Its ultimate goal, however, is not simply to teach but to lead the hearers to worship, individual and corporate, that strengthens their inner being to do the will of God. It is a community which so loves and cares practically for its members that biblical chastity makes sense. The ultimate answer is that God must, for his own glory, send revival in response to the fervent, extraordinary, prevailing prayer of his people. We have a vision for a church that sees conversions of rich and poor, highly educated and less educated, men and women, old and young, married and single, and all races. Religion and morality in general tend to make people tribal and selfrighteous toward other groups (since their salvation has, they think, been earned by their achievement). How this relationship to culture shapes us. How shall we respond to this cultural crisis of truth? They will emphasize repentance, personal renewal, and holiness of life. Adam and Eve belonged to the created order that God himself declared to be very good, serving as Gods agents to care for, manage, and govern creation, living in holy and devoted fellowship with their Maker. But the truth of Scripture cannot be exhausted in a series of propositions. Sent by the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, and, as the other Paraclete, is present with and in believers. The gospel opens our eyes to the fact that all our wealth (even wealth for which we worked hard) is ultimately an unmerited gift from God. Because it points us to a man who died for his enemies, the gospel creates relationships of service rather than of selfishness. How should we relate to the culture around us? The biblical gospel differs markedly from traditional religions as well as from secularism. Truth, then, is correspondence between our entire lives and Gods heart, words and actions, through the mediation of the Word and Spirit. This balance shapes our understanding of discipleship and preaching. The integration of faith and work. Developing humane yet creative and excellent business environments out of our understanding of the gospel is part of the work of bringing a measure of healing to Gods creation in the power of the Spirit. The gospel moves people to holiness and service out of grateful joy for grace, and out of love of the glory of God for who he is in himself. How should we read the Bible? Inasmuch as Christ was given by the Father for us, and his obedience and punishment were accepted in place of our own, freely and not for anything in us, this justification is solely of free grace, in order that both the exact justice and the rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. The Tri-une God We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who know, love, and glorify one another. We confess that both our finitude and our sinfulness preclude the possibility of knowing Gods truth exhaustively, but we affirm that, enlightened by the Spirit of God, we can know Gods revealed truth truly. Rather, we expect to meet our neighbors as we work for their peace, security, and wellbeing, loving them in word and deed. As a result it was more individualistic, centering almost completely on personal conversion and safe passage to heaven. By the Spirits agency, believers are renewed, sanctified, and adopted into Gods family; they participate in the divine nature and receive his sovereignly distributed gifts. We believe that on the contrary the two, at their best, are integral for grasping the meaning of the biblical gospel. It exists in the genres of narrative, metaphor, and poetry which are not exhaustively distillable into doctrinal propositions, yet they convey Gods will and mind to us so as to change us into his likeness. The gospel is the declaration that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has come to reconcile individuals by his grace and renew the whole world by and for his glory. Living as salt in a world that is decaying and light in a world that is dark, believers should neither withdraw into seclusion from the world, nor become indistinguishable from it: rather, we are to do good to the city, for all the glory and honor of the nations is to be offered up to the living God. 3. Christ wins our salvation through losing, achieves power through weakness and service, and comes to wealth through giving all away. The purpose of the Bible is to produce wisdom in usa life wholly submitted to Gods reality. Irreligion and secularism tend to inflate selfencouraging, uncritical, selfesteem; religion and moralism crush people under guilt from ethical standards that are impossible to maintain. Therefore Christians glorify God not only through the ministry of the Word, but also through their vocations of agriculture, art, business, government, scholarshipall for Gods glory and the furtherance of the public good. Write a short note about what you liked, what to order, or other helpful advice for visitors. This gospel fills Christians with humility and hope, meekness and boldness, in a unique way. Christ Jesus is our peace: he has not only brought about peace with God, but also peace between alienated peoples. This betrays a lack of gospel humility and a lack of love for our neighbor. How this vision of truth shapes us. The good news of the Bible is not only individual forgiveness but the renewal of the whole creation. The Gospel We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus ChristGods very wisdom. The ministry we have outlined is relatively rare. Revelation God has graciously disclosed his existence and power in the created order, and has supremely revealed himself to fallen human beings in the person of his Son, the incarnate Word. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union that establishes the only normative pattern of sexual relations for men and women, such that marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and his church. The emphasis is on Christianity as a way of life to the loss of a bloodbought status in Christ received through personal faith. Reading across the whole Bible. He perfectly obeyed his heavenly Father, lived a sinless life, performed miraculous signs, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. But we have a vision for a church that equips its people to think out the implications of the gospel on how we do carpentry, plumbing, dataentry, nursing, art, business, government, journalism, entertainment, and scholarship. We want to be radically distinct from the culture around us and yet, out of that distinct identity, we should sacrificially serve neighbors and even enemies, working for the flourishing of people, both here and now, and in eternity. It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we receive the words of the gospel in full assurance and conviction (1 Thess 1:5). If we undercontextualize, it suggests that we want the trappings of our own subculture too much. God put humanity in the garden to cultivate the material world for his own glory and for the flourishing of nature and the human community. Religions operate on the principle: I obey, therefore I am accepted, but the gospel principle is: I am accepted through Christ, therefore I obey. So the gospel differs from both irreligion and religion. Also, its preaching, though expository, was sometimes moralistic and did not emphasize how all biblical themes climax in Christ and his work. 4. Such a church will not only support Christians engagement with culture, but will also help them work with distinctiveness, excellence, and accountability in their trades and professions. Make sure your information is up to date. It moves us to serve others irrespective of their merits, just as Christ served us (Mark 10:45). Many today (but not all) who major in the first of these two ways of reading the Biblethat is, reading along the whole Bibledwell on the more corporate aspects of sin and salvation. Please make sure all fields are filled out. The Holy Spirit is himself the down payment of the promised inheritance, and in this age indwells, guides, instructs, equips, revives, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service. [and] was raised). As we confess in CS(1), [God] providentially brings about his eternal good purposes to redeem a people for himself and restore his fallen creation, to the praise of his glorious grace. I. 1. If you are a representative of this church, you can claim this listing in order to update and maintain your church's profile. III. 2. We affirm that truth is correspondence to reality. But we never want to be so affected by our culture that we compromise gospel truths. Truth is not only a theoretical correspondence but also a covenantal relationship. Such arrogance, they say explains, in part, many of the injustices and wars of the modern era. Secularism and religion conform people to behavioral norms through fear (of consequences) and pride (a desire for selfaggrandizement). The Power of the Holy Spirit We believe that this salvation, attested in all Scripture and secured by Jesus Christ, is applied to his people by the Holy Spirit. midway baptist church cookeville photos , midway baptist church cookeville location , midway baptist church cookeville address . Therefore the person who does not generously give away his or her wealth to others is not merely lacking in compassion, but is unjust. Our desire is to serve the church we love by inviting all our brothers and sisters to join us in an effort to renew the contemporary church in the ancient gospel of Christ so that we truly speak and live for him in a way that clearly communicates to our age. You will find attached both our Confessional Statement and our Theological Vision for Ministrya vision rooted in the Scriptures and centered on the gospel. This good news is biblical (his death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures), theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins, to reconcile us to God), historical (if the saving events did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied more than all others), apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles, who were witnesses of these saving events), and intensely personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved). The church serves as a sign of Gods future new world when its members live for the service of one another and their neighbors, rather than for self-focus. Therefore God is concerned not only for the salvation of souls but also for the relief of poverty, hunger, and injustice. The church is the body of Christ, the apple of his eye, graven on his hands, and he has pledged himself to her forever. CONFESSIONAL STATEMENT The practical evidence of this is that our local churches increasingly welcome and embrace people of all races and cultures. We believe that God justifies and sanctifies those who by grace have faith in Jesus, and that he will one day glorify themall to the praise of his glorious grace. As pastors, we intend to do this in our churches through the ordinary means of his grace: prayer, the ministry of the Word, baptism and the Lords Supper and the fellowship of the saints. Thus the gospel creates a human community radically different from any society around it. The kingdom of God is an invasive power that plunders Satans dark kingdom and regenerates and renovates through repentance and faith the lives of individuals rescued from that kingdom. In this perspective, the gospel appears as creation, fall, redemption, restoration. He is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy to receive all glory and adoration. (The contextualization issue), 1. If a church seeks to be a counterculture for peoples temporal and eternal good, it will guard itself against both the legalism that can accompany undue cultural withdrawal and the compromise that comes with overadaptation. The gospel, however, humbles and affirms us at the same time, since, in Christ, each of us is simultaneously just, and a sinner still. But to speak of truth only as propositions weakens our appreciation of the incarnate Son as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the communicative power of narrative and story, and the importance of truth as living truly in correspondence to God. The core dynamic of gospelcentered ministry is therefore worship and fervent prayer. Download Foursquare for your smart phone and start exploring the world around you! 2. Creation of Humanity We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in his own image. Preaching should be expository (explaining the text of Scripture) and Christcentered (expounding all biblical themes as climaxing in Christ and his work of salvation). What could lead to a growing movement of gospelcentered churches? Please click the register tab and sign up for a new account. We believe that a zeal for personal and public obedience flows from this free justification. The Justification of Sinners We believe that Christ, by his obedience and death, fully discharged the debt of all those who are justified. The biblical revelation is not just to be known, but to be lived (Deut 29:29). The man Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the miraculous agency of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the virgin Mary. Yet postmodernisms response is dangerous in another way: its most strident voices insist that claims to objective truth be replaced by a more humbly tolerant and inclusively diverse subjective pluralisma pluralism often mired in a swamp that cannot allow any firm ground for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. Such a stance has no place for truth that corresponds to reality, but merely an array of subjectively shaped truths. Secularism tends to make people selfish and individualistic. But to deny the possibility of purely objective knowledge does not mean the loss of truth that corresponds to objective reality, even if we can never know such truth without an element of subjectivity. If you have made an account on the new church directory but have forgotten your password you can recover it, If you have made an account on the new church directory but have forgotten your username or need any other assistance, please contact us at. Foursquare 2022 Lovingly made in NYC, CHI, SEA & LA. The gospel changes our relationship with God from one of hostility or slavish compliance to one of intimacy and joy. We cannot look at the poor and the oppressed and callously call them to pull themselves out of their own difficulty. Ironically, this approach can be very legalistic. We hope to draw highly secular and postmodern people, as well as reaching religious and traditional people. The church should surround all persons suffering from the fallenness of our human sexuality with a compassionate community and family. We believe in the bodily resur- rection of both the just and the unjustthe unjust to judgment and eternal conscious punishment in hell, as our Lord himself taught, and the just to eternal blessedness in the presence of him who sits on the throne and of the Lamb, in the new heaven and the new earth, the home of righteousness. (See below, point 5c.). It is not enough that the church should counter the values of the dominant culture. If you would like to have it removed, please. We do not, however, see enough individual churches that embody the full, integrative gospel balance we have outlined here. Midway Baptist Church in Cookeville, TN is a confessional Southern Baptist Congregation in the Reformed tradition committed to expository preaching, Biblical theology, and making disciples. How then do we keep our balance? Because the gospel removes both fear and pride, people should get along inside the church who could never get along outside. We are ashamed of our sins and failures, grateful beyond measure for forgiveness, and eager to see afresh the glory of God and embody conformity to his Son. Instead of calling people to individual conversion through a message of grace, people are called to join the Christian community and kingdom program of what God is doing to liberate the world. Because God chose the lowly things of this world, the despised things, the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, no human being can ever boast before himChrist Jesus has become for us wisdom from Godthat is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. There are many churches seeking to engage the culture through political activism. For the common good. We yearn to work with all who, in addition to embracing the confession and vision set out here, seek the lordship of Christ over the whole of life with unabashed hope in the power of the Holy Spirit to transform individuals, com- munities, and cultures. Together they are simultaneously Gods pledge to us, divinely ordained means of grace, our public vows of submission to the once crucified and now resurrected Christ, and anticipations of his return and of the consummation of all things. Such a biblically grounded and united mission is the only endur- ing future for the church. We not only hear of these influences, we see their effects. Crucially, this gospel we cherish has both personal and corporate dimensions, neither of which may properly be overlooked. In corporate worship Gods people receive a special lifetransforming sight of the worth and beauty of God, and then give back to God suitable expressions of his worth. Our theoretical knowledge of Gods truth is only partial even when accurate, but we nevertheless can have certainty that what the Word tells us is true (Luke 1:4). These writings alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God, which is utterly authoritative and without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of his will for salvation, sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do, and final in its authority over every domain of knowledge to which it speaks. The Enlightenment belief in thoroughly objective knowledge made an idol out of unaided human reason. Regarding sex, the church should avoid both the secular societys idolization of sex and traditional societys fear of it. On the one hand, we are troubled by the idolatry of personal consumerism and the politicization of faith; on the other hand, we are distressed by the unchallenged acceptance of theological and moral relativism. If you need to claim a listing you can do so by searching for the church and clicking on its name. For more about our confessional statement, check out our series of 14 booklets written by the Council and edited by co-founders D. A. Carson and Timothy Keller. In this imbalance there is little emphasis on vigorous evangelism and apologetics, on expository preaching, and on the marks and importance of conversion/the new birth. By his perfect obedience he satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf, since by faith alone that perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God. On the other hand, the older evangelicalism (though not all of it) tended to read across the Bible. This reality compels us to stand with others who are stirred by the conviction that the mercy of God in Jesus Christ is our only hope of eternal salvation. God created both soul and body, and the resurrection of Jesus shows that he is going to redeem both the spiritual and the material. He did this so that in him we might become the righteousness of God: on the cross he canceled sin, propitiated God, and, by bearing the full penalty of our sins, reconciled to God all those who believe. We want to encourage a passion for sound doctrine, but we know that Christian growth is not simply cognitive information transfer. The Gospel Coalition supports the church by providing resources that are trusted and timely, winsome and wise, and centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Gods people hear, believe, and do the Word, they are equipped as disciples of Christ and witnesses to the gospel. If we seek service rather than power, we may have significant cultural impact. Because of the attractiveness of its community and the humility of its people, a gospelcentered church should find people in its midst who are exploring and trying to understand Christianity. Worshipping, Discipling, Expositing, Reforming, Growing. At the same time, and in the same congregations, there will be engagement with the social structures of ordinary people, and cultural engagement with art, business, scholarship, and government. We believe the Holy Spirit who inspired the words of the apostles and prophets also indwells us so that we who have been made in the image of God can receive and understand the words of Scripture revealed by God, and grasp that Scriptures truths correspond to reality. . Unaided human reason, it was thought, is able to know truth objectively. We believe that by his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus Christ acted as our representative and substitute. It must welcome them in hundreds of ways. We believe such a balance will produce churches with winsome and theologically substantial preaching, dynamic evangelism and apologetics, and church growth and church planting. We want to be a church that not only gives support to individual Christians in their personal walks with God, but one that also shapes them into the alternative human society God creates by his Word and Spirit. To read across the whole Bible is to collect its declarations, summons, promises, and truthclaims into categories of thought (e.g., theology, Christology, eschatology) and arrive at a coherent understanding of what it teaches summarily (e.g., Luke 24:4647). This universal church is manifest in local churches of which Christ is the only Head; thus each local church is, in fact, the church, the household of God, the assembly of the living God, and the pillar and foundation of the truth. Too many Christians have learned to seal off their faithbeliefs from the way they work in their vocation. Regarding power, it is visibly committed to powersharing and relationshipbuilding among races, classes, and generations that are alienated outside of the Body of Christ. We have become deeply concerned about some movements within traditional evangelicalism that seem to be diminishing the churchs life and leading us away from our historic beliefs and practices. By his resurrection Christ Jesus was vindicated by his Father, broke the power of death and defeated Satan who once had power over it, and brought everlasting life to all his people; by his ascension he has been forever exalted as Lord and has prepared a place for us to be with him. Jesus did not treat us that way. It brings out the means of salvation, namely the substitutionary work of Christ and our responsibility to embrace it by faith. In Gods wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways. The distinctive leadership role within the church given to qualified men is grounded in creation, fall, and redemption and must not be sidelined by appeals to cultural developments. We believe that such commitments will drive us afresh toward Scripture, toward the Christ of Scripture, toward the gospel of Christ, and we will begin to grow in our ability, by Gods grace, as churches, to act in line with the truth of the gospel (Gal 2:14). This is not an outline of our doctrinal beliefs (see the Confessional Statement), but a statement of how we intend to discharge Christian ministry and interact with our culture in biblical and theological faithfulness. In this perspective, the gospel appears as God, sin, Christ, faith. Recognizing whose created order this is, and because we are citizens of Gods kingdom, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, doing good to all, especially to those who belong to the household of God. It therefore inevitably establishes a new community of human life together under God. You can seek to be your own lord and savior by breaking the law of God, but you can also do so by keeping the law in order to earn your salvation. The Redemption of Christ We believe that, moved by love and in obedience to his Father, the eternal Son became human: the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human being, one Person in two natures. If we do this we will be salt and light in the world (sustaining and improving living conditions, showing the world the glory of God by our patterns of living; Matt 5:1316). Baptism and the Lords Supper We believe that baptism and the Lords Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus himself. We believe that Scripture is pervasively propositional and that all statements of Scripture are completely true and authoritative. But we also reject a view of truth that sees truth as nothing more than the internally coherent language of a particular faithcommunity. By being a counterculture. The church is the corporate dwelling place of Gods Spirit, and the continuing witness to God in the world. VISION At the heart of corporate worship is the ministry of the Word. The gospel replaces superiority toward the poor with mercy and compassion. How should we respond to the cultural crisis of truth? What replaces the gospel will never promote a mission-hearted faith anchored in enduring truth working itself out in unashamed discipleship eager to stand the tests of kingdom-calling and sacrifice. We believe that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. We desire to champion this gospel with clarity, compassion, courage, and joygladly linking hearts with fellow believers across denominational, ethnic, and class lines. The former is con- nected with entrance into the new covenant community, the latter with ongoing covenant renewal. The gospel itself holds the key to appropriate contextualization. II. There are many churches with a radical commitment to the poor and marginalized. God will be all in all and his people will be enthralled by the immediacy of his ineffable holiness, and everything will be to the praise of his glorious grace. If you had an account on the old church directory at churches.thegospelcoalition.org you will need to make a new account. Though truth is propositional, it is not only something to be believed, but also to be received in worship and practiced in wisdom. contact us. Plus use our free tools to find new customers. Each church should seek to reflect the diversity of its local geographical community, both in the congregation at large and in its leadership. The Bible is to be believed, as Gods instruction, in all that it teaches; obeyed, as Gods command, in all that it requires; and trusted, as Gods pledge, in all that it promises. It will do little to make them comfortable but will do much to make its message understandable. We adopt a chastened correspondencetheory of truth that is less triumphalistic than that of some in the older evangelicalism. We are a fellowship of evangelical churches in the Reformed tradition deeply committed to renewing our faith in the gospel of Christ and to reforming our ministry practices to conform fully to the Scriptures. To read along the whole Bible is to discern the single basic plotline of the Bible as Gods story of redemption (e.g., Luke 24:44) as well as the themes of the Bible (e.g., covenant, kingship, temple) that run through every stage of history and every part of the canon, climaxing in Jesus Christ.