Vision

The Vision followed by the pastors and elders of Verse By Verse Church (VXV) is predicated upon what Peter said in 1st Peter 5, “Feed the flock of God which is among you.”  Our desire is that the people at VXV Church would be among the best fed, best loved people in our community. The primary objectives of our fellowship are to equip, care for, serve and to bring to maturity in Christ, those whom God has entrusted to us, and to do so in the context of fostering a strong Gospel centered community.  We believe that as we are faithful to do that, believers will be enabled to serve the Lord in outreach within and outside of the church, in whatever capacities God has gifted them:

We intend to accomplish that by, but not limited to, the following:

  • Teaching the whole council of God by dynamic energetic expositional teaching, with an emphasis upon present application.  There are times when topical teaching is appropriate, but we feel strongly that the main diet coming from the pulpit should be expositional teaching.  We consider VXV a teaching church.
  • Developing people to spiritual maturity through men’s and women’s Bible studies, small discipleship groups, and one on one discipleship and mentoring programs.
  • Continuing to focus on effective Gospel centered Sunday School and Youth Programs to mature our children in the Lord.  We must encourage everyone to take part. We believe in teaching our kids the fundamentals of the Gospel and pointing them to Christ, rather than simply providing an environment for games to pass the time.  We encourage parents to have their older children alongside the adults in the Sunday morning service.
  • Encouraging strong fellowship and cultivating a real sense of community within the body, as a healthy alternative to the secular community from which people take so many of their cues.  We desire to create a strong community of Gospel centered believers doing life alongside one another, that we might encourage one another to spiritual maturity.
  • Develop relationships with people and groups in order to serve and be involved in our community here in Southwest Michigan.
  • Host and teach an interchurch weekly expositional Bible study to bring together seekers of the Word from different churches in our area.
  • Continue outreach through our rapidly growing Internet Podcast Ministry.

We understand that we cannot be all things to all people, and we remain flexible to following the leading of the Lord as we grow and different needs and opportunities present themselves.

Statement of Faith and Doctrine  –  WHAT WE TEACH

That the worship of God should be intelligent. Therefore, our Sunday morning gatherings are designed with great emphasis upon the teaching of the Word of God that He might instruct us how He should be worshipped.

That the worship of God should be spiritual. Therefore, we remain flexible and yielded to the leading of the Holy Spirit to direct our worship according to the revealed Word of God.

That the worship of God should be inspirational. Therefore, we give great place to music in our worship.

That the worship of God should be fruitful. Therefore, we look for His love in our lives as the supreme manifestation that we are truly worshipping Him.

That the only true basis of Christian fellowship is Christ’s (Agape) love, which is greater than any differences we possess, and without which we have no right to claim ourselves Christians.

That man’s greatest joy is found only in faithful obedience to God and that our enjoyment of Him is one of the chief means by which He is glorified.

We seek to teach the Word of God in such a way that its message can be applied to an individual’s life, leading that person to greater delight and maturity in Christ.

We teach all the fundamental doctrines of orthodox reformed theology as expressed in the five solas of the Reformation, and the general consensus of the historic Reformed confessions.

We teach the inerrancy of Scripture, that the Bible, Old and New Testaments is the inspired, infallible Word of God.

That God is eternally existent in three separate persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All three are uncreated, coeternal, and equal in power and glory and honor.

That Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, that He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, provided for the atonement of the sins of His people by His vicarious death on the Cross, was bodily resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit, ascended back to the right hand of God the Father, and ever lives to make intercession for us. After Jesus ascended to heaven, He poured out His Holy Spirit on the believers in Jerusalem, enabling them to fulfill His command to preach the Gospel to the entire world, an obligation shared by all believers today.

That all people are by nature separated from God and responsible for their own sin, but that salvation, redemption, and forgiveness are freely offered to all of God’s children by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and not upon the basis of human merit or works. When a person responds to and confesses Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord, trusting Him to save, that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit, all their sins are forgiven, and that person becomes a child of God, destined to spend eternity with the Lord.

That the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Scriptures are valid for today if they are exercised within the Scriptural guidelines for the sole purpose of edifying the body of believers. We believe that love is more important than the most spectacular gifts, and without this love all exercise of spiritual gifts is worthless. The Holy Spirit neither glorifies Himself nor believers nor His gifts by ostentatious displays, but rather He glorifies Christ by His work in drawing God’s children to respond to the Gospel and building them up to maturity in Christ.

That church government should be simplistic rather than a complex bureaucracy, and we depend on the Holy Spirit to lead, rather than on fleshly promotion. We subscribe to the plurality of eldership to carry out leadership for the church at the level of a local assembly, as under-shepherds under the authority of Christ who is the head of the body as a whole.

We are not a denominational fellowship, nor are we opposed to denominations as such, only their over-emphasis of the non-essential doctrinal differences that can lead to division in the Body of Christ. VXV has been formed as a fellowship of believers where the supreme desire is to know Christ and to be conformed to His image by the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God

FOR A FURTHER articulation of our theological beliefs, we affirm The Gospel Coalition’s confessional statement, which can be found here.