Statement of Faith
We preach and teach the following confession of faith:
1. We believe in one God, infinitely perfect, Creator, Sustainer and Lord of all things; existing eternally in the Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2. We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He died on the cross, the just for the unjust, as our substitutionary sacrifice, and all who believe in Him are justified on the grounds of His shed blood. He arose from the dead according to the Scriptures. He is now at the right hand of God the Father as our great High Priest. He will come again to establish His kingdom of righteousness and peace.
3. We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, sent to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, and during this age to convict the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment; to regenerate the believing sinner, indwell, guide, instruct and empower the believer for godly living and service.
4. We believe that all Scripture is inspired by God, infallibly reveals the complete revelation of God’s will for the salvation of man, and forms the final and divine authority for Christian life and faith.
5. We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God; he fell through disobedience, incurring thereby both physical and spiritual death. All men are born with a sinful nature, are separated from the life of God, and can be saved only through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
6. We believe that salvation has been provided through Jesus Christ for all men, and those who repent and believe in Him are born again of the Holy Spirit, receive the gift of eternal life and become the children of God.
7. We believe it is the will of God that each believer should continually be filled with the Holy Spirit and be sanctified wholly, being separated from sin and the world, and fully dedicated to the will of God, thereby receiving power for holy living and effective service, evidencing the gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is both a crisis and progressive experience wrought in the life of the believer at and subsequent toconversion.
8. We believe that provision is made in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ for both physical and spiritual healing.
9. We believe that the Church consists of all those and only those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are redeemed through His blood and are born again of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church,which has been commissioned by Him to go into all the world as a witness, preaching the Gospel to all nations.
10. The local church is a body of believers in Christ who are joined together for the worship of God, for edification through the Word of God and through the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit, for prayer, for fellowship, for proclamation of the Gospel and for observances of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
11. We believe that the blessed hope that is ours is that Christ will come again to receive us unto Himself and to judge the world in righteousness. There will be a bodily resurrection of the just and of the unjust; for the former, a resurrection unto eternal life; for the latter, a resurrection unto eternal punishment.
Our Core Values
THE WORD
The Scriptures are taught with a practical bent for everyday life application. This includes personal study, small groups, dynamic Christian education and the public teaching and preaching of the Scriptures.(Matthew 7:24-27, II Timothy 3:16, Joshua 1:8, Deuteronomy 11:19).
PRAYER
Recognizing that all aspects of church life begin with hearing God the Father through the Holy Spirit, every ministry is to be prayed into being through to completion; every member will be encouraged to be growing in their personal prayer life. (Ephesians 6:18- 20, Philippians 1:4, 4:6, Colossians 1:9-14).
SERVICE
All members of the Body of Christ are gifted by the Holy Spirit for the building up of the church and are encouraged to do so. We want to involve as many people as possible in fulfillment of gifted- ness and fruitfulness in ministry. (Hebrews 10:24, Ephesians 4:1-16, I Corinthians 12: 1-31).
COMMUNITY
From the youngest to the oldest, belonging to CCLF means being loved, served, celebrated and involved. As Jesus called us to love one another, we want to build and guard relationships as we grow together in love and unity in Christ. (Romans 12:9-18, Hebrews 10:24-25, Philippians 2:1-5a, I Corinthians 13:4-7, Hebrews 13:1-3).
SERVANT LEADERSHIP
In all aspects, the church is led by congregationally affirmed pastor (s), elders and other leaders supporting people in ministry according to their gifts. (Ephesians 4:1-16, Hebrews 13:17, Romans 12:3-8,I Timothy 3:1-10).
LIFE GROUPS
In order to give and to receive ministry in a safe atmosphere of accountability and community, we encourage and expect every member to be involved in a type of a life group.(Mark 3:14, Acts 2:42-47, 20:20, Romans 12:10, 15:14, Matthew 18:15-20).
STRENGTHENING FAMILIES
We desire to be supporting and building marriages and families, recognizing that strong families are foundational to God’s plan for society. (Genesis 1:28, Ephesians 3:15, 5:22—6:4 Deuteronomy 11:18-20, Malachi 2:6).
A BRIDGE IN THE GREATER COMMUNITY OF FAITH
The church desires to make every effort to maintain Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace among as many believers as possible, knowing that our love for Christ and each other must outweigh our differences in answer to Jesus’ high priestly prayer. In addition, we want to network with the greater Body of Christ for further teaching and inspiration.(John 17:20-26, Philippians 1:18, Ephesians 4:3, Hebrews 12:14, Romans 12:18).
A MISSIONAL COMMUNITY
The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) specifically calls us to “go and make disciples of all nations.” As a result of this we seek to partner with local churches and ministries both at home and around the world to seek, serve, teach and disciple people through short, medium and long-term missions opportunities. Our aim is to extend missions beyond a single trip, project, or country into a cul- ture of missional people, walking out the Great Commission.Partnering With Israel…Because we clearly see that the Body of Christ/Messiah must include the Messianic Jewish believers as well as the Gentile believers in the nations, we endeavour to bless Israel both materially (Romans 15:27) and spiritually (Romans 9-11, Ephesians 2:11-22) by supporting the ministries of Messianic believers in Israel. By doing this, we see we are hastening the day of the return of the Messiah Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:11) and are doing our part in fulfilling His desire that we worship as one new man, both Jew and Gentile together. We need them; they need us. (Romans 11).
PURPOSEFUL LIVING
We believe that God has a purpose for us as individuals and also as a corporate body, where together we move forward in obedience to God. This means going beyond mere Sunday morning church attendance, or religious observances, into the exciting realm of daily watching what the Father is doing and joining Him in it. We believe we need to actually portray the love of Christ in all aspects of our lives. (Isaiah 26:8, Acts 2:2, Romans 12:1-2, John 14:12, I Samuel 15:22, Mark 16:17, Acts 4:31-35, The Book of James).