The Four Pillars
The Vital and Essential Components of The Gathering
These are four characteristics that we seek to guide and influence our church at all times and in every endeavor. These four pillars will remain the unchanging foundation of The Gathering for its lifetime.
Missions
As a church, we believe that God is still moving to call men and women throughout the world to repentance and faith in His Son, Jesus Christ and in so doing He has called us to ‘make disciples’ of all nations. At The Gathering we believe that it is of utmost importance for us to be missionally involved in the lives of all people everywhere. While Jesus has accomplished His work, we believe and affirm that God has given us the responsibility of bearing witness to this salvation and of acting as agents of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). Simply put, it is our duty to be missionally involved in every part of this world (Acts 1:8)
Community
We understand that sin is divisive. In the beginning it was sin that drove a wedge between Adam and God and today it is sin that tears apart our relationships with one another and seeks to isolate us from one another. At The Gathering we believe that part of being restored by the gospel of Christ means that not only is our relationship with Him restored, but so is our relationship with others. Our goal is to promote and grow Missional Communities that are shaped by the love of Jesus (John 13:34), that carry each others' burdens (Galatians 6:2), and provide the foundation of a gospel community (Acts 2:44)
Truth
Truth in our society is seen as either relative or unreliable. At The Gathering we believe just the opposite. We believe that God has revealed to us His Truth through the Scripture and that through His Truth we can both know Him and understand His ways. Because of that we believe that the Bible has the right to dictate our beliefs and actions, and that we must willingly submit ourselves to His revealed Truth. (John 17:17, 2 Timothy 4:2)
Superiority of God’s Glory
Of utmost importance to us is the fame and honor of God’s name and kingdom. We willingly sacrifice any effort to seek our own glory or notoriety in an effort to always make decisions with God’s fame and honor on our mind. In doing so we seek to daily submit our dreams, our will, our finances, etc to the promotion of the Glory of God in Coulterville and throughout the world. (Ephesians 3:20-21, 1 Timothy 1:17, Revelation 4:11, 7:12)
Doctrinal Statement
A Summary of Beliefs held by The Gathering in regards to what we consider primary theological issues.
The Scriptures
We believe the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments to be the full record of God’s revelation to mankind. Scripture is fully trustworthy as our final and sufficient authority for all of life (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21).
The Triune God
We believe in the one living and true God, eternally (John 17:3) existing in perfect unity as three equally and fully divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20). Each member of the Godhead, while executing distinct but complementary roles in redemptive history, has precisely the same nature, attributes, and being, and is equally worthy of the same glory and honor and obedience (John 1:1-4; Acts 5:3-4).
God the Father
We believe God the Father created all things in six literal days for His glory according to His own will (Revelation 4:11), through His Son, Jesus Christ. He upholds all things by the Word of His power and grace, exercising sovereign headship over all creation, providence, and redemption (Colossians 1:17, Hebrews 1:3).
God the Son
We believe that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, moved by love in accordance with the will of the Father, took on human flesh (John 1:1, 14, 18). Conceived through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the virgin Mary. He, being fully God and fully man (John 14:8-9), lived a sinless life and sacrificially shed His blood and died on the cross in our place accomplishing redemption for all who place their faith in Him. He arose visibly and bodily from the dead three days later and ascended into heaven, where, at the Father’s right hand, He is now Head of His Body the Church, the only Savior and Mediator between God and man, and will return to earth in power and glory to consummate His redemptive mission (1 Timothy 3:16).
God the Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ during this age. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He draws the unredeemed to repentance and faith, and at salvation imparts new spiritual life to the believer, bringing that person into union with Christ and the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit sanctifies, seals, fills, guides, instructs, comforts, equips, empowers, permanently indwells at salvation, and bestows spiritual gifts to the believer for Christ-like living and service (John 16:8; 13:15; Titus 3:5; Ephesians 1:22; 4:11-12; Romans 8:9-17; 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 12:4-5, 11-13, 19; Galatians 5:25; Hebrews 2:1-4; 2 Corinthians 12:12).
Mankind
We believe that God created mankind—male and female—in His own image and likeness, free of sin, to glorify Himself and enjoy His fellowship. Tempted by Satan, but in the sovereign plan of God, man freely chose to disobey God, bringing sin, death and condemnation to all mankind. All human beings, therefore, are totally depraved by nature and by choice. Alienated from God without defense or excuse, and subject to God’s righteous wrath, all of mankind is in desperate need of the Savior (Genesis 3:1-6; Romans 3:10-19; Romans 1:18, 32).
Salvation
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, as the substitutionary atonement in our place, and that salvation is found in none other than Jesus Christ. Before Creation, God chose those who would be saved and granted this unearned grace solely based on His sovereign good pleasure. (Ephesians 1:3-6) Jesus Christ’s death on the cross was the sole and complete payment for sins, fully satisfying God’s righteous wrath. At salvation each person is made a new creation by the Holy Spirit, declared righteous before God, and secured as an adopted child of God forever. Genuine faith continues in obedience and love for Jesus Christ with a life eager to glorify God and persevere to the end (Romans 8:37-39; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 12:13).
The Church
We believe that upon placing one’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, the believer is made part of the Body of Christ, the one universal Church, of which Jesus Christ is the Head. The Scriptures command believers to gather locally in order to devote themselves to worship, prayer, teaching of the Word, fellowship, the ordinances of baptism and communion, service to the local body through the development and use of talents and spiritual gifts, and outreach to the world to make disciples (Ephesians 1:22-23; Acts 2:42-46;
1 Corinthians 14:26; Matthew 28:18-20). Wherever God’s people meet regularly in obedience to this command, there is the local expression of the Church under the watchful care of a plurality of elders. A church’s members are to work together in love and unity, intent on the ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ (Ephesians 4:16).
Baptism and Communion
We believe that Christian baptism is a public declaration of the believer’s salvation in Christ, identifying with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection symbolized by immersion in water. The Lord’s Supper is the united commemoration by believers of Christ’s death until He comes and should be preceded by a careful self-examination (Acts 2:41; Romans 6:3-6; 1 Corinthians 11:20-29).
Missions
We believe it is the aim, duty, and privilege of every believer and local church fellowship to glorify God by responding as active participants in the Great Commission call of Jesus Christ to go and make disciples of all nations. (Matthew 28:18-20) We believe the primary focus and priority of this call is centered on multiplying disciples that multiply missional communities that in turn multiply churches across the world.
Things to Come
We believe in and expectantly await the glorious, visible, personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ to call His children home and judge the world. (Acts 1:9-11) The blessed hope of His return has vital bearing on the personal life, service, and mission of the believer (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Philippians 1:21). We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost. (1 Corinthians 15) The lost will be raised to judgment and experience eternal wrath in hell. (Revelation 20:13-15) The saved will be raised to eternal joy in the new heaven and new earth in the manifested presence of God.
