XROADS PASTORAL STAFF & LEADERSHIP
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Our Core Values
- To love God with all our hearts; to have a passionate personal relationship with Jesus Christ. (Relationship)
We believe that to love God with all your heart (Matthew 22:37-38) is our number one priority. The only way that this can be accomplished is through a personal relationship with His Son Jesus Christ! - People matter to God! (Caring)
Loving people, all people, as Jesus loved them is the second of the greatest commands of our Father. (Matthew 22:39-40) - We invest in people NOT things! (Ministry)
The heart of who we are as children of God is to be real; real people in need of a powerful Savior who meets all our needs. Our time, talents and money are focused on helping, instructing and ministering the love of Jesus to people. (Matthew 25:40) - God’s grace extends to everyone! (Redemption)
Expressing the love of Jesus Christ is best seen when we meet people right where they are. We understand at our church that we are those very people in need of the grace of Jesus Christ. Where God’s grace has been extended to our sin we MUST extend grace to those who God would place in our paths. (Ephesians 2:4-10) - We share the absolute truth of God’s Word through the heart of His Son. (The Word)
We stand firm on the Word of God. God’s Word is true, powerful, unchanging and absolute. Jesus said that He came full of “grace and truth.” (John 1:14) God’s Word tells us that everyone needs forgiveness of sin. Jesus’ heart says that He died on the cross to forgive all our sin and to give us eternal life. Jesus is the only way to eternal life. (John 14:6)
CORE TENETS OF FAITH
1) The Holy Bible is the Word of God and is Absolute Truth. The Word of God consists of the OT & NT. It is inspired and authored by the Holy Spirit and transcribed obediently by men of God.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2) The Trinity – God the Father, Jesus the Son, and Holy Spirit. The Triune Nature of God is evident throughout the entire Bible appearing even in Genesis 1 as the “Spirit of the Lord hover on the waters” and “Let US make mankind in OUR image” (Gen.1:26). The word “trinity” does not appear in the Bible. However the truth of the premise reigns throughout and the encompassing doctrinal name chosen to represent a complex theology is “The Trinity”. God in three persons, yet still One, blessed Trinity.
(Matt 3:16-17) And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
3) God the Father - Almighty, Creator of the Universe, of all things visible and invisible. God the Father is seated on the throne in heaven with Jesus at His right side and the Holy Spirit working and acting all throughout the earth. The Father created all things and His will for all things was sought by Jesus in His time here on earth.
(1 Cor. 8:6) – “Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist.”
4) Jesus – The Incarnate Son of God conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus is Fully God, Fully man, the only eternally Begotten Son of God. For His Bride and for our salvation He came down from heaven. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. Because of His obedience unto to the Father, even death on a cross, (Phil 2:8) all things have been given to Him by the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
(John 1:14) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son4 from the Father, full of grace and truth.
5) Holy Spirit - The giver of life, He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. Deposited into believers at Salvation
(Eph. 1:13-14) In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory
(2 Cor. 5:5) He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
The Bible calls the HS “the comforter, the teacher, the helper and the advocate”. The Holy Spirit is not some weird or mystical presence. He is the Spirit of God that brings regeneration, new life, gifts of grace, and bears fruit in the lives of Believers.
6) Salvation – The saving Grace of God extended to humanity by the gift of Jesus Christ crucified. The Redemptive Plan of God from before the foundations of the world to reconcile us back to our Creator. This salvation delivers us from the bondage of sin and shame to a new creation in Christ Jesus! We are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus and not by our own efforts or works (Ephesians 2:8-9).
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
7) Sanctification – Is to be continually conformed to the image of Christ and to be reserved for holy use. The objective of every believer should be to hastily pursue the Lord’s directive to be pure and Holy as the Lord is. Sanctification demonstrates the urgency to be emptied out of anything that impairs against being a useful vessel for God's glory. From the moment of salvation we are being sanctified for good works to flow out as fruit of the Spirit.
(Philippians 3:12) “Not that I have already obtained [the resurrection] or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2) The Trinity – God the Father, Jesus the Son, and Holy Spirit. The Triune Nature of God is evident throughout the entire Bible appearing even in Genesis 1 as the “Spirit of the Lord hover on the waters” and “Let US make mankind in OUR image” (Gen.1:26). The word “trinity” does not appear in the Bible. However the truth of the premise reigns throughout and the encompassing doctrinal name chosen to represent a complex theology is “The Trinity”. God in three persons, yet still One, blessed Trinity.
(Matt 3:16-17) And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
3) God the Father - Almighty, Creator of the Universe, of all things visible and invisible. God the Father is seated on the throne in heaven with Jesus at His right side and the Holy Spirit working and acting all throughout the earth. The Father created all things and His will for all things was sought by Jesus in His time here on earth.
(1 Cor. 8:6) – “Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist.”
4) Jesus – The Incarnate Son of God conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus is Fully God, Fully man, the only eternally Begotten Son of God. For His Bride and for our salvation He came down from heaven. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. Because of His obedience unto to the Father, even death on a cross, (Phil 2:8) all things have been given to Him by the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
(John 1:14) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son4 from the Father, full of grace and truth.
5) Holy Spirit - The giver of life, He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. Deposited into believers at Salvation
(Eph. 1:13-14) In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory
(2 Cor. 5:5) He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
The Bible calls the HS “the comforter, the teacher, the helper and the advocate”. The Holy Spirit is not some weird or mystical presence. He is the Spirit of God that brings regeneration, new life, gifts of grace, and bears fruit in the lives of Believers.
6) Salvation – The saving Grace of God extended to humanity by the gift of Jesus Christ crucified. The Redemptive Plan of God from before the foundations of the world to reconcile us back to our Creator. This salvation delivers us from the bondage of sin and shame to a new creation in Christ Jesus! We are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus and not by our own efforts or works (Ephesians 2:8-9).
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
7) Sanctification – Is to be continually conformed to the image of Christ and to be reserved for holy use. The objective of every believer should be to hastily pursue the Lord’s directive to be pure and Holy as the Lord is. Sanctification demonstrates the urgency to be emptied out of anything that impairs against being a useful vessel for God's glory. From the moment of salvation we are being sanctified for good works to flow out as fruit of the Spirit.
(Philippians 3:12) “Not that I have already obtained [the resurrection] or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.