Rather than dividing families at the door, the family engages in the church experience together, as a unit. Pastors / Elders walk alongside parents who have discovered God’s call upon them to make the home the primary place of discipleship for the entire family.
At FLA, fathers, embracing their biblical callings, are growing in their roles as shepherds, theologians and disciplers of their own families. Godly mothers are walking alongside their husbands with a fresh sense of security, joy and purpose. Children are encouraged knowing that their best spiritual mentors are the ones who know them the best.
As a body, Family Life Assembly, is committed to strengthening families and individuals by teaching the Word of God. We are complimentary in our theology, meaning, we believe the Word of God teaches that men and women were created and designed to fulfill different roles in the church, home and society, and by doing so, present a whole example of the beauty and nature of God. We desire to see multi-generational faithfulness in the worship of Jesus Christ, and we believe the Word of God has mandated that parents be the primary conveyors of truth to their children.
Sunday – Our Weekly Holiday
At Family Life Assembly (FLA) we celebrate our Lord’s Day each week as a delightful holiday for the family of God. The atmosphere of our weekly gathering is intended to be a wonderful family reunion, full of joy and loving concern for one another. Because this is our only service each week, we like to “make a day of it.” Our gathering is age-integrated. That means all ages participate together in worship, Bible teaching and fellowship. Our worship is doctrinally sound and musically appealing to all ages. Likewise, our Bible teachers make every effort to feed all ages on sound, soul-stirring preaching. Following our service we host a weekly Shared Meal where we come prepared to show our love for God by the way we love and serve one another. (Visitors are always welcome as our guests!!) This extended time together once each week accomplishes two things: First, it allows our members to really reconnect with one another. Second, it leaves ample time each week for everyone to “Be doers of God’s Word, and not merely hearers” (JAMES 1:22). Rather than multiply church services, we encourage our members to live a life-style of ministry hospitality: hosting times to pray and worship together, Bible study groups, and organizing “work-parties” for one another. In times of crisis for our FLA families we expect everyone to flex their schedules and squeeze their finances to pitch in and help out by preparing meals, caring for one another’s children and helping one another make it through hard times.
Devoting Ourselves To The Apostles Doctrine
The main course of our time together each week is spent devoting ourselves to the Word of God. We allow the Bible to direct the content of our sermons.
Our Lord’s Supper
Communion is celebrated at the beginning of our gathering each month. Use this special time to draw closer to God and closer to one another in Christ. Examine yourselves. Confess your sins to God and renew right relationships with one another. Forgive. Embrace. Then partake together. As a visitor feel free to join.
Our Sunday Afternoon Shared Meal And Fellowship Time
“…They were taking their meals together with gladness” (ACTS 2:46). Our Shared Meal is much more than a social activity. It is an offering to God that is given to one another in Jesus name.
Productive Fellowship
“And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.” (TITUS 3:14) We all have may have major projects hanging over us that need to be tackled. We encourage our members to work with one another. All ages can learn valuable work skills and make new friends while getting the work done. .
Storehouse Tithes and Offerings
At FLA we teach New Testament “grace giving” under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament God’s people were required to “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house” (MALACHI 3:8-10). In the New Testament, giving continues to supply the church’s ministers, members, and missions, but it is no longer divesting oneself of money, but rather of investing in far safer opportunities which yield far better returns (Phil. 4:17). Every Christian is commanded to love others and to give in proportion to (i.e. as a percentage of) his actual income (2 Cor. 8:12-15 &1 Tim. 6:17-19). All such giving is to be done cheerfully, from a willing heart, without compulsion (2 Cor. 9:6-8). God does not need our money. He already owns everything. But our fellow members will have need of occasional charity. Identify where you would turn for assistance in times of crisis, and then do your part to make it financially strong for everyone. At FLA we do not take up offerings or pass the plate. Instead, we ask our members to place their tithes and offerings in the Offering Basket at the back of the church.
The Purpose Of Christ Church
Christ’s church exists to worship God corporately, to nurture fellow believers in the obedience of faith and to proclaim the Gospel of God’s grace to the world. These three purposes are accomplished under the oversight of a plurality of local Elders.
A Plurality Of Local Elders
“Be examples to the flock…” (1 PETER 5:3) The most important ministry of Elders is to be examples of sound doctrine in action. This is why the qualifications for church Elders (1 TIM. 3:1-15) are based on a man’s ability to manage his own household well. In the context of that life example, through ministry hospitality, each Elder is best able to teach sound Bible doctrine.
The Scriptures:
We accept the Bible, consisting of the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament, as the written Word of God. The Bible is the only essential and infallible record of God’s self-disclosure to mankind. It leads us to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Being given by God the Scriptures are both fully and verbally inspired by God. Therefore, as originally given, the Bible is free of error in all that it teaches.
God the Father:
God the Father is the Creator of heaven and earth. By His Word and for His glory, He freely and supernaturally created the world out of nothing. Through the same Word He daily sustains all His creatures. He rules over all and is the only Sovereign. His plans and purposes cannot be thwarted. He is good and faithful to every promise, working all things together for good to those who love Him. In His unfathomable grace He gave His Son Jesus for the redemption of His elect. He decrees that all creation will exist for the praise of His glory.
Jesus Christ:
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God the Father, is the eternal Word of God made flesh, supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, just as the Old Testament prophets foretold.
He is perfect in nature, teaching and obedience. He is fully God and fully man. He was always with God and is Himself God. Through Him all things came into being and were created. He was before all things and in Him all things hold together by the word of His power. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation and in Him dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily.
He is the only Savior for the sins of the world having shed His own blood and died a vicarious death on Calvary’s cross. By His death in our place, He revealed the divine love and upheld the divine justice, removing our guilt and reconciling us to God. Having redeemed us from sin, on the third day He rose bodily from the grave, victorious over death and all the powers of darkness and He appeared to many witnesses performing many convincing proofs of His resurrection. He ascended into heaven where, now at God’s right hand, He intercedes for His people and rules as Lord.
The Holy Spirit:
The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. Through the proclamation of the Gospel He brings about the new birth, indwells the regenerate, granting the desire and ability to believe the truth, repent of their sins, trust in God’s mercy and confess Jesus Christ as Lord. He unites all believers in faith to Jesus Christ whom alone He has come to reveal and glorify. He is the Comforter who is neither to be grieved nor quenched as He leads the Church into the one right understanding and application of of God’s Word.
Man:
God made man, male and female, in His own image, as the crown of creation, that man might enjoy loving fellowship with Himself. Tempted by Satan, man distrusted God’s goodness and rebelled against God righteousness. Being estranged from his Maker, yet still responsible to Him, man became subject to divine wrath, inwardly depraved and, apart from a special work of grace, utterly incapable of returning to God. This depravity is radical and pervasive. It extends to his mind, will and affections. Unregenerate man lives in slavery to sin and Satan as an enemy of God. Fallen, sinful man, whatever his attainments in this world, is lost and without hope apart from salvation by faith in Christ.
The Gospel of Salvation:
The Gospel is the good news that the death of Jesus Christ was a once for all substitutionary and propitiatory sacrifice to God for our sins. Christ satisfied the demands of God’s holy justice and appeased His holy wrath. He purchased God’s saving grace for all who believe and justified God for His common grace of kindness toward all sinners who do not believe.
Jesus Christ is therefore the only mediator between God and man. There is no other name under Heaven by which anyone can be saved. Our ability to respond in faith to this Gospel is itself provided by the free and unconditional selection of God. The Gospel is therefore effective only in those who, by the grace of God, are born again and thereby willing and able to genuinely repent of their sins and place their faith in Christ alone to save them. This Gospel is to be sincerely preached to all people in all nations without bias or prejudice. True conversion is characterized by a new life of love that delights to walk in the obedience of faith and is zealous to do good works that are pleasing to God.
Salvation is the free gift of God. In it the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the sinner by God’s judicial decree. Thus justified by faith alone he is accepted by God and his debt for sin is forgiven. The believer is thus reconciled to God as Father and adopted as His child into His eternal family. He is liberated from the law of sin and death and empowered by the Spirit of God to walk in new life.
Sanctification:
The Holy Spirit is the indwelling agent in our progressive sanctification. As He shines God’s love in our hearts He produces His fruit in our lives. Our minds are renewed and our actions are conformed to the image of Christ. Though our battle with indwelling sin continues throughout our lives, as we are led by the Spirit, we are enabled to walk in the Spirit and so delight in God’s commandments that we truly endeavor to live in this world for the glory of God. All believers are warned by God to persevere in their faith, knowing that they will give an account to God for their every word and deed. The spiritual disciplines of Bible study, prayer, worship, giving, fellowship and confession of sin are provided by God as effective means of grace to assist us in our pursuit of holiness. Nevertheless, the believer’s ultimate confidence that he will persevere in the faith is based on the sure promise of God to keep all those who are His to the end.
Empowered by the Spirit:
In addition to effecting regeneration and sanctification, the Holy Spirit also empowers believers for Christian witness and service. All genuine believers are baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ at conversion. However, subsequent to conversion believers are also made to drink of the same Spirit in order to be repeatedly filled with the Spirit. Though the Holy Spirit may be resisted, grieved, and quenched by our sin and unbelief, by God’s grace He readily fills all who thirst with God’s love, joy, peace, wisdom and power. In this way He also imparts to His people supernatural gifts for the edification of the Body and witness to the world. All of the gifts of the Holy Spirit described in the Bible are still available for us today. They are vital for the mission of the church, and are to be desired and used within the guidelines of Scripture.
The Church:
God by His Word and Spirit builds His Church, calling sinful men out of every tongue, tribe and nation of the human race into the holy fellowship of Christ’s Body. By the same Word and Spirit, God guides and preserves His redeemed as a gathered community. It is not limited to any religious institutions or denominations. Rather, the Church Universal is made up of all who are born again followers of Jesus.
The Church exists in the world to worship God, to nurture fellow believers and to bear witness to the Gospel. New local churches are to be planted in the world for a visible evidence of God’s salvation. The Church’s mission is to make disciples through the preaching of the Gospel. Though social transformation is an indirect benefit of changed lives, it is not the primary focus of the ministry.
All members of the Body of Christ are to function as committed members of a local church. In this context they are able to walk in the obedience of faith working through love, as they show their love for God by the way they keep His commandment to love one another.
Water Baptism:
Water Baptism is an initial act of the obedience of faith in Jesus Christ. It is intended only for those who have been born again. As a public testimony of one’s faith, it may be performed for the new believer by any trusted fellow believer, ideally in the presence of fellow church and community members. In it a believer should be immersed in water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as a visual demonstration of the believer’s union with Christ in the likeness of His death and resurrection. It signifies that one’s former way of life has been put to death, and that one has now been raised to new life.
The Lord’s Supper:
As with water baptism, the Lord’s Supper is to be partaken of only by those who are genuine followers of Christ. This ordinance symbolizes the breaking of Christ’s body and the New Covenant sealed by the shedding of His blood on behalf of His people. It is to be observed repeatedly throughout the Christian life as a sign of participation in the atoning benefits of Christ’s death. As the believer partakes of the Lord’s Supper with an attitude of faith and self-examination, he remembers and proclaims the death of Christ, receives spiritual nourishment for his soul, and signifies his unity with other members of Christ’s body.
The Consummation:
The Consummation of all things includes the visible, personal and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead and the transformation of those alive in Christ into glorified bodies, the judgment of the just and the unjust, and the fulfillment of Christ’s kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth. In the Consummation, Satan with his hosts and all those outside of Christ will be finally separated from the benevolent presence of God to justly endure eternal punishment in hell, but the righteous, in glorified bodies, shall live and reign with Him forever in heaven. Married to Christ as His Bride, the Church will live in the holy presence of God, giving Him unending glory by praising and enjoying Him forever.