the church; however, that does not mean there must be uniformity. Our church welcomes a diversity of thought and opinion and we are happy to have good discussions. Church teaching will be in accordance with our beliefs and our values, and we also ask members to affirm our beliefs and values. We openly speak of what we believe Jesus has asked us to accomplish as a local church. However, there can be a wide diversity of thought beyond the core values.
Of course not! The Kingdom of God is broader than any one church. Our way of doing church is not the only way of demonstrating faith in Jesus. Instead, we embrace the beauty of the Bride of Christ, the Church, including the variety of callings and distinctions that make up the tapestry of the New Testament Church. Our passion is to build the Kingdom of God, not just our local church. Further, we are thankful for the many Bible-believing churches engaged in building the Kingdom of God in our city (and around the world).
Like any other church, we have people who come and go. On Sundays, we often speak about the many wonderful gospel-centered churches in our area and encourage everyone to find the place that is the best fit for them. At times, it can be difficult to say goodbye to close friends when they decide it's time to try another church. But if they do, we want to give our blessing and maintain our friendships.
Our Elders, staff, and leaders commit to and hold each other accountable to a Biblical standard of conduct. We use Questions of Character and Integrity as a starting point to live transparent lives as disciples of Jesus. (Click here to view this document) It is important for leaders to be growing disciples of Jesus, holding to the high standard of Scripture for leaders.
Our Statement of Faith, Bylaws, and membership process/material are all publicly available. Some of our discussions and decision-making will be publicly available, and we are transparent in our decision-making as far as possible. Some matters may be protected under sacred or secular standards. We cannot share pastoral counseling or confidential pastoral communications. On the secular side, employment and discipline issues are legally protected. Any decision about what to share will evaluate the legal standards at play and who has a right to know or a need to know (such as for safety). We have a high priority towards all issues around child safeguarding, such as mandated reporting and intentional plans to keep children safe.
The safeguarding of children under our care is the greatest ministry priority for our church. We’ve adopted policies and procedures to ensure our children learn in a safe atmosphere. Those policies can be found here. In addition, everyone who works with minors goes through a background check and is considered a mandated reporter for suspected abuse and neglect. We also benefit from the expertise of Dr. Christie McIntyre, who has thirty-three years of experience in education and serves as our Child Safety Coordinator. For specific questions, you can contact her at [email protected].
Reconciliation in marriage and unity for families are priorities for us. Marriage between a Christian man and woman is one of the most powerful witnesses in this world to the message and power of the cross. We realize that in a broken world, there are broken family relationships as well. We help people preserve the covenant of marriage and health of families, using every Biblical method we are aware of, including providing marriage counseling (both pastoral and secular). For our people suffering from broken family relationships, we also try to provide support and healing.
Our church is a registered student organization with TAMU (along with other sixty-eight registered Christian groups). Like our colleagues, we desire to reach students with the message of salvation through faith in Jesus. We enjoy a good relationship with the faculty and staff of A&M and Blinn and have many members here who work for those incredible institutions.
We encourage people to be good stewards of both their mental and physical health. In fact, we encourage and fund staff and their spouses to receive local counseling. There are many skilled local providers, and we are indebted to their wisdom and help to our church family. We recommend that counseling should be sought from Christian therapists as much as possible and be chosen with care.
Our belief regarding medical treatment is "Pray for healing (as the Bible shows) and also seek medical professionals for help." These two ideas are not mutually exclusive.
Like thousands of evangelical churches, our church holds a "complementarian" view of New Testament leadership. We believe the roles of Pastor and Elder in the church are Biblically reserved for humble, qualified men who would be Christ-like servant leaders in our church family. Jesus modeled for us the high value of women, yet still appointed men to lead His church. We believe that the Pastors (Elders/Overseers) are to be chosen from among the men, while the role of Leaders (Deacons) may be carried out by both men and women. These distinctions have nothing to do with the abilities of women, and we highly value their gifts and leadership. Rather, it has to do with faithfulness to God's direction in the Bible (such as in Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 2 & 3; 1 Corinthians 11:2-16; 1 Timothy 2 & 3; Romans 16:1-2).
The Old Testament book of Genesis shows that God created men and women as equals, both made in His image. We reject attitudes of dismissiveness and disrespect towards women, and even more so any kind of violence towards women. The New Testament book of Ephesians teaches us that husbands are equal to their wives, yet have the sobering responsibility to lead by serving. It describes mutual submission and the clear command for men to lead in their marriages and families with Christ-like, sacrificial, servant love. Husbands must give their lives in protecting, providing, and caring for their wives and children as Jesus gives His life for the Church. (Note: a complementarian view does not exclude men from daily responsibilities of home life such as cooking dinner, washing dishes, and changing diapers). More details can be found in theologian Wayne Grudem’s many writings on this topic.
Addressing issues requires a combination of implementing Scripture and also respecting legal requirements. For child safeguarding concerns, a mandated report would often be the first part of the process. For employment concerns, such as sexual harassment, our process would be that the issue be reported to leadership so that it can be addressed appropriately. For family, work, or personality conflicts, a number of approaches may be suitable. The persons in conflict may attempt to resolve it between themselves. They may work with a pastor to resolve the conflict, individually or together. They may work with a counselor to resolve the conflict, either individually or together. At times, professional help by Christian mediators can be very useful in resolving conflicts within the church. If a person has a conflict with someone, a good place to start may be talking to one of our pastors (or a Board member if there is a concern about a pastor).
