Calvary Baptist Church of Wakefield, Michigan

Our core commitment is that the church is not our invention; the church belongs to Jesus Christ, and he defines what it should be like in the Bible. For that reason, we seek to submit to Scripture in every aspect of church life. Our agenda is not set by our preferences, but by the Word of God. Because we believe that the Bible is the authority for the church, our services are characterized by thor

ough teaching from Scripture. Our goal in each sermon is to take the biblical text and explain what it means, in context, and how that applies to us. We also make much of theology: because we believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, we are convinced that there is value in seeking to understand how it all fits together. But the goal of Bible study is not academic: the first and greatest commandment is to love God with our whole beings, and the second is to love our neighbors as ourselves. We believe that the Bible reveals God's plan of redemption: that God's standard is perfect holiness, that we all sin and fall short of his requirement, and that Jesus Christ has met that standard in our place, taking the punishment that we deserve and offering to us his righteousness, to be received by faith. This gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is the most important message of our church. Our goal is to proclaim this good news so that people are converted to Christ. Then, we work to help Christians grow in spiritual maturity, in their knowledge of Scripture, so that they too are equipped to do the work of ministry, so that the whole church is involved in building one another up in Christ. We seek to grow in love for God, exalting him in worship that is reverent, so that we learn to prize his kindness and his majesty. We believe that the church is central to God's work in the world today, and that being part of the church is not merely optional for people who believe Jesus. In the church, we find encouragement to continue in love and good works, accountability, and a community in which we can show the love of Christ to one another.