Our Identity: Calvary Bible Church
CALVARY the place of the glorious saving work of God, made possible through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our source of joy and the basis of our eternal hope. On Calvary, we see God’s plan to glorify Himself through the salvation of repentant sinners, in and through the person and work of His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
BIBLE the inspired, inerrant, and sufficient Word of God is our final authority in all matters of faith and practice. The Bible reveals God’s holy and glorious character; His amazing plan for saving repentant sinners through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ; His precious instructions and promises for His church; and His plan for the coming kingdom at the return of Christ.
CHURCH the bride of Christ, which is the Gospel-transformed community of the redeemed on a mission to proclaim and advance the gospel in word and deed. The ultimate priority of the church is to bring God glory by proclaiming the gospel, so that repentant sinners may come to know, love, and serve Christ.
Our Purpose: What Are We Here to Do?
Calvary Bible Church exists to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ by continuing His mission on earth of building His church by making disciples, whose singular passion and pursuit is to know, love, and serve Christ, making other disciples who will do the same.
Matthew 28:19-20 | Acts 1:1-11 | Col 1:28-29
Our Distinctives
We believe that the Bible is the very Word of the one and only God, authoritative, inerrant, and sufficient for all matters pertaining to man’s purpose for existence and church life.
Therefore, we practice expository preaching, where the Bible is accurately explained and applied in a practical and helpful manner. We practice Bible-based counseling and promote Bible-saturated relationships, whereby Christians mutually speak the truth of God’s Word to one another, in formal or informal small groups, as well as in one-on-one, life-on-life relationships.
Psalm 19 & Psalm 119 | 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2 | John 17:17 | Colossians 3:16 | Hebrews 4:12-13
We believe the Gospel of God is the monumental message whereby God has purposed to bring glory to Himself in the salvation of sinners, as made possible by the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, the exalted Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we preach Christ for salvation and sanctification until our future glorification when He returns as the exalted Savior and King. Our passion is to lift high the name of Christ, in both word and deed, both as individuals and as a corporate community, making every effort to be instruments by which Christ continues to build His church here on Earth, in the power of the Spirit and in accordance with God’s Word.
Psalm 2 & Psalm 110 | Acts 2:36 | Philippians 2:9-11 | Colossians 1:15-20 | Hebrews 1:1-13
We believe that the God of the Bible is to be the supreme object of our faith and is to be the One on whom we are dependent. God is the Supreme Creator, the Sustainer, and the One who empowers His people to accomplish His mission on Earth, until the exalted Lord Jesus Christ returns, in the power of the Spirit of God.
Therefore, we strive to be a church devoted to humble, dependent, passionate, and Spirit-enabled prayer. Prayer is not just an add-on to our gatherings, but an indispensable element of all that we do personally and corporately. Our dependence upon God is seen in our commitment to prayer during times of personal devotion, times of group fellowship, and times of corporate worship.
Matthew 6:5-13 | Ephesians 6:10-20 | Colossians 4:2-4
We believe that God saves men from their sins for the supreme purpose of causing them to worship Him in holiness, purity, and genuine love. Christ came to die and rise again, so that by repentance and faith in His sacrifice, men may once again worship the one true God in Spirit and truth, as originally intended.
Therefore, our greatest passion is to see God glorified and His infinite worth lifted high. Be it in our corporate gatherings (Sunday mornings), our mid-week programs, our small groups, our homes, or our informal gatherings, worshiping God in Spirit and in truth is our utmost priority.
1 Chronicles 16:23-31 | Psalms 99 | Romans 12:1-2 | Revelation 4:8-11
We believe in Christ’s singular mission for His church of advancing the Gospel by making disciples. This mission is to be the highest goal of the church, both locally and globally, and not just a part of a general philosophy.
Therefore, we focus on our local community — our neighborhoods, our homes, and our workplaces — aiming to reach the lost by means of the proclamation of the Gospel, with the goal of adding worshipers to His church as people are saved from their sins through the message of the Gospel, by the power of God. We also engage in efforts in other countries, aiming to reach people for Christ by equipping national church leaders and facilitating church planting wherever churches are needed.
Matthew 28:16-20 | Luke 24:47 | Acts 1:1-11 | Colossians 1:28-29
We believe that God has marvelously displayed the greatest act of sacrificial love in sending His Son into the world to die on the cross for undeserving and rebel sinners. On the cross, the Lord Jesus suffered and died, taking upon Himself the fullness of God’s wrath for our sins, that by repentance and faith in His atoning sacrifice and resurrection, we may be restored to a right relationship with God. Because of this great love-sacrifice, we now have eternal hope in the resurrection of the dead to eternal life in heaven, eternal life on the New Earth, and an eternal right relationship with our God and Father.
Therefore, in response to God’s amazing love, Christians are empowered by the Spirit of God to express authentic, transparent, and truth-motivated love toward one another. We make every effort to cultivate a love-expressing community, whereby sinning Christians practice genuine forgiveness, mutual burden-bearing, and Spirit-empowered restoration in relationships, as a reflection of God’s amazing love shown to us.
John 3:16; 13:1,14; 15:12,17 | 1 John 3:23 | Galatians 5:13, 6:1-10
We believe that Christians are called to serve Christ and His people, and to no longer live for themselves, but selflessly for one another, as an act of worship to God. Christians have been delivered from slavery to sin, and eternal separation from their Creator, and cannot help but serve out of a deep gratitude for the saving grace of God.
Therefore, we strive to promote a culture of highly committed participants who, in the power of the Spirit, make full use of their God-given gifts, abilities, and life experiences, to build up the people of God as they zealously serve one another. Acts of service are not optional for the believer, nor are they endeavors leading to the label of “Committed Christian.” On the contrary, service is an act of worship and borne out of genuine gratitude to the precious Lord Jesus Christ, who led by example. He did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
Matthew 20:28 | Romans 12:6-8 | 1 Peter 4:10-11 | Titus 2:14; 3:1,8
We believe that the church is called to engage our sin-cursed and broken culture with a heart of mercy, recognizing that social injustice and dismissal of God’s creation of mankind in His image creates great suffering. Crucial issues such as poverty, abortion, same-sex marriage, racism, sex slavery, immigration, persecution, orphans, and pornography, are not taboo issues to be avoided, but rather are to be addressed graciously with Gospel truth.
Therefore, we will do our best to engage and speak God’s truth into such matters, keeping the priority of the Gospel of Christ at the forefront, as the ultimate hope for redeeming captives from destructive sins, and for achieving God’s ultimate justice upon Christ’s return for those who have turned from their sins and trusted Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Micah 6:8 | James 1:27