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Church History |
Statement of Faith |
Church Covenant |
How To Unite With Our Church
Our purpose is threefold:
to glorify God by exalting Jesus,
equipping the saved, and evangelizing the unsaved.
We
shall accomplish this purpose by a commitment to grow
stronger through worship (Matthew 4:10),
larger
through witnessing (Acts 1:8),
warmer through
fellowship (Acts 2:41-47),
deeper through
discipleship (Colossians 2:6-7),
and broader
through ministry (Ephesians 4:12-13).
CHURCH HISTORY
On
March 23, 1993, a concerned group of Christians began
meeting for a Bible Study. After much prayer a mission was
begun on August 10th with thirty-one believing
it was the will of the Lord to establish a new work on
Airline Highway.
The
mission called itself The Gonzales Baptist Mission and was
sponsored by Istrouma Baptist Church, Baton Rouge. Later
the mission was incorporated and changed its name to
Ascension Baptist Church.
The
first Sunday School classes were held at the Holiday Inn
with forty-four present. Having outgrown the Holiday Inn,
the mission rented a building on Highway 44 and on October
31, 1993 called a pastor, Paul Dean, who remained with the
church until February 1995.
On
March 20, 1994, the church purchased 10.8 acre tract of
land on Airline Highway for the price of $165,000.00.
During the following months, work began on Phase 1 of a
combination education building and temporary sanctuary.
The men of the church worked to prepare the foundation
which was poured in February 1995. With the assistance of
Campers on Missions, church members, and contractors, the
construction of a 14,000 square foot building was begun.
While
the members were busy working on the structure, a pastor
search committee was working to find a man called of God
for the church. In the meantime, Rev. Tommy Sinclair,
Chaplain at Woman’s Hospital, served as interim pastor.
Then, on January 28, 1996 the church called Rev. Keith
Crider who preached his first sermon on Easter Sunday,
April 7, 1996.
On July
7, 1996, the mission moved into its permanent location on
Airline Highway with one hundred forty present to worship
and praise the Lord for the great things He had done.
Having
grown sufficiently strong in all areas, the church met on
April 19, 1998 to constitute itself from a mission into a
church with a full, independent program. A few months
later, the church held a note burning ceremony to mark the
retirement of the land note.
As a
church, the years since have seen significant growth in
every area without exception. The church has doubled in
membership, in Sunday School enrollment, offerings and has
added almost four hundred people to the church membership
either by baptism or transfer of letter. And as great as
the past has been, we still believe the best is yet to be.
On
September 24, 2006 the Ascension Baptist family voted
overwhelmingly to approve a current master plan as
presented by architect, Louis Reames. The next phase is a
proposed adult education facility.
STATEMENT OF FAITH
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THE SCRIPTURES |
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The Holy Bible was
written by men divinely inspired and is the record of
God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect
treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author,
salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of
error, for its matter. |
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2. GOD |
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There is one and only
one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual,
and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, preserver, and
Ruler of the universe. The eternal God reveals Himself to
us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to Him we owe the
highest love, reverence, and obedience.
There is one and only
one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual,
and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, preserver, and
Ruler of the universe. The eternal God reveals Himself to
us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to Him we owe the
highest love, reverence, and obedience.
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God the Father
He is all powerful, all
loving and wise. God is Father in truth to those who
become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. |
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God the Son
Christ is the eternal
Son of God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born
of the Virgin Mary. In His death on the cross He made
provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was
raised from the dead, ascended into heaven and is now
exalted at the right hand of God where His is the One
Mediator, between God and man. |
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God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit
inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through
illumination He enables men to understand the truth. He
exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment. He calls men to the Savior. He cultivates
Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the
spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His
church, seals the believer unto the day of final
redemption. |
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1. MAN |
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Man was created by the
special act of God, in His own image, and is the crowning
work of His creation. In the beginning man was innocent of
sin and was endowed by His Creator with freedom of choice.
By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin
into the human race. Only the grace of God can bring man
into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the
creative purpose of God. |
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2. SALVATION |
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Salvation involves the
redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all
who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His
own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer.
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3. GOD'S PURPOSE OF
GRACE |
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Election is the
gracious purpose of God, according to which He
regenerates, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners.
All true believers
endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ,
and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from
the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.
Believers may fall into sin through neglect and
temptation, yet they shall be kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation.
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4. THE CHURCH |
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A New Testament church
of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of baptized
believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and
fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of
Christ, committed to His teachings, exercising the gifts,
rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and
seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. The
ordinances of the Church are baptism and the Lord’s
Supper.
The New Testament
speaks also of the church as the body of Christ, which
includes all of the redeemed of all the ages.
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5. BAPTISM AND THE
LORD'S SUPPER |
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Christian baptism is
the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of
obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified,
buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin,
the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk
in newness of life in Christ Jesus. Being a church
ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church
membership and to the Lord’s Supper.
The Lord’s Supper is a
symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church,
through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine,
memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His
second coming.
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6. THE LORD'S DAY |
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The first day of the
week is the Lord’s Day. It commemorates the resurrection
of Christ from the dead and should be employed in
exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public
and private, and by refraining from worldly amusements,
and resting from secular employments, work of necessity
and mercy only being excepted. |
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7. LAST THINGS |
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God, in His own time
and in His own way, will bring the world to its
appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ
will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth;
the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in
righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell,
the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in
their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their
reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord. |
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8. EVANGELISM AND
MISSIONS |
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It is the duty and
privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church
of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of
all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek
constantly to win the lost to Christ by personal effort
and by all other methods in harmony with the gospel of
Christ. |
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9. STEWARDSHIP |
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God is the source of
all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have
and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual
debtorship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the
gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions.
They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with
their time, talents, and material possessions; and should
recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the
glory of God and for helping others. According to the
Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means
cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately,
and liberally for the advancement of the Redeemer’s cause
on earth.
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10. COOPERATION |
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Members of New
Testament churches should cooperate with one another in
carrying forward the missionary, educational, and
benevolent ministries for the extension of Christ’s
Kingdom. Christian unity in the New Testament sense is
spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common
ends by various groups of Christ’s people. |
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11. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY |
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Church and state should
be separate. The state owes to every church, protection
and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. The
state has no right to impose taxes for the support of any
form of religion. A free church in a free state is the
Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and
unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the
right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of
religion without interference by the civil power. |
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OUR CHURCH COVENANT |
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Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God, to
receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior,
And
on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost,
We
do now, in the presence of God, angels, and this assembly,
most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one
another, as one body in Christ.
We
engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk
together in Christian love; to strive for the advancement
of this church, in knowledge, holiness, and comfort;
To
promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its
worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines;
To
contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the
ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the
poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations.
We
also engage to maintain family and secret devotions; to
religiously educate our children; to seek the salvation of
our kindred and acquaintances;
To
walk circumspectly in the world; to be just in our
dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in
our deportment;
To
avoid all tattling, backbiting, and excessive anger;
To
abstain from all appearance of evil; to defend the
sanctity of human life; to oppose the spread of all forms
of moral evil; and to be zealous in our efforts to advance
the kingdom of our Savior.
We
further engage to watch over one another in brotherly
love;
To
remember one another in prayer; to aid one another in
sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in
feeling and courtesy in speech;
To
be slow to take offense, but always ready for
reconciliation, and mindful of the rules of our Savior to
secure it without delay.
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