Our Story
ABOUT US
The Journey Begins…
Lake Valley Community Church is a Christian, nondenominational church that started in 1993. Multiple families from different denominations discovered that they had similar desires and dreams for a new church that would have an impact on our small town. From day one, Lake Valley believed that a life with meaning should be centered around a relationship with Jesus Christ. So, we have committed ourselves to removing our masks and becoming real before our loving Father and each other so that we can become an authentic community that will not only change us, but will also attract a world hungry to find a place to belong.
As a local body of Christ, we feel there are four distinct mandates or strategies that we must practice for our body to thrive and grow.
These strategies are gathering, growing, serving, and sending.
Gathering is the practice of meeting together, growing is the practice of learning and applying God’s Word, serving is the practice of engaging and ministering to others, and sending is the practice of following the Great Commission.
What We Believe.
1. We believe the Bible –both Old and New Testaments– to be inspired by God. There are no errors in the original writings. The Bible reveals God’s will for the salvation and life of humanity. It is the final authority for all of a Christian’s life.
2. We believe there is one God, who created all things, infinitely perfect and always existing in three persons –Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son, He is fully God and fully human. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. We believe that the role of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ as Lord and to convict men, and to make believing sinners spiritually alive. He lives in, guides, instructs, comforts, and empowers the church for Christ-like living and service.
3. We believe that humanity was created in the image of God but rebelled and fell into sin. Death entered the world through sin, and humanity is now lost, a prisoner to sin and death, and separated from God our Maker. God has always supplied sinful humanity with His acceptable way of forgiveness and rescue from the power of death and sin. He does this to restore us to a relationship with Him.
4. We believe Jesus died on the cross, a sacrifice for our sins. We believe that the death of Jesus Christ and His resurrection provide the only way of salvation and freedom for all who confess and turn away from their sins and follow Him. Only those who submit to Jesus as Messiah, Lord and Savior are born again by the Holy Spirit and become children of God. Jesus rose bodily from the dead, defeating sin and death, and ascended to God, where He is now our Priest and Advocate. This is our Gospel.
5. We believe that water Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are sacraments that identify the church. They are used by the Holy Spirit for the Christian’s initiation and growth in Christ, and the building up of the church and its mission.
6. We believe that the Church is composed of all persons who by trusting in Jesus Christ have been born again by the Holy Spirit. They are united together in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. Every local church should, under Christ, decide and govern its own affairs. Every local church is an outpost of the Kingdom, entrusted with the treasure of the Gospel.
7. We believe in the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that it could happen at any time. This hope has a vital bearing on the personal life and service of the believer, and the mission of the church.
8. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead; of the believer to never ending life and joy with the Lord, of the unbeliever to the eternal death and separation from the Lord.
9. We believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for daily living as much as it is for initial conversion. Every day we need the grace and truth that Jesus brings. Living out His teaching about daily living is not a way to earn God’s love. Rather it is how our life looks when we live out the secure love of God that’s already in us because of Jesus Christ.
10. We believe that followers of Jesus must take personal responsibility to become mature and Christ-like. We are called to lay aside our old life, be filled with the Holy Spirit, to renew our minds diligently with the teaching of the Bible and submit every part of our lives to the will of God. A new set of virtues, motivations and morals will characterize our lives.
11. We believe that followers of Jesus are called to commit to His loving and wise plan for ordering family life. There are important roles and responsibilities for singles, husbands and wives, parents, and children. These are taught by Jesus and His Apostles in the Bible and are for all Christians at all times.
12. We believe that followers of Jesus should orient their lives to their new community, the church. The church is a family of families, whose head is Christ Himself. He and His Apostles have laid out a loving, wise plan for ordering the life of this family of families. There are important responsibilities and roles in this family for members, elders, deacons, teachers and others. Every believer should commit to a local church community and commit to Christ’s order for the church.
13. We believe that followers of Jesus must take personal responsibility for the strength and mission of the church. Every follower of Jesus has the Spirit who has given that believer gifts to be used to strengthen and build up the church. The believer’s time, energy, influence, money and talent is committed to this new community and its Kingdom ministry in the world.
14. We believe that followers of Jesus should commit to the peace and unity of the church. Christ and His Apostles laid out an order for restoring peace in the church, for dealing with moral failure in the church, for dealing with divisiveness and disunity. Every believer should commit to this process.
15. We believe that followers of Jesus are called to love and serve our world. Our relationship to non-Christians and the authorities of the world should be characterized by love and respect. Each of our lives and our life together should make the Gospel beautiful and believable. We should demonstrate a love for mercy, justice, and the poor, working to spread the Kingdom of God. We should each be ready to share with others the hope we have in Christ.