What We Believe

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Our Faith

Doctrinal Statement of Faith

  • We believe in the inspired Word of God as originally given.  2Tim.3:16, 1Cor.2:13

  • We believe in the eternal Godhead who is revealed as on God, existing in three persons – the Father, the Son & the Holy Spirit.  Matt.3:16,17

  • We believe in the creation, the test & fall of man & his total spiritual depravity & inability to obtain divine righteousness. The book of Genesis, Rom. 5:12,18

  • We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of all mankind, conceived of the Holy Spirit & born of the virgin Mary. Luke 1:26-35, John 1:16, Isaiah 1:16, Rom.5:12,18

  • We believe Jesus died for our sins, was buried & rose from the grave on the third day & personally appeared to many disciples. 1Cor.5:1-4, Rom.9:16

  • We believe in the bodily ascension of Jesus to Heaven & the His literal bodily return to earth a second time for His Church. John 14:21-23, 1Thes.4:13-16

  • We believe in salvation of sinful mankind through faith in the perfect & sufficient work of the cross, by which remission of sin is obtained. We believe in the necessity of water baptism by immersion in water in the name of the eternal God in order to fulfill Christ’s command. Matt.28:19, 3:16,17, Acts 2:34-36, 19:1-6

  • We believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit as an experience after salvation [which can but not always display itself with the evidence of speaking in other tongues]. Acts 2:1-4, 8:14-17

  • We believe in the gifts of the Spirit. 1Cor.12-14, Rom.12:3-10, Eph.4:11

  • We believe in the Spirit-filled life, a life of separation from the world, perfecting holiness in the fear of God as an expression of our faith. Eph.5:16, 2Cor.6:14, 7:1

  • We believe in the divine healing of the human body. Acts 4:30, Rom.6:11, James 5:14

  • We believe in the Table of the Lord, also called Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper & that it is for believers. 1Cor.11:26-32

  • We believe in eternal life for all who believe – John 3:16, 5:24, - & eternal punishment for all unbelievers. Matt.25:41, Rev.20:10-15

 
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In addition to these basic fundamentals, we also believe that:

  • The role of women in leadership: We welcome and promote the role of women at every level of leadership.

  • We need a personal & passionate devotional life expressed in daily Bible reading & prayer. This applies to our corporate Christian life as well.

  • Government is ordained of God for our good & we are loyal to the power hat is consistent to our faith in the scriptures as Christian citizens. Rom.13

  • The Biblical form of Church Government is that of a senior Pastor & a plurality of elders & deacons with qualifications as found in 1Tim.3 & Titus 1:5-9

  • The local Church in its mature state is completely self-supporting, self-governing & self-propagating, looking to send missionaries around the world. The book of Acts.

  • every believer in Christ needs to be subject to God’s authority in a local Church for spiritual protection, spiritual growth & for long term fruitfulness. Heb.13:17

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Church Organization and Government:

Leadership

SOLMK embraces a threefold church government. We believe in the plurality of eldership, the primary leader, and partnership with an apostolic team. These three principles come from our understanding of New Testament leadership in the church and kingdom.

Plurality of Eldership

We practice plurality of elders recognizing it as the biblical model of church government. A team of elders, gifted in their callings and Christ-like in their character, were appointed to oversee the churches in the New Testament. This is the apostolic pattern we hold to. They are to be examples in their lives and doctrine as they lovingly lead the church over which Christ has made them overseers. This model we consider the most biblical and functional in church leadership. A team leadership brings unity, maturity, and accountability to the eldership and the church.

Primary Leader

We believe that every team functions best with a primary leader. In most churches this primary leader is the senior pastor. It is a model we see throughout the Bible of a “first among equals”. In the Old Testament we see David leading his mighty men, Moses leading the seventy elders, and Elijah leading the school of prophets. In the midst of a team God establishes a primary leader. The same pattern is found in the New Testament times in the Jewish synagogues. They were led by a council of elders and yet each one had a “ruler of the synagogue”.  Christ ordered leadership in His Church, choosing the twelve and yet ordaining Peter to a primary role. James is seen to be the leader in the Jerusalem church and Paul led his apostolic team. Timothy and Titus are also seen to have primary roles in leading and organizing the local churches that they respectively ministered in. This is the apparent biblical model of team ministry organized around a primary leader.  

Partnership with Apostolic Network

We believe in the principle of apostolic ministry. It is important to define what we mean by the use of the term apostolic ministry. There is a clear difference between the original twelve apostles who carried a unique authority in governing the Church and present day apostolic ministry. There are no present day apostles of the original order and yet the word apostle is used biblically and historically outside of the original twelve. The Bible is clear that the ascended Christ gave governmental gifts to the church, including apostles, which would remain until he returns. While these apostles help govern the church, they are not authoritative in the sense of the original apostles, who operated under an entirely unique authority to establish Scripture and the foundation of the Universal Church. Present day apostles operate “under” that authority not “as” that authority. Present day apostolic ministries are leaders sent by Christ to proclaim His gospel, and to plant, establish, and father local churches. They serve the church by ordaining and assisting elders, helping establish doctrine and direction, and strengthening and encouraging the saints in the knowledge of the Son of God. They labor for the purity, unity, and maturity of local churches. Apostolic teams serve the churches as fathers, with a primary role in the formative years developing into an advisory role with mature local churches. Grace Life Church has an apostolic team that oversees the local church and also provides leadership for our apostolic network.