About
Our Beliefs
There is a famous quote that has been attributed to many different’t church father’s throughout history that says, “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In everything, love.” The idea this is communicating is that within the beauty of our Christian faith are certain doctrines that are essential and we must collectively be united on. The thought is also communicating that there are other doctrines that do not carry the same weight where people can have different perspectives and expressions that might not affect our standing with God, and it’s ok for that to happen.
Bandera Community Church is a non-denominational church and we stand on the ancient beliefs of the historical Christian church stated in the Nicene Creed that was established in the 3rd century as a unified statement of faith for the global church to stand on and protect from heresies corrupting God’s church.
Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
Eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God;
begotten, not made, one in being with the Father, through Him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven,
was born of the virgin Mary, and became man;
He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;
He suffered, died, and was buried;
On the third day He rose again, in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, in glory, to judge the living and the dead; And His kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life;
who proceeds from the Father and the Son;
with the Father and the Son He is worshiped and glorified;
He has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic (universal) and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins;
and we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
In Short
We Believe:
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The doctrine of the trinity- There is one God who has revealed Himself in the persons of the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
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Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man.
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Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross and in doing to defeated the power of sin and darkness.
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Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead fulfilling all things.
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Salvation of humanity comes by the grace of God through our our faith in the person of Jesus Christ and all He’s done.
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The divine authority of scripture canonized in the protestant old and new testament.
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The true believer will be known by the change of their character, and that this change comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who is fully active in every way scripture describes.
At Bandera Community Church, we believe these are the essentials of our faith and we believe these are unchanging. We hold to the belief that anything that varies from these does not align with historical Christian doctrine.
F.A.Q's
Sexual Expression
Though historically this wasn’t stated in creeds, we believe it is important in todays culture to stand on the historical Christian view of marriage and sexual expression; namely, that marriage is a lifelong one-flesh covenant union between two sexually different persons (male and female) from different families, and that all sexual practice outside of marriage is sin. Regardless of someone’s current sexual orientation, if the question arises about whether or not they will be welcomed among the gathering of Bandera Community Church, they absolutely are welcome. We believe it is important to remain uncompromising with God’s truth and His intent for His creation in this regard, and we also believe God is calling all people to Himself to redeem and restore regardless of their sexual expression.
Non Essential Doctrine
We believe there are countless non-essential theological concepts that each follower of Jesus expresses in various ways because of their unique God given personalities, faith backgrounds, and other influences. We believe at BCC that as we follow Jesus together in Bandera we are meant to hold these non essentials in tension with one another and we encourage the simplicity of sharing a table with one another to have meaningful discussions about why we believe certain things that we do. We believe in the intimacy of sharing a table to seek understanding about the things we believe as opposed to trying to over-define who we are as a body of believers within the endless areas of non essential doctrine. In this way, we can grow, be challenged, corrected, and above all else, love one another.
We believe this approach will allow us within BCC and alongside other churches in our community to work together within a wide range of beliefs while still being able to disagree on certain non essential issues. We believe this is an important component of genuine Christian community because we can always stand on the foundation the essentials establish. The essentials include boundaries but it also allows for tension. We believe for fellowship to be true and relationships to be formed with God and with each other, this tension MUST exist.
We believe that by not being overly rigid with different doctrine or non-essential theology it still affords the freedom to experience change as we grow as a church and experience the new things the Lord is doing within the life of our church which is meant to be an ongoing experience.