We are a Baptist congregation faithfully serving the community of Waycross, GA, by seeking to live out the call of Jesus by seeking to be fully formed followers of Christ together as a
​Family of Faith. 
​We are an imperfect people being perfected & transformed by God's perfect love & grace. 
​Come, join us on the journey

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WHAT WE BELIEVE:

We Believe we are forgiven of past mistakes and failures and promised new life with God through the grace of Jesus Christ.
We Value the Bible as the foundation for everything we do.
We Affirm that every person has direct access to God through prayer and is called and gifted by God for ministry.
We Commit our lives to the authentic worship of God, the path of humble discipleship and the task of giving away the love of God to our world.
 
OUR BELIEFS…
THE SCRIPTURES
The Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is the record of Gods revelation of Himself to humanity; it is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth for its substance. It reveals the principles by which God desires us to live and defines both the ethic and point of view through which we view our world and conduct our lives both privately and publicly.
 
GOD
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. To God we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience.
The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
God reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all loving, and all wise. God is revealed in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
 
JESUS
Jesus is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation, Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself the demands and necessities of human nature and identifying Himself completely with His humanity and yet remained without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of all from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, partaking of the nature of God and of man, and in whose being is the way to/for reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to fulfill His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever-present Lord.
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. Through illumination The Spirit enables humanity to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin and bears witness to the standard of righteousness and  judgment. He calls all to the Savior and awakens the hearts of His children to salvation.
The Holy Spirit cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the "spiritual gifts" by which those believers serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the assurance of God to bring the believer into the fullness of a relationship with Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
 
HUMANITY
We, humanity, were created by the special act of God in His own image, and we are  the crowning work of His creation.  Thus, God created man and woman in His own image.  In the beginning we were innocent of sin and were endowed by the Creator with freedom of choice. By free choice we sinned against God and brought sin into humanity. Through the temptation of Satan, we transgressed the command of God and therefore have fallen from original innocence; inheriting a nature and an environment inclined toward sin.  As soon as we are capable of moral action we become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring us into His holy fellowship and enable us to fulfill His creative purpose. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created us in His own image, and in that Christ died for us; therefore, we all possesses dignity and are worthy of respect and Christian love.
 
SALVATION
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
A. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.
Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Savior.
B. Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal, upon principles of His righteousness, of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.
C. Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life.
D. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.
-Adapted from 1925, 1962, & 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.
 
AS BAPTISTS…
We believe in and encourage:
Bible Freedom:  We believe and encourage Bible Freedom as the historic Baptist affirmation that the Bible, under the Lordship of Christ, must be central in the life of the individual and church and that Christians, in response to the work of the Holy Spirit and with the best and most scholarly tools of inquiry, are both free and obligated to study, discern, and obey the Scripture both as individual followers of Christ and as a Family of Faith.
Soul Freedom:  We believe Soul Freedom is the historic Baptist affirmation of the inalienable right and responsibility of every person to relate with and to God without the imposition of creed, the imposition of clergy as sole interpreters, or the intervention of civil government.  We hold the scriptures as our final authority and instructor of our souls when discerned and interpreted within the context of a relationship with Christ and revealed by the Holy Spirit at work within us.
Church Freedom:  We believe Church Freedom is the historic Baptist affirmation that local churches are free, under the Lordship of Christ, to determine their membership and leadership, to order their worship and work, to ordain whom they perceive as gifted for ministry, and to participate in the larger Body of Christ, of whose unity and mission Baptists are proudly a part.
Religious Freedom:  We believe Religious Freedom is the historic Baptist affirmation of freedom OF religion, freedom FOR religion, and freedom FROM religion, insisting that Caesar is not Christ and Christ is not Caesar.
-Adapted from Walter B. Shurden’s The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms.

HISTORICALLY BAPTISTS ARE:
·         Members of the whole Christian family who stress the experience of personal salvation through faith in Jesus, symbolized both in believer’s baptism by immersion and the Lord’s supper as outward acts of worship reflecting inward commitments to the Lordship of Christ;
 
·         Those who under the Lordship of Jesus Christ have bonded together in free local congregations, together seeking to obey Christ in faith and in life;
 
·         Those who follow the authority of Scriptures in all matters of faith and practice;
 
·         Those who have claimed religious liberty for themselves and all people;
 
·         Those who believe that the Great Commission to take the Gospel to the whole world is the responsibility of the whole membership.
-Taken from William H. Brackney, ed. Faith, Life, and Witness:  The Papers of the Study Research Division of the Baptist World Alliance, 1986-1990