At Pathway Church, we seek to be an obedient church by fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). We take seriously our call to make disciples. In doing so, we believe it is important for us to “teach the things Christ has commanded us.” Below is what we believe about some of the “big” things in the Bible. The following portion is an abbreviated edition of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message that we hold to.
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. All Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.
There is one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe.
God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise.
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgement.
Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s 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. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
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. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility. 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.
In the Bible we see two main descriptions of the Church. The Body is one description of the church that Paul uses to refer to all the many parts that are working in submission to the Head, which is Christ. Belonging to the Body of Christ means that we have significance in Christ. Another way the church is described by the apostle Paul is that of The Bride of Christ. As people who are chosen, called and counted to be the Bride of Christ we strive to help one another prepared for that great day when the Bridegroom (Christ) calls us home. Understanding these two descriptions deepens our awareness that the Church is about belonging. Working together as a “body” and as His “bride” we belong to each other as an inspired community of Christ-followers. This belonging serves to provide us empowerment, equipping, and support. Being a part of His Body and knowing ourselves to be His Bride truly is an unfathomable grace that we enjoy as His followers.
Baptism Is: – A public confession of one’s identification with Jesus Christ – A Symbol of our death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus Christ. By being immersed in water (baptism’s literal meaning), we acknowledge the death of old life (before we received Christ.) Then, we are raised up out of the water to walk in the resurrection of our new life in Christ. – An example that Jesus gave us to follow after Him. – An act of obedience for each believer on the basis of forgiveness of sins – An observance / ordinance given to the church to administer.
The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the Body of Christ (the Church) partake of bread and the fruit of the vine (grape juice) and thereby memorialize the death of Jesus on the cross. Jesus himself instituted the Lord’s Supper as He celebrated Passover with His disciples on the night He was betrayed. The Lord’s Supper according to 1 Corinthians 11:23-29 is: – A memorial to Jesus’ death – A time of fellowship for the church – A time of examination for the believer – A time of thanksgiving for Christians – A witness to our faith in Christ – A looking ahead to Christ’s return.
The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over men who willfully acknowledge Him as King.
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.
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to create disciples of all nations. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness and Christian lifestyle.
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual responsibility to the whole world, 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.
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide of the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and living discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.
We partner with both the Southern Baptist Convention, the Blue River – Kansas City Baptist Association, and The Missouri Baptist Convention.
Sundays
Wednesdays at 6:30pm
We’re located right across the street from the Rec Park in Raymore.
904 S Madison St.
Raymore, MO 64083