Truth that Transforms Lives

We labor to build communities from all cultures where Christ is King through…
· Truth That Transforms Lives
· Community That Displays Christ
· Prayer That Cries ‘Your Kingdom Come’
· Worship That Feeds The Soul
· Mission That Welcomes Everybody In

We emphasize truth that transforms lives through the following three distinctives

1. Christ Centered Bible Preaching - We believe that Jesus Christ is the truth that sets men free (John 8:32, 14:6). We also believe that the Bible is God’s perfectly beautiful, error free revelation of Himself and that Jesus Christ is the central message of this perfect book (Luke 24:27). Because of these things, it is the resolve of our Pastors to teach nothing, “except Jesus Christ and him crucified”(1 Cor. 2:2). Therefore, at the center of our whole ministry is a commitment to preaching that explains every passage of scripture in light of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done to save us. This kind of Christ-centered Bible preaching is the primary way we labor to see the truth transform every single part of peoples' lives.

2. Christ Like Pastors – Few things are worse, in this life, than hearing glorious truths from a hypocrite. It’s like finding a hair ball in a bowl of good soup. God does not want his message to go out through hypocrites, but rather through Godly Pastors. While no Pastor is perfect, none the less the Bible is clear that Pastors are to be held accountable to a high standard of Christian conduct, and that they will be judged more strictly than other Christians (1 Tim. 3:1-7, James 3:1). For this reason we take pains to ensure that the men who lead our Church are holy men, men who can be trusted and respected by believers and unbelievers alike (1 Tim. 3:7; 5:19-22). We believe these kinds of men are the ones God desires to take his message forward with great spiritual blessing and power (1 Cor. 2:4, 2 Tim. 2:21).

3. Obvious Spiritual Power - In the book of Acts, chapter 1 Jesus promised his Church that they would receive power. If He did not say that, you might think they already had everything they needed. They were discipled by Jesus, many of them had witnessed the resurrection, and they knew the gospel. But they lacked one critical thing. They needed the power of the Holy Spirit if they were going to proclaim the gospel to the world, and to see a people raised from spiritual death, to spiritual life. In order to do this they would need the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit of God (Acts 1:8, 2:1-47). At Immanuel we want it to be clear that we value that power. So then, we want those who teach to teach in the strength God Himself supplies (1 Peter 4:9-10). And furthermore, we desire for our preaching and teaching to always be, “not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that…faith might not rest on in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:4).