Doctrine
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The Scriptures ~ We believe the Holy Bible consisting of the Old and New Testament Scriptures to be the verbally inspired Word of God, the final authority for faith and life, inerrant in the original writings, and infallible (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21; Matt 5:18; John 16:12-13).
Why this is important:
The revelation of God to us is the most unique and reliable witness we have to understand and know God. The Bible teaches in Rom. 10:17, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Therefore, the Bible is our tool to know and understand who God is according to His own self-description; it is our tool to grow in faith and maturity and to learn the promises that God has given us. We take it literally. God's truth is the anchor for our souls. It calls us to dive deep into God and there discover His blessings and the transformation He brings to our lives, our church, and our world.
The Godhead ~ We believe in one God eternally existing in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—and that these persons are co-equal in nature, power, and glory, having the same attributes and perfections (Deut. 6:4; 2 Cor. 13:14).
Why this is important:
The God who was and is and will be declares Himself to be alone in the heavens. This means that He alone is God and there is none besides Him. In believing this we understand that many individuals, including Muslims, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses, place their hope in gods who are not there. Adherents of Hinduism and Baha’i as well as other religious pluralists wrongly assume there are many roads to the same God. In Scripture God reveals Himself as the only true God. The ramifications of this motivate us to declare to the world with our lips and lives who this true and living God is.
The Person and Work of Christ ~ We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man (John 1:1-2, 14; Luke 1:35). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross as a representative, vicarious sacrifice, and that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead (Rom. 3:24; 1 Pet. 2:24; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:3-5). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where, as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate (Acts 1:9-10; Heb. 7:25; 9:24; Rom. 8:34; 1 John 2:1-2).
Why this is important:
Jesus, the God-Man, is the unique revelation of God and the Savior of God's children. He declares Himself to be the only way to the Father (John 14:6). Because Jesus is sinless, His death perfectly satisfied God's justice and atoned for the sins of all who trust in Him.
This reality calls us to a life of mission to minister to those whom He sought (Is. 61:1-3). We see ourselves as deserving nothing yet receiving everything necessary to have a right relationship with the Father through the work of the Son. As Jesus initiates a relationship with us, so He calls us to initiate relationships with the lost. He demonstrated His love towards us while we were yet sinners, and this compels us to follow the same pattern and walk as He walked in the pursuit of the lost. Our motivation to love and serve the world and our desire to live a life worthy of the calling to which we were called comes from understanding the beauty of Jesus.
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit ~ We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person who convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and that He is the supernatural agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ, indwelling and sealing them unto the day of redemption (John 16:8-11; 2 Cor. 3:6; 1 Cor. 12:12-14; Rom. 8:9; Eph. 5:18).
Why this is important:
The role of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to connect us with the Father through the Son. The Spirit resides in us and gives us the power to love and serve in Jesus' name. When we live a life of ministry we do not do so in the flesh, but in the power of God through the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, nothing eternal or spiritual would take place in and through our lives. We are fully dependent on the Holy Spirit to be at work in our lives and ministries.
Humanity ~ We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that through Adam's sin the race fell from its original good state, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; and that man is totally depraved and of himself utterly unable to remedy his lost condition (Gen. 1:26-27; Rom. 3:22-23; 5:12; Eph. 2:1-3, 12).
Why this is important:
Our understanding of the nature of humanity is crucial to our understanding of ministry. We believe that, as creatures made in God’s image, we are endowed by God with the attribute of creativity and that we are obligated to exercise this creativity to worship and glorify God.
We see the blackness of humanity's sinful condition and, therefore, humanity’s desperate need of salvation, but we acknowledge that these characteristics only serve to magnify the amazing beauty of God’s love. Man is blind in the darkness of sin, dead in trespasses, and thus totally incapable of finding his way, working his way, or buying his way to the Father, and yet God is gracious enough to save a vast multitude of people. God sent His Son to redeem sinners, and the Father and the Son send the Spirit to call sinners unto the promise of that redemption. In addition, God sends us to proclaim to all people the redemption that God offers in the Gospel. Through Christ we seek to emulate God's love for the world by showing compassion toward sinful humanity and pursuing social justice in the hope that He will transform sinners into saints. In the broken and marred state of the human condition, God meets the deepest longings of men and women only through Himself as they delight in His character and die to their old sinful nature.
Salvation ~ We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins (Eph. 2:8-10; John 1:12; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19).
Why this is important?
It is by sheer grace that God decides to save us. As we are saved we are called to participate in helping others come to know the saving love of God. It is in this salvation that we are made alive in Jesus, united to God and to one another. We humbly recognize that God has acted on our behalf and wants us forever. All that the Father gives the Son come to Him, and thus we believe that we are humble recipients of the salvation of God in Christ. If we truly believe this, it will radically shape the communal life we live with other believers. How we love one another, serve one another, and seek to share the Gospel will all be profoundly impacted by this incredible truth.
Eternal Security and Assurance of Believers ~ We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God's power and are thus secure in Christ forever (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Rom. 8:1, 38-39; 1 Cor. 1:4-8; 1 Pet. 1:5). We believe it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God's word which clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion to the flesh (Rom. 13:13-14; Gal. 5:13; Titus 2:11-15).
Why this is important:
The joyful proclamation of the Gospel to the world comes from secure believers who have experienced salvation and are being transformed by the hope that is in Jesus. We persevere in faith and in service together for the inheritance that awaits us. God preserves His children forever, and this motivates us toward joy, away from works of self-righteousness, and into the fruit-bearing ministry to which God calls us.
The Ministry and Spiritual Gifts ~ We believe that God sovereignly bestows spiritual gifts upon His children. Furthermore, it is the believer's delight to develop these spiritual gifts in order to increasingly glorify God. The baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at conversion and is the placing of the believer into the body of Christ. We also believe that particular spiritual gifts are neither essential for salvation (proving the presence of the Holy Spirit) nor an indication of deep spiritual experience (1 Cor. 12:7, 11, 13; Eph. 4:7-8). We believe that God hears and answers prayers of faith for the sick and afflicted in accordance with His own will (John 15:7; 1 John 5:14-15). We believe it is the privilege and responsibility of every believer to minister according to the gifts and grace of God given to him (Rom. 12:1-8; 1 Cor. 13; 1 Pet. 4:10-11).
Why this is important:
This doctrine emphasizes the communal nature of our faith. The Christian life is one of community, not autonomy. We live dependently on God and one another as the body He has created us to be through the Spirit. Thus each member, when employing his or her gifts to the glory of God, contributes to the beauty, vitality, and unity of the church.
This motivates us to find our gifts and use them, for they were not given to us for our benefit, but for that of the church. We then work hard to be a church that employs these gifts so the world can see Christ.
The Church ~ We believe that the church, which is the body and espoused bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons of all ages (Eph. 1:22-23; 5:25-27; 1 Cor. 12:12-14; 2 Cor. 11:2). We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures (Acts 14:27; 18:22; 20:17; 1 Tim. 3:1-3; Titus 1:5-11). We believe in the autonomy of the local church—that each local church is free of any external authority and control (Acts 13:1-4; 15:19-31; 20:28; Rom. 16:1, 4; 1 Cor. 3:9, 16; 5:4-7, 13; 1 Pet. 5:1-4). We recognize believer's baptism and the Lord's supper as scriptural means of testimony for the church in this age (Matt 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42; 18:8; 1 Cor. 11:23-26).
Why this is important:
Kaleo Fellowship of Christ is a small expression of the historical, universal, and local church of God. We seek to be unified in a God-glorifying part of His eternal community. We are free to do as God leads us in accordance with the Scriptures and we seek to assist the local and global church as we live out biblical community. The church is God's idea and His work, and we are to be faithful stewards of the beauty and character of His body.
The Second Coming of Christ ~ We believe in the "blessed hope," the personal, imminent coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His redeemed ones (1 Thess. 4:13-18; Zech. 14:4-11; Rev. 19:11-16; 20:1-6; 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9; Rev. 3:10).
Why is this important?
We do not know when Jesus will return, but we do know He is coming again. We hope and long for that day, and we seek to be about the Father’s business until that time.
