Hope Chapel is a Grace Baptist Church.
Word of Grace
We are a conservative church
We believe that God, the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has given us the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The Bible is God’s inerrant word able to make us wise for salvation and it must be central in the life of the church, be the source of all our teaching and govern the life of the church in everything.
- 2 Timothy 3.15-17; 2 Peter 1.19-21; Psalm 12.6; John 16.13
Gospel of Grace
We are an evangelical church
We dearly love the gospel, the good news that Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification. We receive God’s grace by faith alone. The benefits of the gospel include forgiveness, no condemnation, the gift of the Holy Spirit and a certain hope of heaven, Romans 5.1,2; Romans 8.1. We need to understand the gospel because there is no other way of salvation. Through faith in Christ we find joy, humility, generosity and assurance of God’s love along with the fruit of the Spirit.
- Galatians 5.22, 23
Doctrines of Grace
We are a Reformed church
We believe that when we come to Christ it is ultimately all of God’s doing because of his kindness to us. We are so sinful that, left to ourselves we would never have chosen God had he not chosen us. This choice he made, not because of anything good in us, before the world began. We believe that Christ died specifically for us so atoning for our sins not simply potentially but actually. We believe that we were enabled to choose Christ only because God’s Spirit worked in our hearts to make us willing. We believe that God will keep all those who are truly his so that they cannot be lost.
- John 10.27-30
Marks of Grace
We are a baptized church
We look for the church to be made up of those who have been saved and show this through their lives. No Christian in this life is perfect, but the true Christian is characterised by repentance and faith and a desire to follow the Lord Jesus as a willing disciple. In the NT the commitment to follow Christ was publicly declared through baptism.
- Matthew 28.19; Acts 2.38, 41
Growth in Grace
We are a nurturing church
God’s purpose is both to save and sanctify those he has called to himself. While Christians have been declared righteous (i.e., justified) before God on the basis of Christ’s work for them, it is God’s purpose to make them practically righteous (i.e., sanctified) making them like the Lord Jesus in their character. This process is only completed in heaven, but our thankfulness for God’s saving grace motivates us to eagerly and intentionally cooperate in the life long process of being made more like Jesus. The church, through its teaching and fellowship is to help in this growth in grace.
- 2 Peter 3.18
Proclaiming Grace
We are a missionary church
Along with all other Christians we see ourselves as commissioned by God to engage with our local community and with the world globally to proclaim the gospel and offer the grace of God in Christ freely to all people, calling them to repentance towards God and to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We therefore reach out in evangelism and seek to send missionary workers overseas.
- Matthew 28.18-20; Colossians 4.2-6
