Ministry Application

Calvary Chapel Tracy is a non-denominational fellowship of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our desire is to know Christ and be conformed into His image by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Church: We believe that Jesus Christ is the head of the Body, His church, and the purpose of the church is to be a fellowship of believers in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The only true basis of Christian fellowship is through Christ's (Agape) love. God is spirit, therefore our worship service is spiritual by the leading of the Holy Spirit and also places great emphasis on truth, that is, the teaching of the Word of God inductively and systematically.

Scripture: We believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, of both the Old and New Testaments, in their original manuscripts, as inspired, infallible, the complete & final written revelation of God. All scripture is God breathed, useful in teaching, rebuking, correcting & training in righteousness. We reject doctrinal viewpoints or spiritual phenomena which are based solely on experience. We look to the Word as the basis of all our faith, practice, teaching & discernment. We believe in all the basic doctrines of conservative evangelical Christianity. On issues that have historically divided believers into denominations we seek to find Biblically sound middle ground.

Trinity: We believe in one personal, loving, transcendent and holy God, the creator of all, Who is eternal, and Who exists eternally in three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus: We believe that Jesus Christ, though fully God, became a man and suffering unto death. He is the promised Messiah, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, provided atonement for our sins by His vicarious death on the Cross, was bodily resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit, ascended back to the right hand of the Father, lives and makes intercession for us. We believe that Jesus 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.

Salvation: We believe 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 people by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When a person sincerely repents of their sin and accepts Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior by faith, trusting Him alone to save them, that person immediately becomes "born again" & is sealed by the Holy Spirit. All their sins are forgiven, they become a child of God and have eternal life. Evidence of conversion is seen through conviction, fleeing from sin & the fruit of Spirit manifested.

Holy Spirit: We believe the work of the Holy Spirit in believers is to indwell, seal, empower, & baptize them into the body of Christ. We further believe that any believer can ask in faith and the Holy Spirit will come upon him, enabling him to preach the Gospel in power. We believe that all the gifts of the Spirit are available & operational within the church, but should only be publicly exercised under the guidelines found in 1 Corinthians 12-14, and by permission of the pastoral leadership. We believe that love is more important than all the gifts, and without love, exercise of the spiritual gifts is worthless.

Satan: We believe there is a devil called Satan who, along with all his evil angels, called demons, is destined to spend eternity in hell. He seeks to deceive believers and defeat the work of God. He is not all-powerful and can be resisted. God protects all believers from any powers seen or unseen. Believers cannot be possessed by demons.

End Times: We believe and wait for the rapture of the church, and believe that the second coming of Christ will be personal, premillennial and visible.

As a Calvary Chapel, we believe...

In the Expository Teaching of the whole Word of God (Acts 20:20,27; Neh. 8:8; Ps.138:2). Therefore our worship services are structured around the teaching of the whole Bible. We teach the bible expositionally, verse by verse & chapter by chapter. Our greatest aim is to help the congregation understand, & apply God’s Word to their lives.

That Healthy Sheep beget Healthy Sheep. We seek to win the lost, disciple the saved & encourage the faithful. We believe that if we take care of our “depth,” God will take care of our “breadth.” The purpose of the church is not numerical growth, but spiritual growth. Our only strategy is to “feed the flock of God” (John 21:12; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2).

In a Pastor-led church as the truest biblical pattern for church government, so-called the Moses model. Therefore the Elder Board, under the leadership of the Pastor, is primarily responsible for direction and decision making. The senior pastor has principle authority, but relies heavily on the elders in decision making & on deacons for the workload.

In Male Leadership as pastors. Therefore we understand I Tim 1-3 to set out four qualifications for elders/pastors: moral character, giftedness to teach, divine calling, & male gender. God uses women in strategic ways, but pastoral authority & the teaching of doctrine in the church are reserved for qualified men.

In Servant Leadership. This is the conviction among its pastors that the churches we pastor do not exist to serve us, but that we are called to serve and lay our lives down for them. Jesus declared Himself to be our example in this, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-28).

In both the Sovereignty of God and Mankind’s free will choice. Therefore we resist the extreme positions of hyper-Calvinism and/or hyper-Arminianism. We feel that both try to force a conclusion that disregard a biblical balance. The believer in Christ is both secure in his faith and responsible to live a life of faith.

That our ministry should be Simple & Sincere. Therefore we seek to imitate the Apostle Paul: “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have behaved in the world, & more abundantly toward you”- 2Cor 1:12. Therefore our services are conducted in a relaxed & comfortable style. Human efforts to coerce or manipulate a response is contrary to the gentle & personal nature of the true ministry of the Holy Spirit.

In focusing on God’s Abundant Grace. Therefore our attitude should be, to consent to be loved by God, though we are aware of how unworthy we are of that love; to refuse to make resolutions & vows to be better, for that is to trust in our flesh; to expect to be blessed, though we know how unworthy we are of those blessings. This also includes our heart to restore brothers and sisters in the faith who have fallen into sin. We seek to win them back and see them use their gifts once again for God’s glory.

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