What We Believe At Community of Joy

1. We believe in the one true and living God, eternally existing in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

2. We believe that God is the creator of all things. We believe that He creates for His glory and that redeeming His Church was His plan at the creation of the world.

3. We believe that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God. That He has existed since the beginning of time. That He was born of a virgin and that He walked the earth as fully God and fully man, choosing to limit some of His glorified attributes while on the earth. He died on the cross for our sins. He rose bodily from the dead, ascended into Heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. He is the only way to Heaven.

4. We believe that man was created in the image of God but fell into sin and therefore became depraved. Only through a commitment by faith to Jesus Christ, repentance from sin, acceptance of the free gift of salvation, and confession of that commitment and acceptance, can a man’s salvation be obtained. We believe that out of obedience, all true believers should be baptized according to the Biblical example of Jesus, but that baptism is NOT a matter of salvation. All believers must strive toward a life of sanctification, however, in this earthly life no one will ever fully attain to perfection thus grace and mercy are to be extended liberally to all believers as they individually struggle with the sins, difficulties, brokenness, appetites, fleshly desires, and circumstances of this earthly life.

5. We believe that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He equips the church and gives spiritual gifts of many kinds, accompanied with anointing and power, for carrying out its purpose. Through illumination He enables persons to be able to discern and understand truth. Through inspiration and repeated infilling, He guides and empowers believers to follow God’s will for their lives in agreement with the Bible.

6. We believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and is the authority for all matters of faith, doctrine, and Christian living.

7. We believe that God has established two forms of the Church. He has established His Kingdom Church which consists of all true believers throughout the world and He has established the local church which is the means of believers gathering together into a spiritual and physical community to fulfill the purposes for which they are called and assembled. The local church is intended to be rich in diversity and style and that God is pleased with many expressions of faith according to the Bible and its particular interpretation in matters of emphasis, ministry, or practice other than the core doctrines of salvation.

8. We believe that God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth, the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men and women in righteousness according to their beliefs and works. The unrighteous will have chosen themselves, by their rejection of Jesus Christ, to go to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous who have accepted the free gift of salvation, in their resurrected and glorified bodies, will receive their heavenly rewards, if any, based on their works, and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

9. We believe that the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things. There are many issues of the Christian life that are difficult to understand and that many brilliant and respected theologians differ widely as to their meaning and practice. We choose to NOT become entangled in divisive doctrines and Biblical interpretations, to share openly regarding differing points of view with the extension of grace and mercy over those differences, but to strive with a greater importance to encourage and protect the oneness, unity, and the joy of our community of believers in their relationships and in demonstrating love for one another.

10. We believe it is imperative that we as a community of believers remain fervent, overt, and steadfast in our support of Israel as God’s uniquely chosen people. That the church is to be supported by tithes and offerings given freely and without coercion or compulsion. That the preaching of the Bible is imperative for growth in godliness and faith, and that worship is a mandatory discipline of the expression of individual and corporate faith through joyous and exuberant praise and mellow contemplation wherein God meets believers at a deeply emotional and spiritual inner level for spiritual growth, comfort, healing, and empowering to live a successful Christian life.