We Are Empowered Evangelicals!

I am often asked if our church is "Full-Gospel" or "Charismatic", "Pentecostal" or "What"? I have long been frustrated with tags and titles for with them come the accumulative prejudices of the enquirer.

 I have always been left more than a little uncomfortable trying to describe who we are as a Church. After years of seeking a label that really does describe who we are, Rich Nathan (of Vineyard Columbus) and Ken Wilson defined it for me as they described me to a spiritual tee in their book, "EMPOWERED EVANGELICALS". As I read this book, it was as if I were looking into a mirror.

Are we Evangelical?

The six classic characteristics of an evangelical is one who;

1. believes in the supreme authority of Scripture,
2. the majesty of Christ,
3. the Lordship of the Holy Spirit, the need for personal conversion,
4. the priority of evangelism,
5. and the importance of Christian Community.

By those definitions, I am an Evangelical, but in today's America, conservative evangelicalism is noncharismatic.

We are an independent Church, whose members hail from noncharismatic conservative evangelical backgrounds, but we have adopted certain Pentecostal practices such as healing the sick, casting out demons, and receiving prophetic revelations. We believe the "baptism of the Holy Spirit" happens at conversion. We also believe that tongues is simply one of many spiritual gifts, a lesser one at that. We do not subscribe to the belief that it is the only evidence of a particular spiritual experience. We align with Paul, that in our public services that all be done in decency and in order.

We are conservative evangelicals,who have been empowered by The Holy Spirit to minister into people's lives. 

Our calling has been to be a Church for the unchurched, a place where people can come as they are and meet God as He is!

We have staked our existence not upon transfer growth, but indeed growth birthed our of changed hearts and lives. In short we are called to reach the lost, care for the hurting and walk them all into the Kingdom of God. Indeed our goal for ministry is to build The Kingdom of God, not necessarily a Church. We are here to build people, not buildings.