
First Baptist Church has one purpose: to help people in our community and around the world know God, love God, and serve God.
Our vision is to become a growing community of committed, caring Christians who reach out to unchurched people across Ocean County, helping them become the people God wants them to be through combined ministries of relevant Bible instruction, contemporary worship, and compassionate service.
Believing we have been brought together by the grace of God as brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ through confession of our faith and believer's baptism, we joyfully and solemnly covenant with each other:
To pray daily for ourselves and each other
To study the Scriptures and teach them in our home
To worship God, honor His Word, and work for His glory with the believers of this fellowship
To observe faithfully the ordinance of the Lord's Supper
To walk together in love with genuine concern for each other
To give the church preeminence over all institutions of human origin and faithfully support its ministries
To send the Gospel to the whole world
To witness the power of Christ in our lives and lead others to have faith in Him
To live according to the will of God as recorded in the Scriptures, abstaining from whatever is unbecoming the Christian profession of faith
KNOWING GOD
SCRIPTURE:
We believe the Bible, God's
written Word, is our ultimate source of authority.
Therefore, it is essential that we declare through
holiness and demonstrate through study the centrality of God's
Word in our lives and ministries.
WORSHIP:
We believe worship, corporate and personal, draws us into the
presence of the true and living God, allowing us to know Him better
as He reveals Himself to us.
Therefore, it is essential that we declare His glory
through worship.
PRAYER:
We believe prayer is a primary way for believers to spend
time with God, listening to Him and talking with Him.
Therefore, it is essential that we experience a growing
knowledge of and relationship with our God through prayer.
LOVING GOD
COMMUNITY:
We believe the church is a community of people who share a
common faith in Jesus Christ, committed to Him and to each other in
love and mutual service.
Therefore, it is essential that we learn and live out the
"one-another" commands of the New
Testament in ways that strengthen the individual and the church.
STEWARDSHIP:
We believe that God is the source of all we have, and that He
has taught us to invest a portion of our resources for eternal
purposes. Therefore,
it is essential that we follow the sacrificial example of Jesus
Christ in giving of our time, talent and treasure for eternal
purposes, an evidence of our growing love for Him.
CHRISTLIKENESS:
We believe that conformity to the person of Christ is the
goal of every disciple.
Therefore, it is essential that we pursue Christlikeness
along with others in the faith community as we learn to love Jesus
Christ and experience the transformation He brings to our lives.
SERVING GOD
MINISTRY:
We believe God has gifted every follower of Jesus Christ for
ministry. Therefore,
it is essential that we discover, develop and exercise our
Spirit-given gifts to promote the spiritual health of the individual
and the church.
LEADERSHIP:
We believe in the critical value of godly character and
integrity, ministry skill and relational health in leadership at all
levels. Therefore, it
is essential that we identify, train and equip each new generation
of ministry leaders.
OUTREACH: We believe God has called us to look outward, locally and globally. Therefore, it is essential that we focus on serving those across the street and around the world who do not yet know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.