Our Beliefs
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Church membership is a three fold commitment, and members live in the overlap of those commitments.
1. TO JESUS: I believe in Jesus. I am pursuing Jesus and striving for a heart centered on the gospel. I’m submitting to the Scriptures and believe sound doctrine.
2. TO THE CHURCH LEADERSHIP: I support the mission, vision, values of the church. I’m joyfully placing my life under the pastors of the church.
3. TO THE CHURCH BODY: I belong to a body, I’m connected to a group, serving the bride to help her flourish. Just like in a wedding, you marry or become a member of a church in the moment the commitment to Jesus, to a body, and to its leaders are formalized.
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Baptism is a church’s act of affirming and portraying a believer’s union with Christ by immersing him or her in water. This is the believer’s act of publicly committing themself to Christ and his people, thereby uniting a believer to the church and setting them on a pathway of discipleship to become a fully devoted disciple of Jesus Christ.
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The FBCVA Covenant is rooted in our love for the church body and its individual members.
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In accordance with the description and work of deacons, as described in the New Testament, it shall be the mission of the deacon ministry of First Baptist Church Van Alstyne to humbly serve the body of Christ by assisting and supporting the pastor and staff in the performance of their ministerial duties as they lead the congregation on a life-transforming journey to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
The deacons will strive to preserve unity within the church, act as ministry consultants and spiritual advisers, and minister to the church and community through acts of service. This will be demonstrated by Christ-like consecration, loyalty, prayer support, and faithfulness to the local church program.
We affirm the Holy Bible as God's inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word and the basis for our beliefs. In one hand, we hold some things in a tight fist to protect their purity; on the other, we hold some things in an open palm to signify freedom and harmony. Liberal theology is all open-handed, compromising any doctrine for the sake of unity. Fundamentalist theology is all close-handed, compromising unity for the sake of unessential doctrines. We labor to grow in the whole counsel of the Word of God, and we will fight vigorously for essential doctrines and agreeably disagree on non-essential doctrines.
We affirm the doctrinal statement of The Baptist Faith and Message as adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000.