our beliefs

  • The Holy Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to man. The original documents were inspired by the Holy Spirit as the authors wrote them. The Bible constitutes the only infallible rule of faith and practice and is true and reliable in all the matters it addresses. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.

    Therefore, all Scripture is totally true, trustworthy, and authoritative. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.

    The Bible consists of 66 books containing both the Old and New Testaments, which make it God’s complete and sufficient revelation.

  • There is one, and only one, living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being; the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe.

    God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. All that He does is for His glory to be seen, honored, and treasured.

    The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

  • God as Father reigns with providential care over all created things and guides human history according to His will. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become His children through faith in Jesus Christ and is fatherly in His attitude toward all people.

  • The eternal Son of God existed with the Father and Spirit from all eternity as the only Son begotten of God. In His incarnation, He was given the name Jesus, being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He took upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities, and identified Himself completely with mankind, yet was without sin.

    By His perfect obedience and in His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of mankind from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples and many others as the same person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator (truly God, truly man) and Advocate who brings reconciliation between God and man. His life, death, resurrection, and ascension proved He was the Christ (Messiah).

    He will visibly return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord by the Holy Spirit.

  • The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine and eternal. He inspired the written words of Scripture. He illuminates us to understand the truth revealed in Scripture. His joy is to exalt and glorify Christ.

    He convicts all humanity of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls people to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration, He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He applies to us all the blessings of Christ’s work.

    He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers through suffering, prays according to the will of God, and gives spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ.

  • Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation and as real, historical people. The gift of biological sex is part of the goodness of God’s creation, and therefore, our gender matches our sex at birth. We believe that the holy union of marriage, set forth in the Scriptures, is between a man and a woman as a glorious picture of the gospel.

    Mankind was made in innocence under God and in perfect fellowship with Him, but, by voluntarily sinning, fell from his sinless and happy state. Consequently, all mankind is sinful and in rebellion against God. All people are sinners not only by inheritance in birth, but by their own moral choices. Therefore all are under just condemnation without defense or excuse. Without exception, every man and every woman is totally depraved and needs a Savior.

  • We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, as the sufficient payment for sin in our place. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross was the sole and complete payment for sins, fully satisfying God’s righteous wrath, for each person that turns from sin in repentance and places their faith in Christ alone by grace alone. There is no salvation given to humanity apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. He alone is the only source of salvation. In order to be saved, a person must hear and understand the gospel of God’s salvation of sinners.

    God’s salvation of sinners includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.

    Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace where believers begin to take part in the new creation in Jesus. It is a change of heart brought about by the Holy Spirit through which the sinner responds by faith in turning from sin in repentance and turning towards Jesus in loving obedience. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of the grace of regeneration. We believe that those who evidence this change are delivered from condemnation and have eternal life.

    Justification is God graciously declaring a sinner not guilty before His judgment, in which He also gives the righteousness of Jesus to all sinners who repent and believe in His Son. Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God. It also promises that there will be no condemnation for those that belong to Christ.

    Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, where a believer grows into greater love, affection, and knowledge of God. It is marked by ongoing: renewal of the mind through reading and meditating on the truth of Scripture, communion with God in prayer, recognition of humble dependence on God’s grace, growth in love for all people, and putting off sin and pursuing righteousness. The pursuit of holiness is seeking to become like Christ in all of life. This pursuit should continue throughout a believer's life within the fellowship and care of a local church, ending only at death or the return of Jesus.

    Glorification is the future hope of a believer and the final culmination of salvation. It is the full participation in the life God has promised in the new creation. Our glorification is the end of death and sin and the eternal joy and pleasure of God’s people in the presence of their God forever. It is guaranteed by the grace of God, and is proven now by the perseverance of a believer in growing faith and obedience, joyfully waiting for the day Jesus returns.

  • By faith in Christ, believers become part of His body—the one universal church. Scripture commands us to gather for worship, prayer, teaching, ordinances (baptism & communion), fellowship, and loving service—making disciples of all nations. Local churches are led by a plurality of leaders and stewarded wisely to glorify Christ.

  • We believe in the personal and visible return of Jesus Christ, the final defeat of His enemies, and the establishment of His kingdom forever; the resurrection of the body, final judgment by Christ, eternal joy of the righteous with God, and endless suffering of the wicked apart from Him.

OUR DISTINCTIVES

  • We are deeply committed to the spiritual & moral equality of male & female and to men as responsible servant-leaders in both home and church. Therefore…

    We believe both men and women are together created in the divine image and are therefore equal before God as persons, possessing the same moral dignity and value, and have equal access to God through faith in Christ. Men and women are together the recipients of spiritual gifts designed to empower them for ministry in the local church and beyond. Therefore, men and women are to be encouraged, equipped, and empowered to utilize their gifting in ministry, in service to the body of Christ, and through teaching in ways that are consistent with the Word of God.

    While husbands and wives are responsible to God for spiritual nurture and vitality in the home, God has given to the man primary responsibility to lead his wife and family in accordance with the servant leadership and sacrificial love characterized by Jesus Christ.

    This principle of male headship should not be confused with, nor give any hint of, domineering control. Rather, it is to be the loving, tender, and nurturing care of a godly man who is himself under the kind and gentle authority of Jesus Christ.

    The elders/pastors (terms used interchangeably) of each local church have been granted authority under the headship of Jesus Christ to provide oversight and to teach/preach the Word of God in the corporate assembly for the building up of the body. The office of elder/pastor as well as the preaching ministry of the church is restricted to qualified men.

    We believe the church’s mission is to raise both godly men and women to evidence ongoing life in Christ and joyful reliance upon Him for meaning and mission within His good creation order.

    Therefore, no man or woman who feels a passion from God to make His grace known in word and deed need ever live without a fulfilling ministry for the glory of Christ and the good of this fallen world.

    Both men and women can reach the lost with the gospel and testify to His grace and power in their life; can serve others through the stresses and miseries of sickness, malnutrition, homelessness, impairment, illiteracy, ignorance, aging, addiction, crime, incarceration, loneliness, and many other afflictions in this world. And both men and women can be involved in writing, music, design, media, prayer, tech, counseling, sports, missions, at home ministries, and many more.

  • We will participate in two ordinances that God has given to His people to testify to them continually of the grace, love, and mercy He has shown in His Son, Jesus. They are baptism and communion (ie the Lord’s Supper).

    We believe 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. The only requirement of baptism is someone who has professed faith in Jesus Christ. This profession is evidenced by an understanding of the necessity of repentance, a recognition of the necessity of dying to self and living to Christ, and a participation in the life of the body of Christ, the church. Baptism should soon follow true belief in Christ as the Scriptures testify.

    In most circumstances, baptism is a normal and expected part of a believer’s obedience to Christ. Though at Northside Church, we will teach, practice, and expect believers to enter the waters of baptism, those who are baptized as an infant, absent of their own faith in Christ, by their parents will stand before the Lord upon their conviction of Scripture and of faith. If someone hears the teaching of baptism by immersion and comes to understand it and believe it, yet chooses not to be baptized, then they are living in disobedience and fear of people more than God. The call of baptism is a call to die to worldly identities and securities and to be raised to life in Christ and to commit to following Him.

    We believe that communion (also known as the Lord’s supper), is a symbolic act of obedience whereby followers of the Lord, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of Jesus, our Redeemer, and anticipate His second coming. The participation in the Lord’s supper should be a regular observance and proclamation of God’s people in loving remembrance of His death and joyful expectation of His return. Those who do not belong to Christ and lack evidence of ongoing faith and love for Christ and of living at peace and harmony with His people should not participate in the Lord’s supper for fear of bringing divine judgment upon themselves.

  • We believe 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.

    We believe 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 brought to repentance and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.