Statement of Beliefs

Statement of Faith   The church subscribes to the doctrinal statement of the "Baptist Faith and Message" as adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1963 and as revised in 1998. We voluntarily band ourselves together as a body of baptized believers in Jesus Christ personally committed to sharing the good news of salvation to lost mankind. The ordinances of the church are believer's baptism and Lord's Supper. We affirm Christ is the Head and final authority for the Church. We affirm His Word, the Holy Bible as the inspired Word of God and the basis for our beliefs and is binding and the final authority in all matters of faith and practice. We believe the Bible is inspired by God and inerrant and infallible in the original autographs and is preserved by God in such a way as to be authoritative and totally reliable today. We also believe that it is truth without any mixture of error in all realms of realty, historically, scientifically, doctrinally, and prophetically.   To this end we hold these specific doctrines:   1.      A belief in one God, infinite spirit creator, and sustainer of all things, who exists eternally in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These three are one in essence but distinct in person and function.   2.      The Father is the first person of the Trinity and the source of all that God is and does. From Him the Son is eternally generated and from. Them the Spirit eternally proceeds. He is the designer of creation, the speaker of revelation, the author of redemption, and the sovereign of history.   3.      The Lord Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity. Eternally begotten from the Father, He is God. He was conceived by the virgin Mary through a miracle of the Holy Spirit. He lives forever as perfect God and perfect man; two distinct natures inseparably united in one person.   4.      The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, proceeding from the Father and the Son and equal in deity. He is the giver of all life, active in the creating and ordering of the universe; He is the agent of inspiration and the new birth; He restrains sin and Satan; and He indwells and sanctifies an believers.   5.      All things were created by God. Angels were created as ministering agents, though some, under the leadership of Satan, fell from their sinless state to become agents of evil. The universe was created in six historical days and continuously sustained by God; thus it both reflects His glory and reveals His truth. Human beings were directly created, not evolved, in the very image of God. As reasoning moral agents, they are responsible under God for understanding and governing themselves and the world.   6.      Adam, as the first man, willfully disobeyed God, bringing sin and death into the world. As a result, all persons are sinners from conception, which is evidenced in their willful acts of sin; and they are therefore subject to eternal punishment, under the condemnation of a Holy God.   7.      Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice by the appointment of the Father. He fulfilled the demands of God by His obedient and sinless life, died on the cross in full substitution and payment for the sins of all, was buried, and on the third day He arose physically and bodily from the dead. He ascended into heaven where He now intercedes for all believers.   8.      Each person is saved only through the work of Jesus Christ; through repentance of sin and by faith alone in Him as savior. The believer is declared righteous, born again by the Holy Spirit, turned from sin, and assured of heaven.   9.      The Holy Spirit indwells all who are born again, conforming them to the likeness of Jesus Christ. This is a process completed only in heaven. Every believer is responsible to live in obedience to the Word of God in separation from sin.   10. The church is a local assembly of baptized believers, under the discipline of the Word of God and the lordship of Christ, organized to carry out the commission to evangelize, to teach, to administer the ordinances of believer's baptism and the Lord's supper. Its offices are the pastors, and deacons. It is self-governing. It functions through the ministry of gifts given by the Holy Spirit to each believer.   11. The return of Christ for all believers is imminent. It will be followed by seven years of great tribulation, and then the coming of Christ to establish His earthly kingdom for a thousand years. The unsaved will then be raised and judged according to their works and separated forever from God in hell. The saved, having been raised, will live forever in heaven in fellowship with God.   12. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery and pornography are sinful perversions of God’s gift of sex and are destructive behaviors alienating man from God.

Church History

In the 1940’s some residents of Garden Villas began meeting in homes and having services and prayer meetings. These individuals desired to establish a Baptist witness in the neighborhood.   So on March 31, 1940 Garden Villas Baptist Church was organized by thirty two members.   Rev. John Peachy was called as the first pastor and W.K. Weiner along with J.W Loving were elected as the churches first deacons. By October of 1940 the church had grown to ninety seven members. At the close of 1940 the church acquired property at the corner of Prentiss and Fauna Streets and by 1941 construction began on a white two story wood frame building where services and Sunday school was held.   In 1949 the brick educational building on the north side of the campus was completed and the present sanctuary was finished in February of 1952.  The educational build east of the sanctuary which includes a large fellowship area and kitchen was dedicated in February of 1967. Since the 1940’s the Garden Villas Baptist Church has sought God’s guidance in ministering to the community.  In 1999 we became a bi-lingual congregation with services in English and Spanish. Our current pastor is Rev. Ricky Moore.  God continues to expand the ministry in 2004 by adding a Cambodian congregation to our family.  The pastor is Rev. Huot Suk Hok,  The Cambodians meet in the original educational building on the north side of the campus.  It is exciting times at Garden Villas Baptist Church and we encourage you to come and worship with us.