B.) Minors–
What is a minor?
A “minor” is a doctrine which we, as a church, agree NOT to be essential to a person's salvation nor of having an eternal life back in GOD’s presence.
Some examples of minors include:
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Specific church membership
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Eschatology,
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Salvation theories,
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the concept of the Trinity,
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the concept of typical tithing,
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the “formula” of baptism,
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the “instrumentation” of worship,
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the clothes you wear to church,
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vaccination status, or
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mask usage.
Whereas, we– as the Church and body of CHRIST, are unified on the foundational values—we recognize that not all Christians need to be unified on the minors. In other words, we can disagree on the minors and still worship and serve together in unity. Titus 3:5-9
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1.Membership-
Here at The Safe Haven Grace Worship Center,
We firmly believe that all believers are members of the whole Body of Christ which is the one true universal Church–thus we do not practice requiring an official record of our church membership. (despite whatever denomination of church a person might have been raised in or was officially affiliated with). If you are being intentional in your relationship with GOD and want to hear HIS message, join a small group, or utilize our educational classes–you are welcome to join us anytime!!
2.Eschatology:
There are many different ideas concerning the specifics of how Christ will return including Darby’s pre-tribulation rapture theory, mid tribulation, pre-millennialism theory, pre-wrath rapture theory, and post tribulation rapture theory.
Here at The Safe Haven Grace Worship Center,
We feel that arguing the details of Christ's return is about as pointless as arguing about the exact color and physics of a set of stairs, it doesn't matter exactly how they work– all we know is that they'll get us where we need to go if we do our part. While these theologies are interesting to study and discuss. We feel that the Bible should be our starting and ending point--not the theories and writings of man-made theology.
3.Salvation theories:
Some circles of Christianity teach that one can lose his/ her salvation once saved. While on the other hand, some circles teach one can never lose his/her salvation once saved. Both of these are serious errors. It is obvious from the study of the Bible there are many in this life who will claim to have secure salvation, but do not truly know Christ. Calvinism (predestination ) versus Arminianism (free will): Calvinism and Arminianism are two systems of theology that attempt to explain the relationship between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility in the matter of salvation.
Here at The Safe Haven Grace Worship Center,
We believe our sin cannot stop the ultimate will of GOD:
1. GOD’s desires,
2. GOD’s commands,
3. GOD’s purposes for our lives despite how many times we might stray off HIS path for our lives.
4. Our sin DOES however: create a relational distance between us and GOD.
4.Concept of the Trinity:
Here at The Safe Haven Grace Worship Center,
We believe the concepts of GOD-the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the son, Jesus as one ultimate supreme being or as three separate entities is not up to us to decide. That central belief concept we are leaving up to your personal relationship with GOD. We can give evidence on both sides of the issue. We, as mere humans, understand that we cannot even begin to fathom the infinite reach of GOD, so we will leave this topic up to you.
5.Concept of typical tithing:
Here at The Safe Haven Grace Worship Center,
We believe that tithing is not just about your ability to donate financially (the typical 10%, which is always great–if you have been blessed in that way), but tithing can also be volunteering your time, skills, and abilities, any of the ways that GOD directs you help out your fellow Christ–followers and your community.
-If you choose to tithe financially, we will have two ways for you to do so-
1. In the black locked tithing box with the provided tithing envelopes that you can drop in or
2. if you wish to tithe online–you can click the tithe link on the website.
***We will NOT be passing a collection plate during service. ***
6.The “formula” of baptism:
Here at The Safe Haven Grace Worship Center,
We do NOT believe that there is a magic formula for baptism. No human person is capable of giving us salvation by their correct baptism “formula”, nor are they capable of taking away our salvation by their incorrect baptism.
So if you want the minister, your friends, or your family to lay their hands on you and baptize you, then that’s ok by us.
But it does have to include:
“ ______________________, Have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior?"
When they say yes, grasp their arm with one hand and say, "Because of your faith in Jesus and in obedience of His command, I/we baptize you, _______________________, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
Lower the person backward into the water .. (see the example scripts.)
After---
prayer: “GOD, We thank you for the gift of the life of this person who was to be baptized. May your blessing of peace and joy be with them and protect them all of their days. We make this prayer in the name of your Son, Jesus.”
7.“Instrumentation” of worship:
Here at The Safe Haven Grace Worship Center,
We do NOT care about whatever Bible Translation you use–we just want you deep diving into whatever translation that YOU WILL read and study from on a regular basis.
We recommend the YouVersion bible app only because it's FREE, very easy to use, and has over 70 translations of the bible. If you like and use another bible app on a regular basis, please feel free to continue to use whichever you prefer to study the WORD with. Here at The Safe Haven Grace Worship Center, we will utilize the YouVersion Bible app in our studies with the NIV bible version.
8.What you wear to church:
Here at The Safe Haven Grace Worship Center,
We also do NOT care what you wear in our physical church building–as long as the essentials are appropriately covered by a shirt on top and shorts/skirt/pants on bottom and that there are no vulgar pictures or words on the clothing. Your choice of shoes or lack thereof is up to you. Due to our new carpet, we ask all clients to take off their footwear when coming inside the building on the carpet protector.
9.Your vaccination status:
Here at The Safe Haven Grace Worship Center,
We firmly support your family’s personal decision and whatever side of the issue you are on. We are NOT going to force anybody to be vaccinated to come in and hear God's WORD and feel HIS love for them. We have vaccinated and unvaccinated members in our Church.
10.Mask mandate:
Here at The Safe Haven Grace Worship Center,
We will NOT enforce mandatory mask usage unless it is a forced mandate upon society as a whole by the government like what happened in 2020.
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Why the differences?
God instructs us not to waste time quarreling over every little issue.
2 Timothy 2:14.
While certain doctrines and theories are worth pausing on, reflecting over, and discussing– most are merely distractions from the overall mission of Christ.