Ministries

Read more about the ministries we are involved in on this page.

Church Documents

• Our confession is the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
• Reformation Baptist Church Constitution
• Reformation Baptist Church Membership Covenant

Distinctives

The Great Commission – As followers of Jesus Christ, we have been commanded to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ and should be ready as a body and as individuals to give an account of how we have attempted to accomplish this command. The church must proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ with clarity, since the gospel is foundational to fulfilling the Great Commission, and must also take seriously its duty to make disciples.^[1] Professing Christians should be expected to grow and mature in doctrine and holiness as the Holy Spirit sanctifies them, both individually and corporately.^[2]

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a central aspect of the Gospel and its power to break the bondage of sin.^[3] After Christ was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, He poured out the Holy Spirit on believers so that the Spirit might guide them into the truth and empower them to live holy lives.^[4] Since Christ has been raised from the dead, believers should walk in newness of life and should no longer be slaves of sin.^[5]

Expository Preaching – Expository preaching is preaching which attempts to expose the meaning of a text and apply it to the hearers. It is based upon the premise that people need the wisdom of God and not the wisdom of the preacher. We believe that a steady diet of expositional preaching is the most effective way to build up the body of Christ. Preaching and teaching sequentially through the verses of a book of the Bible will be the primary emphasis of this ministry.^[6]

Fervent Prayer – Every aspect of the church’s life and ministry ought to be undergirded with regular, fervent prayer. Elements of a godly prayer life (individually and corporately) include adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and intercession.^[7]

The Regulative Principle of Worship – Since Christ, in His authority as head of His church, has given us the Scriptures as our rule, we will regulate church life by Scripture alone, recognizing that God has instituted in the Scriptures everything He requires for worship in the church and that everything else is prohibited. Therefore, the only permissible elements of worship are those that are instituted by command, precept, example, or by good and necessary consequence, and whatever is not warranted by Scripture is forbidden.^[8]

The activities and worship of the church should be shaped by the Word of God and not by the fruit of her inventions or the patterns of contemporary culture.

Elements of corporate worship include prayer,^[9] singing,^[10] Scripture reading,^[11] preaching of the Word,^[12] interaction,^[13] baptism,^[14] and the Lord’s Supper.^[15] We believe that all these elements of worship of the living God must be marked by Biblical truth, personal and corporate genuineness, and spiritual depth.^[16]

Loving Community – We will cultivate Christian love, rejoicing, unity, and community in the family of God through mentoring relationships, discipleship, benevolence, and Biblical instruction.^[17]

Church Discipline – We will exercise Biblical church discipline, administered in a spirit of obedience and humility, and believe that this practice glorifies God, promotes the fear of God in the church, protects the name of God and testimony of the church in the community, defends the purity of the church, and offers restoration to the wayward.^[18]

Sabbath – We hold that the keeping of the Sabbath is an important element of Christian life testifying that as our Creator, God has the authority to regulate our work and rest. The keeping of the Sabbath is important for the edification of believers and the growth of the church in holiness. It is also an important part of the church’s testimony to the community.^[19]

This Church will observe the Sabbath from sundown on Saturday to sundown on Sunday. Each individual household has the freedom to observe the Sabbath starting at midnight Saturday night.

Personal Evangelism – We will equip and send the Church and its Members into the community to bring the message of the cross^[20] to our own households, neighborhoods, workplaces, and the world.^[21]

Church Planting – We will make intentional efforts to reach the world for Christ by praying, giving, going, and planting as we rejoice in God’s plan to be a blessing to the nations.^[22]

The Sufficiency of Scripture – We regard Scripture as sufficient for life and godliness, so it must be consulted for all things. We will use it for reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness to speak into the lives of those in the congregation.^[23]

Theology of Marriage – While God gives the gift of singleness to some, God ordained marriage between one man and one woman as a picture of the gospel relationship of Jesus Christ and His church. Any other sexual arrangement or desiring for such other arrangement is sinful in the sight of God.^[24]

Theology of the Family – We hold that the family was designed by God to be a foundational component of all nations and cultures, and that a believing parent, by God’s grace, ought to make their family a vital center of Christian discipleship. As a church we will seek to support and strengthen this important institution for the advancement of God’s kingdom.^[25]

We believe that the husband is the head of the home, and that under Christ he is to give godly leadership, seeking to direct his family in the ways of the LORD; that parents are primarily responsible for the spiritual training of their children (this includes discipline and Biblical instruction); and that the goal of Christian parents is to raise up “godly seed” for the LORD.^[26]

We affirm that children are a blessing from God. We condemn the teaching and practice of abortion in any form, including abortion for incest or rape and abortion by chemicals or devices.

We hold that a man is to exercise godly dominion over the particular area of life to which God has called him:

1. Over his family, protecting them, providing for them, teaching and guiding them in the ways of God, and maintaining a haven of peace and order.
2. Over the rest of creation, as God has particularly called and enabled him, in church, community life, or civil government.

The wife is given dominion, under the authority of her husband, to be a keeper at home, bearing children, and instilling into them all the virtues and qualities of life, to be a helpmeet and support to her husband in his dominion calling, and to manage the home in a way that is orderly, peaceful, and blessed.^[27]

Diverse Congregation – We recognize that God saves people in various positions in life and has created a position for each person within the body of Christ. We expect this Church to consist of believers, as God brings them, that are young and old, rich and poor, male and female, and from different cultures. The church has a responsibility to minister to the unmarried, the married, the divorced, the widowed, the orphaned, and the adopted. Every believer has distinct needs and a necessary role within the body of Christ.^[28]

Age Integration – We believe that the Scriptures, through both teaching and example, establish that the church is one body, and ought not to divide its members. We hold that the worship service ought to include all ages. God has put the vigor of youth with the wisdom of the old in His church. Both need to interact with the other to build the maturity of the church.

Exhorting the Civil Government – As the church of Jesus Christ is the pillar and ground of the truth, this Church, as one of many households of faith in that body, has a duty to declare God’s definition of good and evil generally and on specific matters to the civil magistrate in a respectful yet authoritative manner.

Women in the Military – We believe that the Scriptures teach that women should not serve in combat and should not be subject to any conscription.^[29]

Leadership

Although we only have one elder at this time, we believe that the Bible teaches that it is best to have a plurality of elders.

Dan Horn is our current elder. He has written several books on theology including Sanctified by God: A Call to Keep the Christian Sabbath. He has been married to Kendra since 1988 and they have three children, Joshua, Rachel and Stephen. He has been the president of Datatek, Inc., a small software firm, since 1992.

Persecuting the Persecuted

In 2016, while on a mission trip to Nigeria, we were informed over a very tragic situation in the work of Voice of the Martyrs. Widows, orphans and persecution victims, who VOM was supposed to be helping, were instead being abused. Watch the video at our site Persecuting the Persecuted and sign our petition for VOM to investigate why this was allowed to go on.

Footnotes