the 8 "G's"

Christ followers understand and have individually received Christ’s saving grace. They have abandoned all attempts to earn God’s favor through accomplishments of their own and find security only through Christ’s sacrificial death on their behalf.

In obedience to Christ’s command, they have undergone water baptism as believers, giving outward witness to the inner cleansing and renewal experienced in Him.

Christ followers accept all 66 books of the Bible as the actual and literal word of God as given by Him through the prophets. They rely on its accuracy and will seek to abide by all that is written in it. The Bible will always overrule human reasoning and will be the standard by which all other teachings or “so-called truth” are measured.

Devoted followers of Christ will also study the Bible and become grounded is all aspects of the Christian faith so as to recognize and refute false doctrines.

Christ-followers know the grace of God that saved them is only the beginning of His work in them. They gratefully respond by actively pursuing a lifelong process of spiritual growth in Christ and seek to become conformed to His image. To this end, they consistently nurture their spiritual development through prayer, worship, and Bible study.

They regard the Bible as the final authority in all areas that it teaches about and desire to be wholly obedient to it. Christ-followers honestly confront areas of personal sin and engage the Holy Spirit’s power in seeking to turn from sin.

Christ followers are committed to being conformed to the image of Christ and developing godly characteristics in their thoughts, actions, words, and relationships. They are under the control of the Holy Spirit and subject themselves to the Spirit’s promptings, being quick to flee from temptation or anything that is dishonoring to God.

As Christ followers seek to be Christ-like in all their behavior, they will respond in a positive way when confronted by others regarding areas of their lives that do not demonstrate godly character. They will seek help and support from their Life Group members or other trusted Christians to be accountable in areas of concern.

Followers of Christ realize that they have been bought with the price of Christ’s blood, and that everything they are and have belongs to Him.

In light of this, they desire to be responsible caretakers of the material resources that God has entrusted to them. They recognize the tithe (10% of one’s earnings) as the historic standard of giving in Scripture. But moreover, in response to Christ’s abundant giving, they increasingly submit to His Lordship and display a spirit of generosity and cheerfulness in supporting the work of the church.

A Christ follower honors God’s call to participate, to express and receive love, and to carry out the ministry of the church in order to grow closer to the image of Christ.

For this reason, Christ followers give priority to attending the corporate gatherings of the church for the purpose of worship, teaching, and participation in the sacrament of Communion, and are connected relationally to a small group of believers for the purpose of mutual encouragement, support, and accountability.

One of the core values of the New Testament and of Heritage is that the members of the body are the ministers. Practically speaking, the church cannot grow in a healthy fashion unless all of its core believers are sharing the ministry load. So, we ask all participating members to contribute to the body by using their gifts in some place of service. At the same time, we recognize that demanding seasons of life or other unusual circumstances may require reducing the amount of involvement or taking a “break” for a period of time. But, in any case, it should be their desire or intention to re-engage in some level of service – even if only on a periodic basis (e.g., children’s Sunday School, help during special events such as our All Community Sunday, our Christmas program, etc.)

Christ followers realize that they have been commissioned by the Lord Himself to spread the Good News of Jesus and His death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. Each follower has the responsibility to pray for lost people, reach out to them, and then share a verbal witness of what Christ has done.

We are well aware of the lack of Christian witnessing that goes on in the church at large, so we have created an environment that is conducive to allowing spiritual seekers to come and investigate the claims of Christ at their own pace. Each Christ follower plays an important part in our strategy to win pre-Christians to Christ. By serving during our services and inviting friends, neighbors, co-workers and family members, the members of our church “team up” to spread the Gospel.