GIVE

Our Purpose and Beliefs

Our Purpose

Salem Church is called to love God and others.  We are a community living in the abundance found in Jesus Christ, and we share this abundant life with those in our region and beyond.  Salem seeks to reach and help people by teaching the word of God, building community, mobilizing people for ministries of evangelism and compassion, and by celebrating the love and power of God in worship.  Through the Gospel, lives are transformed.

Our Beliefs

The Bible
Scripture is God’s Word, without error in the original languages, and relevant for all of life. God’s Word establishes the principles for all we do. God’s Word reveals the nature of the covenants He establishes with humanity.  God’s Word is the source of all we teach and affirm. While the Bible is the only text without error, we hold to the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechisms as succinct expositions of what the Bible teaches.

Authentic Relationships
We are called to authentic, covenant relationships with God and those who are part of the church community. A relationship with God through Christ is the basis for wholeness in all other relationships. Relationships with one another that provide community and accountability are meant to build the church and each other.

Outreach
With grace and truth we love and engage people where they are as a witness to Christ. Each person is made in the image of God and thus has eternal value. But due to the reality of sin and brokenness, he or she needs the restoration and transformation found only through the Gospel.

Mercy Ministry
We desire to be neighbors to people in need, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.  We are called to willing, sacrificial service because of Christ’s mercy to us. We aim to meet the needs of the hurting, downtrodden or forgotten through word and deed ministry.

Prayer / Worship
Our dependence upon God is demonstrated by personal and corporate prayer and worship. All of life is to be an offering to God. We also are called to special times of corporate worship on the Lord’s day. Every ministry should be established and continued with prayer.
 
Discipleship / Leadership
Building people is more important than building the program. We are dedicated to developing every believer as a minister led by the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus. Many of these followers of Jesus will be developed as servant-leaders who will develop others.

Kingdom Focus
We have a wide view of the Kingdom of God in all of its diversity. We maintain an outward focus on building the kingdom, not only our church or denomination. We are called to engage our culture to work for reconciliation, justice and the advance of the Kingdom of God. We will work to fulfill the Great Commission by participating in church planting in various cultures and ethnic groups. We recognize that encouraging and assisting the work of the Gospel worldwide is a part of our responsibility.

As a member of the Presbyterian Church in America, Salem Church upholds the following:

  1. The Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
  2. There is one God, eternal and self-existing in three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) who are to be equally loved, honored, and adored.
  3. All mankind participated in Adam’s fall from his original sinless state and is thus lost in sin and totally helpless.
  4. The Sovereign God, for no other reason than His own unfathomable love and mercy, has chosen lost sinners from every nation to be redeemed by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit and through the atoning death and resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ.
  5. Those sinners whom the Spirit quickens come to believe in Christ as Savior by the Word of God, are born again, become sons of God, and will persevere to the end.
  6. Justification is by faith, and through it the undeserving sinner is clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
  7. The goal of God’s salvation in the life of the Christian is holiness, good works, and service for the glory of God.
  8. At death the Christian’s soul passes immediately into the presence of God, and the unbeliever’s soul is eternally separated from God unto condemnation.
  9. Baptism is a sign of God’s covenant and is properly administered to children of believers in their infancy, as well as to those who come as adults to trust in Christ.
  10. Jesus Christ will return to earth, visibly and bodily, at a time when He is not expected, to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.
  11. The Gospel of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ must be published to all the world as a witness before Jesus Christ returns.

For additional information on our beliefs, please click here: https://pcanet.org/about-the-pca-2-2-2/
For additional information on the vision of the Presbyterian Church in America, please click here: https://pcanet.org/about-the-pca-2-2/