Our beliefs
These points summarize the center of the Christian faith and are meant to focus the church on what is most important and keep us from error.
We believe:
The Bible to be the inspired Word of God, complete and without error in the original autographs.
In one God, existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-equal in every way.
Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, that He is divine and sinless; that He died vicariously, atoning for our sins; that He rose bodily, ascended to heaven, and is imminently and personally coming again.
The divine Holy Spirit convicts, convinces, and converts the believer, and that He seals, indwells, fills, motivates, teaches, and comforts the believer.
God created man in a sinless state, but man fell when he chose to disobey God. As a consequence, every man is born a sinner by nature and is totally depraved, unable to save himself from hell. Only by faith alone in the shed blood of Christ, can man find forgiveness of sin and a home in heaven.
The local church to be independent and autonomous; we practice two ordinances: Believer's Baptism by immersion (see below for more on Believer's Baptism) and the Lord's Table.
Membership
A church member is a baptized Christian who has covenanted with other baptized Christians at MVBC to live out the Christian life individually and corporately as outlined in Scripture.
The New Testament teaches that believers are united in Christ because of Christ’s saving work on our behalf. Church membership makes this uniting in Christ public and official in a local place. Members covenant with one another because of the gospel and for the gospel.
Membership is less a commitment to an institution and more a commitment to a people who have been united in Christ.