Our Core Values
Authority of Scripture: The Bible is the basis of our beliefs and actions as we minister the Word to one another.
Prayer: every aspect of our life together is surrounded by prayerful dependence upon God’s Spirit to be at work in and through us.
Unity and Acceptance: We are a very diverse group from many nations and denominational backgrounds. We encourage strong convictions, but grace and charity to everyone. As Augustine wrote: “In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity.”
Every Believer Ministry: People are God’s agents. Every believer is a minister and all share a calling to minister the Word to one another through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Discipleship: We want every member involved in helping those around them take a step to the right, as we journey towards Christ together!
We believe at ICF
The Church exists in the world to give glory to God and nothing brings God more glory than sinners turning in faith and repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ. We live in a day, however, when there is great confusion as to what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. Thankfully, the Bible, God’s own Word, is not confused. The following truths are clearly taught in the Bible:
- God is the sovereign Creator of all things – he is your Maker and Sustainer: “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth.” (Acts 17:24)
- God made all things “very good” (Genesis 1:31), in particular mankind who is made in his image (Genesis 1:26) to relate to him as Father in heaven (Deuteronomy 32:6; Isaiah 63:16; Matthew 6:9)
- God’s first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, rebelled against God and brought the cosmos crashing down in their “fall” (Romans 5:12,17,18,19;1 Corinthians 15:22)
- God did not abandon us to the just judgement our sin deserved. He raised up prophets to speak his word to his world. Finally and climactically, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). In his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, God has provided a saving remedy for our sin and rebellion. On the cross, God’s sinless Son died, paying in full the awful price of sin for every believer. Wonderfully and graciously, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
- On the third day, God raised in triumph, as he promised he would do, the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and exalted him to his right hand in heaven’s glory. It is from that place of glory and power, that the Lord Jesus will come again at the end of the age, to judge the living and the dead (Matthew 25:31-46)
- Putting your trust as a needy sinner alone in Jesus Christ, brings you “justification” and “adoption”; God declares you righteous in his sight, and adopts you into the everlasting security and blessedness of his family.
- Such saving faith in Jesus Christ alone is made possible by God the Holy Spirit, who convicts us of our sin (John 16:8), and our need of God the Father and God the Son who he reveals to us (John 15:26 , Acts 2:37). It is he who brings about the new birth of the resurrection life of Christ in all believers (John 3:3-8 ; Romans 8:11), and indwells them so as to equip and guide them in their life and mission in Christ as they depend on him, (Romans 8:14 , Acts 1:8 , 1 Corinthians 12:7-11).