What We Believe

First Baptist Church of Ferguson

333 North Florissant Road
Ferguson, Missouri 63135

314-521-1515

BAPTIST FAITH AND MESSAGE

Baptists accept the Scriptures as the source of doctrine.

Statements of faith are occasionally adopted by Baptist groups but they are not binding on members and are not intended to be used to hamper freedom of thought or the investigation of truth. Baptists look, not to creeds, but to the Bible for spiritual guidance. The following are some of the convictions shared widely among Baptists, as listed by the Baptist Ideals Committee in 1964:

1. The ultimate source of authority is Jesus Christ the Lord, and every area of life is to be subject to His Lordship.

2. The Bible, as the inspired revelation of God's will and way, made full and complete in the life and teachings of Christ, is our authoritative rule of faith and practice.

3. Every individual is created in the image of God and therefore merits respect and consideration as a person of infinite dignity and worth.

4. Each person is competent under God to make his own moral and religious decisions and is responsible to God in all matters of moral and religious duty.

5. Every person is free under God in all matters of conscience and has the right to embrace or reject religion and to witness to his religious beliefs, always with proper regard for the rights of other persons.

6. Salvation from sin is the free gift of God through Jesus Christ, conditioned only upon trust in and commitment to Christ the Lord.

7. Each Christian, having direct access to God through Christ, is his own priest and is also under obligation to become a priest for Christ in behalf of other persons.

8. The church, in its inclusive sense, is the fellowship of persons redeemed by Christ and made one in the family of God. The church, in its local sense, is a fellowship of baptized believers, voluntarily banded together for worship, nurture, and service.

9. Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the two ordinances of the church, are symbolic of redemption, but their observance involves spiritual realities in personal Christian experience.

10. A church is an autonomous body, subject only to Christ, its head. It’s democratic government properly reflects the equality and responsibility of believers under the Lordship of Christ.

11. Church and state are both ordained of God and are answerable to Him. They should remain separate, but they are under the obligation of mutual recognition and reinforcement as each seeks to fulfill its divine function.

12. The church is to be responsible in the world; its mission is to the world; but its character and ministry are not to be of the world.

13. Missions seeks the extension of God's redemptive purpose in all the world through evangelism, education, and Christian service and calls for the utmost dedication on the part of Christians to the task.

14. Christian education grows out of the relation of faith and reason and calls for academic excellence and freedom that are both real and responsible.