Our Church

Tim Oakes
Mar 31, 2017
2 min read

Hello Friends,

Last post I began by telling you a little about our church. I’d like to go a little deeper this week.

When many people hear that I preach at Whitmell Christian Church, they ask what denomination we belong to?

My answer is that we don’t belong to any denomination. We are one of a group of churches that want to be nothing more or nothing less than the church of Jesus Christ. We have no desire to wear any other name than the name of Jesus.

We also believe that to be a church that honors Him to the best of our ability, we need to allow His Spirit-inspired Word to be the ultimate authority for all we do, not some earthly headquarters that decides based on a majority vote of delegates.

For that reason, our church operates as we see the church in the Bible. We are led by spiritual leaders known as elders, overseers, or shepherds (pastors) who are recognized by the congregation as meeting the standards for leadership revealed by Paul in the books of I Timothy and Titus. They are responsible for the spiritual oversight of the congregation, ensuring that accurate biblical teaching is being provided, and caring for the spiritual well-being of each member of the church.

They are also responsible for selecting the minister(s) or evangelist(s), as they did me. My primary responsibility is to preach and teach faithfully and effectively the gospel to the lost and to spiritually build up the church by teaching the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture. We believe the truth of Romans 1:16, which teaches that it is the gospel that is the power of God that leads to salvation to all who will believe it. We also believe that God’s Word provides all we need to become faithful, productive Christians.

We also have deacons, who serve under the direction of the elders to carry out whatever needs to be done to fulfill the work of the church.

We believe it’s time for the church to put aside human creeds, practices, and traditions; and simply follow God’s Word to the best of our ability, knowing that each of us will give an account for the things we have done on the judgement day.