We are an independent chapel, in the evangelical tradition. We are a new congregation, and not yet formally affiliated with any other denomination or association.
However, our chapel is led by Luke Hughes-Bunger, a Community Chaplain serving our community under The Fellowship, a national movement of more than 500 Evangelical Baptist churches in Canada, and a licensed and credentialed minister through their regional partners Fellowship Pacific. Therefore, in our theology and practice are in close alignment with The Fellowship, and our Chaplain wholeheartedly affirms their respective Affirmation of Faith, and Belief Statement, which also form the basis of our own essential beliefs, articulated below.
About the Bible
We believe the Bible to be the inspired, and complete Word of God; that the sixty-six books, as originally written, comprising the Old and New Testaments were verbally inspired by the Spirit of God. We hold that, in their autographs, they were entirely free from error, and have, by divine providence, been reliably preserved such that we can be confident that no essential doctrine, teaching, or revelation contained within its pages has been lost, corrupted, or otherwise distorted. We can have confidence that a person can truly know the very Words of God by reading its pages; we hold that the Bible is absolutely truthful and reliable in all that it affirms, and that while it does not contain all that is knowable, there is nothing that is essential for faith or binding on believers that is not contained within it, nor that there is, or ever will be, any additional revelation or special knowledge given that supersedes or adds those matters upon which it speaks in any way that would be considered binding upon believers; As such, it forms our final authority in all matters of faith and practice and the true basis of Christian union.
About God
We believe that there is only one true God, Creator of all, holy, sovereign, eternal. We believe this God has revealed himself to mankind throughout history, through personal revelation, divine encounter, and in covenant relationship. We believe that, supremely, he has revealed himself through inspired scripture, that He defines Himself as truth, and that, though he himself is above and beyond our ability to fully comprehend, and cannot be fully described using human language, or understood by human intellect, He has nonetheless expressed his essential, unchanging nature nature within the pages of scripture, and will never contradict that nature. We believe that this one being of God has eternally existing in three distinct, and unique yet equal Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, each of whom are fully God.
About the Father
We believe God the Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of human history according to His purpose and grace. All glory goes to Him. He is the ruler over all things, who reveals himself as both a loving father to his creation, and righteous judge, He is the God who covenants with his creation, establishing his righteous standard, while upholding His faithful promise, even in the face of human disobedience. He is patient and long-suffering with his creation, slow to anger, but abounding in steadfast love.
About the Son
We believe in the absolute and essential deity of the Son. We believe in His eternal existence as the eternal Son, who existed with the Father in pre-incarnate glory. We believe that through him all things were made, and without him nothing was made that has been made. We believe that in him all things hold together, and that he, alone, gives true purpose and hope to humanity. We believe in His virgin birth — that at a certain point in time, the eternal Son enters into his creation, and, in the man Jesus Christ, he willingly steps into time and space, adding to his divinity, humanity. We believe that in His humanity, He lived a perfect, sinless life, and willingly died substitutionary death, taking upon himself the punishment for sin due to those He has made His own. We believe in His bodily resurrection, triumphant ascension, mediatorial ministry and imminent, personal return.
About the Spirit.
We believe in the absolute and essential deity and personality of the Holy Spirit. He hovered over the waters of creation, and represents the active and present power of God throughout history, as God interacts with his creation. He convinces mankind of sin and , revealing righteousness, and allows individuals to understand God’s nature and character; He, alone enables individuals to respond to the message of the Gospel, softening their heart, and renewing their mind, such that they can believe in, and respond to Jesus’ atoning sacrifice; Subsequent to salvation, he sustains the process of spiritual growth as he regenerates, sanctifies, illuminates and comforts those who believe in Jesus Christ. We believe that He is the promised gift, and apportions to each believer, according to God’s perfect will, individual and specific spiritual gifts, for the purpose of faithful service, gospel ministry, and edifying the body of Christ.
About the Devil, or Satan.
We believe that there is an actual, specific being who exists as an evil personality, the originator of sin, and the archenemy of God and man. This entity may be called The Devil or Satan. We hold that he is a created spiritual being, who, though possessing some measure of power, and limited authority upon the earth, is not in any way an equal-and-opposite force to God, and is not alike God in power, strength, rule, authority, or autonomy. He is a wholly defeated foe, having been disarmed and put to open shame by Jesus on the cross. We hold that he awaits the final judgement where he will be cast into the lake of fire, along with the demonic spiritual forces who work alongside him, and, though he continues to oppose God and his people until that day, his power and authority is constrained only to that which God permits.
About Humanity
We believe that man was divinely created in the image of God, perfect and holy. We believe that humans were created as male, and female, entirely and wholly equal in essential worth and value, as the pinnacle of his beloved creation, and yet unique and different in role and responsibility. We believe that that through disobedience, man sinned, becoming guilty before God, We hold that scripture teaches that all of creation is marred by the results of sin, and that by nature and by choice, each human being wilfully participates in that ongoing disobedience, resulting in total depravity, thereby rightly earning the just punishment for sin; physical and spiritual death.
About Salvation
We believe that salvation is by the sovereign, electing grace of God, not a work of man, that none should boast, but an entirely free and unmerited gift of God. We hold that that by the appointment of the Father, Christ voluntarily suffered a vicarious, expiatory and propitiatory death, living the perfect, holy life we cannot live for ourselves, and willingly himself taking the punishment for sin due to men and women, paying in full the penalty for sin of all who will believe. We believe that justification is by faith alone in the all-sufficient sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and that those whom God has effectually called shall be divinely preserved and finally perfected in the image of the Lord.
About Eternity
We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ; We believe that he will, one day, return to judge the living and the dead, to redeem and restore his creation, and that he will return as a conquering king, to rule and reign over all things. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, and that all shall be judged — those who have accepted Christ’s vicarious sacrifice according to his righteousness, and those who have rejected it according to their own words and deeds. We believe that the redeemed shall be raised to eternal blessedness, while the unregenerate will face the just and deserved judgment and punishment for their sin — eternal separation from God’s loving presence, as they are confronted with their own wickedness, and subjected to His his holy wrath.
About the Local Church
We believe that a Church is made up of all believers, redeemed by. Christ, and called out from the world and separated unto the Lord Jesus. We believe that local expressions of this global, universal body is found wherever individual groups of believers freely and voluntarily associate and gather for for the ministry of the Word, the mutual edification of its members, the propagation of the faith and the observance of the ordinances, united by shared vision and values, and working together towards a common calling. We believe it is a sovereign, independent body, exercising its own divinely awarded gifts, precepts and privileges under the Lordship of Christ, the Great Head of the church. We do not believe that the existence of separate and autonomous congregations of believers in any way undermines the ultimate unity of the Church, nor that genuine unity of faith necessarily demands uniformity of practice, call, mission, or ministry methods. We believe that the church has only two officers, being Elders (also called pastors, overseers, presbyters, etc) and deacons, with clear biblically defined qualifications. Thus we affirm that the responsibility for spiritual leadership and shepherding the local church is vested in men, properly and biblically qualified, called by the Lord, and duly discerned and appointed by the local church as elders.
About Ordinances
We believe that there are only two ordinances for the church that are prescribed, and regularly observed in the New Testament in the following order:
- Baptism, which is the immersion of the believer in water, whereby he obeys Christ’s command and sets forth his identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.
- The Lord’s Supper, which is the memorial wherein the believer partakes of the two elements, bread and wine, which symbolize the Lord’s body and shed blood, proclaiming His death until He comes.
We believe that both are ordinances — which is to say wholly symbolic representations and reflections of deeper spiritual truths, ordained by Christ — rather than sacraments. We therefore reject any formulation of baptism or the Lords Supper teach either is a means by which any grace is imparted. We believe both can only meaningfully be partaken by sincere believers, as a faithful and obedient response to the Lord’s work in their hearts and lives, we also hold that mere participation in these symbolic acts does not in-and-of themselves change a person’s status before God, imply any efficacious or salvific power, or impart any additional grace beyond that which Christ himself provided through the Cross. We likewise affirm that a person can be genuinely and sincerely saved apart from ever being baptized, nor receiving The Lord’s Supper — though we hold that both should usually be expected proceed from a genuine salvation experience.
About Church, State, Civil Government, and Religious Liberty
We believe in the entire separation of church and state. We affirm that, as Christians, we are to be model citizens of our nation, insofar as the demands of the state do not contradict the direct commands of scripture. We recognize that civil rulers and authorities — even wicked regimes — are appointed by God. We believe we are to pray for civil leaders, and those in authority, and specifically that they may allow us to live peaceably. We believe that in our society, it is not the role of civil authorities to make any law for establishing any religion, imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
Likewise, we believe Christians should be free practice our faith according to our own convictions, and in line with scripture. However, we also recognize that this same privilege must also be afforded to those of other faiths, or none, and that each man has the right to practice and propagate his own beliefs.
While we wholeheartedly affirm the truth of scripture — that salvation is found in Christ alone, and no other road ultimately leads to eternal life — we also understand that we can not ultimately legislate anyone into faith, and that sinful people have the freedom to choose sinful paths that lead to destruction. The role of the church is therefore to present a tangible, credible alternative, and to faithfully represent Christ compellingly to the world, living out the historic, Christian faith authentically, and sharing the good news of the Gospel openly, allowing others to choose for themselves how they will live. and that this, our primary call, does not change with the prevailing whims of society or culture.
About the Lord’s Day
We believe that, in line with New Testament practice, the first day of the week, Sunday, has historically been set aside as the Lord’s day and that, in a special sense, it is the divinely appointed day for worship and spiritual exercise. We recognize that elements of this are also mirrored in the Old Testament principle of Sabbath rest, and that, at various times, even in the New Testament, Christians have chosen to worship on the Sabbath. However we note that Acts 20:7, and 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 both establish gathering on the first day as the normative pattern for Christian worship, teaching, fellowship, corporate prayer, and the breaking of bread, and we choose to observe these things on Sunday, yet without making any judgement upon those who meet on other days, nor forbidding or precluding our congregation from doing so, should situations arise which warrant it.