What We Believe

What does JPL Bible Church stand for?

Joy       Peace      Love

Galatians 5:22:  “But the Holy Spirit will produce this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace…”

To us, having joy in church means that while we all have trials in life, church is a place where we can have fun, enthusiasm, laughter and inspiration that comes from getting together with friends and spiritual family.

We can have peace in church when it is well run, effectively organized, has genuine unity, integrity, and accountability.

I Corinthians 14:1 says “Let love be your highest goal.”  Without truth and love there are many problems in church.  I have said “forget about the anointing, how about if we start with common honesty and courtesy!”  A loving church is friendly, accepting, forgiving and full of grace.

The Bible is the foundation and final authority of all our belief and practice.  It is our goal to understand it and experience it in our lives.

2 Timothy 3:16-17:  “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is right and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.”

If you would like to know our theological beliefs in detail, they are well represented in Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem.

Church is a spiritual family, a supernatural organization that works together to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 4:15-16:  “We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  He makes the whole body fit together perfectly.  As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

Pastor Steve was raised in the Reformed Church (kind of like the Presbyterians).  He graduated from an evangelical college called Biola University.  He spent time as a missionary in Africa where he was involved with Assembly of God churches  (Pentecostal).  When he returned from Africa he joined a Vineyard Church (charismatic).  He has been spiritually enriched every place God led him and has also seen “the good, the bad and the ugly,” which left him with respect for different spiritual traditions.

Non-Denominational

JPL is a non-denominational church.  We do have an Advisory Team written into our by-laws for the protection of the church.  The team consists of several pastors from outside the church and several leaders from inside the church.  In the event of a crisis, moral or otherwise, the leadership of the church can give them temporary control of the church so they can solve the crisis however they see fit, including terminating staff or dissolving boards.

How do we believe people get right with God?

Colossians 1:21-23  “You were once far away from God.  You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.  Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.  As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.  But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it.  Do not drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.”

We cannot possibly live up to God’s perfect, righteous standards.  We are forgiven by Jesus Christ paying the penalty for our sins on the cross.  Our lives are transformed by cooperating with the Holy Spirit.  Philippians 2:13 says “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”

What do we believe about spiritual gifts?

We do not believe this should be a divisive issue in the church.  We believe that the Spirit still gives each person one or more of the many spiritual gifts that are mentioned in the Bible, including gifts of healing, deliverance and tongues.  We want to help people find their spiritual gifts without trying to get them to conform to the spiritual gift experience of others.

If you have other specific questions about JPL you can e-mail Pastor Steve: steve@jplbiblechurch.org