What we believe

We believe the Bible is God's word given by divine inspiration. It is how God has revealed himself to humanity. It is without error, trustworthy, and the supreme authority by which we all ought to live our lives. The Bible is how God brings people to believe in Christ and how he matures believers during their liftime. 

We believe in one living and true God, perfect in wisdom, sovereignty, holiness, justice, mercy and love.        He exists eternally in three coequal persons (Father, Son, and Spirit) who act together in creation, providence, and redemption.

The Father reigns with providential care over all life and history in the created universe; He hears and answers prayer. He initiated salvation by sending His Son, and He is Father to those who by faith accept His Son as Lord and Savior.

The Son became man, Jesus Christ, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Being fully God and fully man, He revealed God through His sinless life, miracles, and teaching. He provided salvation through His atoning death in our place and by His bodily resurrection. He ascended into heaven where He rules over all creation. He intercedes for all believers and dwells in them as their ever-present Lord.

The Holy Spirit inspired men to write the Scriptures. Through this Word, He convicts individuals of their sinfulness and of the righteousness of Christ, draws them to the Savior, and bears witness to their new birth. At regeneration and conversion, the believer is baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit indwells, seals, and gives spiritual gifts to all believers for ministry in the church and society. He empowers, guides, teaches, fills, sanctifies and produces the fruit of Christlikeness in all who yield to Him.

We believe God created mankind (male and female) in His own image to have fellowship with Himself and to be steward over His creation. As a result, each person is unique, possesses dignity and is worthy of respect. Through the temptation of Satan, Adam chose to disobey God; this brought sin and death to the human race and suffering to all creation. Therefore, everyone is born with a sinful nature and needs to be reconciled to God. Satan tempts people to rebel against God, even those who love Him. Nonetheless, everyone is personally responsible to God for his thoughts, actions and beliefs and has the right to approach Him directly through Jesus Christ, the only mediator.

We believe salvation is redemption by Christ of the whole person from sin and death. It is offered as a free gift by God to all and must be received personally through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. An individual is united to Christ by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. As a child of God, the believer is acquitted of all guilt and brought into a new relationship of peace.

We believe the Church is the body of which Christ is the head and all who believe in Him are members. The purpose of the local church is for Christians to receive mutual encouragement and growth in discipleship through worship, nurture, service, and the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. We believe Christians, individually and collectively, are salt and light in society. In a Christlike spirit, they oppose greed, selfishness and vice; they promote truth, justice and peace; they aid the needy and preserve the dignity of all people.

Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of the Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Lord's Supper (Communion) is the partaking of the bread and of the cup by believers together as a memorial of the broken body and shed blood of Christ. It is an act of thankful dedication to Him and serves to unite His people until He returns. Ascend observes communion on the first Sunday of every month. 

The family is the basic unit of society and we seek to preserve its integrity and stability. Marriage is between one man and one woman only. All human life is sacred. The sanctity of human life begins at conception.

We believe God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring all things to their appropriate end and establish the new heaven and new earth.     The certain hope of the Christian is that Jesus will return to the earth suddenly, personally, and visibly in glory according to His promise. The dead will be raised, and Christ will judge mankind in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to the everlasting punishment prepared for the devil and his angels. The righteous, in their resurrected and glorified bodies, will receive their reward and dwell forever with the Lord.