Waverly Place Baptist Church

As a church, our foundational distinctive is that we believe the word of God is sufficient for everything. It is sufficient for faith. It is sufficient for practice. We hold that the word of God should define whatever a church believes and whatever a church does.

We also believe that God has give us His Holy Spirit to help guide us in believing, understanding and applying the Bible to our lives as individuals and as a local church. For this reason, being led by the Spirit, we see the following things as being essential to our life together:

1. Christ-Centered: Everything we are & everything we do as a church finds its source in the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ. We want to make Christ preeminent by declaring that sinners are justified by faith alone, that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers by God’s decree alone, & that this righteousness is the only righteousness that justifies & that true faith is made known by works. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4; 1 Timothy 3:16; Revelation 14:6-7)

2. Bible-Tested: As a church, we seek to shape everything around God’s Word, believing that it is through His Word alone that God grows His people. We believe Scripture is sufficient for life & godliness, so it must be given primacy for all things, both individually & corporately. We take it up for teaching, correction, & exhortation in righteousness.

2. Expositional Preaching: The preaching ministry of our church is dedicated to declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through helping us understand what God has revealed & apply it to our lives. We believe that a steady diet of what is called expositional preaching is the most effective way to build up the body of Christ. We do this by systematically preaching through books of the Bible, some times looking at an entire chapter and sometimes narrowing in on a few verses. We believe, in the end, that the main point of the passage must be the main point of the sermon.

3. Zealous Prayer: As a church, we believe that our health & growth is dependent on our trust in God. For this reason, we devote ourselves to much prayer in all our services. During our Sunday morning services, there are at least four different types of prayers that we pray, being led by both our pastors and members of our church. On Sunday evening we devote an entire service to praying together as a church. This is one of the best ways to actually get to know the members of our church, as we praise God, confess sin to Him and thank Him for how He is at work among us, finally praying over specific requests put together by our pastors.

4. Congregational Singing: We believe the most beautiful sound on earth is the singing of God’s people. Because music is such a powerful means for glorifying God and encouraging one another, our desire is to approach worship in song with deliberate thought and care. For this reason, we seek to highlight the voices of the congregation in our gatherings, keep instrumentation minimal & singing songs that are easy to follow & deep in Biblical truth.

5. Family Integrated: As a spiritual family, we seek to have our children with us in our gatherings as often as possible. While we offer childcare for our smallest ones, our times together are full of children, who we pray God will draw to repentance & belief. We believe that having our children join us in renewing our covenant with God both teaches them & prepares them to make this same commitment to Christ, as they grow into mature men & women for the Lord.

6. Intentional Discipleship: One of the driving desires of our church is to actually be in one another’s lives. We want to share one another’s burdens, build one another up & develop deep friendships, helping one another love & follow Jesus more.

7. Pastoral Care & Leadership: We are thankful to have a plurality of pastors who lead us as a congregation spiritually & practically. While our members are the final earthly authority in our church, we aim to submit to the teaching, leadership & guidance of the men God has faithfully given to us for our equipping.