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An overview of what we affirm & teach as a church

About God:  There is one true and living God, Who created all things from nothing and established the rules of the universe's functioning.  He is three-in-one ("the Trinity") Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  God the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be God in human flesh, to live a perfect life and die on the cross to pay the price for our sin.  He also sends the Holy Spirit to give us assurance of His salvation to empower us to both live for Him by serving others.

About human beings:  God originally created people as innocent but capable of making moral choices.  When our first parents, Adam and Eve, brought sin into the world death also entered into the world.  Human beings have great moral freedom but therefore great moral responsibility.  Christian people are empowered by God through His grace to live responsibly with others, with Him, and with ourselves.

About Salvation:  Human beings brought sin and death into the world, and always powerless to get it out.  But God did what human beings cannot do:  In Jesus Christ, He met for us all requirements of God's righteousness, and took the punishment for our sins on Himself at the cross.  For our salvation, we only need to trust in Him for what He has done on our behalf.  See "The Handy Guide" for more on how to receive this.

About the Bible:  We believe God has revealed Himself to us by coming in the Person of Jesus Christ and by entrusting His word, the Bible, to us.  Jesus Himself validated the Word; the Word bears unerring witness to Him, what He said, what He did, and what He has to say for us today.  In our church, it communicates God's Own authority to us; through the Holy Spirit's power in us, we receive that authority to confidently go into all the world and share the Gospel.

About the Church:  The Church consists of all people, everywhere, who trust in the grace and love of Jesus Christ, and His complete work in crucifixion and resurrection, for eternal life.  The Free Methodist Church is a part of the total communion of God's people in faith, everywhere.  The Free Methodist Community Church is a congregation of the Free Methodist Church, locally.  The church consists of:

    The congregation:  The collected group of believers.
    The Cell (or house):  The small supportive group of believers who meet to encourage each other to faith and good works.
    The Celebration:  Any gathering, especially Sunday morning, in which God's people get together to worship God.

About Praise and Worship:  Jesus promised His special presence whenever two or more Christian people get together.  One way we acknowledge and celebrate His presence is through praise and worship:

About Christian Life:  God is a holy God, perfect in love and righteousness.  Since this does not come naturally to people, God gives to His people His Own character, nature, and the power to live as His people in His church and in this fallen world, blamelessly, and loving others as He loves them.   This is called sanctification, and it is inaugurated in a moment and lived in a lifetime ("entire sanctification").  It doesn't mean I will never sin again; rather, it means I don't have to again.  God has freed my will which was in bondage.

About Holy Communion:  We refer to Communion as a "sacrament:"  Something Jesus asks us to do, in worship, to underscore and make more real to us what He has done for us.  We break bread to remember that He was broken for us, and that brokenness makes us whole.  We drink the cup, to remember that He drank the cup of suffering and spilled His precious blood to save us.  We do not believe there is a transformation of the elements of Communion, but as a means of grace we believe that receiving Communion together transforms us, making us aware that the real presence of Christ is presented to us through each other.

About Baptism:  Baptism is our other sacrament.   Through modes of immersing, pouring, or sprinkling, it pictures to us God's cleansing and claim upon our lives:
Adult believers:  Adult believers may receive baptism as an outward expression of the inward grace given them when they came to Christ.  For them, it symbolizes how they have identified with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection.
Children of believing parents:  Baptism for children is the symbol of the parents' and the congregation's commitment to do everything necessary to help the child's nurture and care in Christ.  We cannot "dedicate" our children to God any more than we can dedicate anyone else outside of their own will; we do dedicate ourselves in our children's baptism to rear them in a Christian environment and teach them to love and know God.  The role of the congregation is to solemnly promise their support for parents to do this.  The saying goes, "It takes a village to raise a child."   The problem with children today is that the "village" - secular institutions, entertainment, and peer group pressure - is raising our children!   It takes a church to raise a child!

About the End of the World:  We believe history is moving forward to a climax, when Jesus Christ will return.  He will return, not in privacy (as when He came to Bethlehem to be born), but every eye in the world will see Him.  No one may know the date or time of His coming, but the one sure sign will be when every people group in the world has received the Gospel.  If we long for His coming again, we will be actively reaching the lost for Him and supporting missions.   When He comes again, the dead in Christ will rise from the dead and those who know Him who are still in this life will come together with them to greet Jesus Christ.   There will be a final judgment in which an examination will be made of whether or not people have received Him for salvation, and how those who have received Him have lived for Him.  A new Heaven and a new Earth will be the eternal home for His children, but eternal separation from Him ("Hell"), along with the devil and his angels, will await all others.