Our Mission Statement

We courageously pursue relationships with our Creator, our church family, and the communities we serve. But, first, we desire to deepen our spiritual intimacy with God, our Father, serve Him faithfully, obey Him wholeheartedly, and aspire to love Him supremely.

Second, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we desire to edify the body by confessing our faults, comforting the heartbroken, advising those without direction, and otherwise loving one another genuinely. We also want to equip the body with discipleship, service, prayer, and preaching the trustworthy Word of God.

Third, we hope to reach out to our neighbors by feeding them, clothing them, encouraging them, leading them to Jesus Christ, and otherwise loving them as we do ourselves.

Short Creek Church is an independent, non-denominational, local body of believers committed to addressing our communities’ issues and the plagues of our society.

 

STATEMENTS OF FAITH

Lovingly loyal to truth above tradition, we cast off the burden of man’s customs in exchange for the better yoke of Jesus’ law of love.

 Asking our Father for revelation, we courageously search the Scripture to expand our understanding of His truth to clarify church doctrine.

 We believe the Bible is emphatically the inspired, infallible Word of God and accept it in its entirety.

 We are committed to fulfilling the objectives of our Lord as found in the Summation of the Law (Matthew 22:37-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).

 We believe a strong church is a spiritually well-fed church; consequently, we emphasize the study of God’s Word in each of our services as well as in our homes.

We treat our spiritual brothers and sisters as extended family members. Therefore, we are responsible for one another’s welfare. We identify with and empathize with one another.

Our chief longing is to know Christ and conform to His image by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We are not a denominational church, but we are not opposed to denominations per se. At the same time, we are against the denominational over-emphasis of doctrinal differences that have generated discord in the Body of Christ.

We model our church government after the Old Testament theocratic form under God. For example, God called Moses to lead His chosen people, Israel. However, Moses appointed elders to help carry the responsibility of caring for the needs of the people. Later the synagogue system observed a similar pattern of government that eventually became the model for church government.

Church government is simple, not a complex bureaucracy of committees and sub-committees. We believe Christ is the Head of every local Christian church, but God holds the pastor of every local Christian assembly accountable to shepherd His sheep. The pastor must listen to the Spirit’s voice to faithfully feed and love God’s people.

When a congregation increases in size, the church government should appoint more elders. These elders help the pastor care for the congregation’s spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. These elders also pray with and for the pastor and provide counsel as needed.

Jesus said in John chapter 15 that if we abide in Him and His Words dwell in us, our lives will be fruitful, joyous, and overflowing with His unconditional love, which this world so desperately needs.

Most of the issues in our community emanate from the epidemic of addiction. When Jesus references “the least of these” in Scripture, He means the addict, the alcoholic, the widow, the fatherless, the motherless, and the families in our communities that addiction has ravaged. Therefore, we graciously and boldly accept the commission of Christ to minister to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the defenseless and destitute in our communities.

Pastor Ron Green

 

Doctrinal Beliefs

• We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the inerrant, inspired, and infallible Word of God. Therefore, the final authority for faith and life is God’s Word.
• We believe in the literal account of creation as recorded in Genesis chapters one through three. Moreover, we reject any idea or theory of evolution, including theistic evolution.
• We believe in the traditional biblical model for marriage and the family.
• We believe there is only one God, and He has chosen to reveal Himself as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
• We believe God created man in His image, and the sin of Adam (the first man) marred that image, making an eternal divide between God and man. Therefore, every person is born in sin.
• We believe the only way a person can have a proper, forgiven relationship with God is through personal belief in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
• We Believe the Holy Spirit conceived Jesus, and the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus. In short, Jesus became man without ceasing to be God. His literal, physical resurrection ensures our right standing with God.
• We believe in the literal, physical return of Jesus to judge the living and the dead. 
• We believe God offers eternal life, a free gift, and we receive it by grace through faith, gifts of God as well. This gift delivers eternal life.
• We stand decisively on the balanced Biblical teaching of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. We avoid any theological systems of belief that supersede the written Word and thereby separate the body of Christ.
• We are continuationists, meaning we believe in the continued work of the Holy Spirit through the Gifts of the Spirit.
• We do not believe in “positive confession,” the word of faith movement belief that we can command God to heal or work miracles, imposing our will upon God’s will. Furthermore, we also reject human prophesy that usurps the Scriptures, incorporating human-centered and secular psychology into Biblical teaching, and the overemphasis of spiritual gifts and experiential signs and wonders to the exclusion of Biblical teaching.
• We believe the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of believers governed by a pastor who is mutually submissive to a group of elders. The mission of the church is to enlarge God’s kingdom.
• We believe the local church is autonomous and free of external authority or control.
• We believe Believer’s Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the two ordinances of the church.