What We Believe

These statements exist to highlight the core truths in Scripture that the Church is called to hold onto together—truths that help us live in the fullness of life God intended as His family.

At the heart of it all, we’re a family held together by love. Believing the right things in a prideful way isn’t love. Letting go of truth in the name of comfort isn’t love either. But holding to truth with humility and love—that’s what Jesus showed us. And that’s the kind of community we want to be: a people shaped by both truth and grace, fully alive in Him.

  • We believe in one God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

    We believe in God the Father, Creator of all things, who is loving, all-powerful, and good.

    We believe in Jesus, the Son of God—fully God and fully human—who lived, died, and rose again to rescue and redeem us.

    We believe in the Holy Spirit, who fills and empowers God’s people, making the presence of God real in us and through us.

    God is three-in-one: distinct in person, united in essence, and working together in perfect love. This mystery is not something to solve but a reality to live in—a relational God inviting us into relationship with Him.

  • We believe the Bible—comprised of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments—is the inspired and authoritative revelation of God, true in all it teaches. Though written by many human authors, each was led by the Holy Spirit to communicate God’s heart and will.

    Scripture is more than inspiration; it’s our foundation. While we believe God is always present and speaking, He never contradicts Himself. The Bible helps us know God, follow Jesus, and discern what is true.

  • Salvation is the word we use to describe the transforming work of God in us—how He rescues, renews, and restores.

    In the story of Scripture, salvation is something that has happened, is happening, and will happen for those who trust in Jesus. It’s a gift we receive, a process we’re living, and a future we’re promised.

    We have been saved—through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. It’s by grace, through faith—not by anything we’ve done (Ephesians 2:8–9).

    We are being saved—by the presence of the Holy Spirit, who shapes us to look more like Jesus as we follow Him day by day (1 Corinthians 1:18).

    We will be saved—as we endure in faith, holding onto the hope that God will one day make all things new, including us (Matthew 24:13).

    Salvation isn’t just about a moment—it’s about a whole life. And it’s not something we earn; it’s something God is doing in us: past, present, and future. Because of Jesus, we live with confidence that death doesn’t have the final word—and we’re being renewed from the inside out.

  • The Gospel is the good news that God Himself has come to rescue us from sin and make all things new through Jesus.

    In grace, God took the initiative. Jesus lived the life we couldn’t, died the death we deserved, and rose again—on our behalf. Through His life, death, and resurrection, we’re invited into a new kind of life.

    This good news is not just personal—it’s cosmic. It’s about a Kingdom breaking in, not just hearts being changed. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we’re called to live as a preview of what God is doing to restore all creation.

    The Gospel is both gift and calling. It wakes us up from death to life and invites us to join God in His redemptive work—faithful, fruitful, and full of hope.

FAQs

  • One of the great difficulties in defining a biblical understanding of sexuality in our modern context is the unseen, inner pain a person often carries behind the question. In recent history, the church has mishandled the topic of sexuality from a variety of angles. The church’s witness has centered on what forms of sexual expression Scripture is against instead of the dignifying, freeing sexual expression Scripture advocates for. For example, Jesus elevated singleness and held marriage in high esteem without idolizing it. More personally, while the church has historically held to an understanding of sexuality distinct from the surrounding culture, the application of that belief in recent history has become alienating to those whose sexual expression does not line up with the church’s. The tragedy of that shift has been that many have been made to feel alienated by the Christian church because of sexual practice and/or sexual orientation.

    Belief

    We believe in the historically Christian view of marriage and sexual expression; namely, that marriage is a lifelong one-flesh covenant union between two sexually different persons (male and female) from different families.

    How we Express Our Belief

    The expression of this belief is often the more important question to people in search of a spiritual home: Will I (or one of my loved ones) be welcomed at Good Soil Church? And is there a barrier where that welcome is worn out?

    Regardless of sexual practice and/or orientation, Good Soil Church welcomes all to worship with us. Jesus is the head of the church, and Jesus was uncompromising in teaching and calling people to align with his beliefs, a pathway to “life to the full.” (John 10:10) Another group of rabbis, called the Pharisees, were equally convicted of the truth of their beliefs, and held many beliefs in common with Jesus. So why was it that those who felt alienated by the Pharisees also felt so welcome by Jesus? Because of how each expressed common beliefs: the Pharisees did so in pride, as their primary concern was being right, while Jesus did so in love, as His primary concern was compassion for the person and story behind the belief.

    The church is called the Body of Christ. We are a communal expression of Jesus’ heart, so both our beliefs and our expression of those beliefs should mirror Jesus. When it comes to sexuality, we carry three important convictions that inform our expression:

    1. Our first responsibility is to be a living display of covenant love and sexuality. The church was not founded to critique the surrounding culture but to form a distinct counterculture where “life to the full” is on display as an invitation to all. However, in many ways the church has mirrored the culture more than forming a counterculture. Therefore, our work is not to change anyone else’s mind or critique the world outside of our family, but to live with the sort of fidelity, service, and love within our own singleness and marriage covenants that we become a living witness to the fullest sort of life.

    2. We lead with a heart of love and compassion for people. The doors and the arms of our church family are open to anyone, regardless of belief. No one will ever be excluded from worshiping with us on Sundays for any misalignment of belief.

    3. We must differentiate between agreement and acceptance. One of the truly fascinating aspects of the life of Jesus is that the very people whose lives least aligned with his ethical teachings were most drawn to him. His dinner company and close friends are made up of people out-of-alignment with his teaching (e.g. Jesus teaches that to even look at a woman lustfully is to commit adultery, then is consistently surrounded by prostitutes who profited on lust. ). In modern cultural rhetoric, agreement and acceptance are often used synonymously: “If you don’t agree with my ethical choices (belief), you don’t accept me (expression).” However, in Jesus, we observe the opposite phenomenon: Those who felt most accepted in his presence were those most obviously living in disagreement with his teaching. Therefore, as a church we are committed to becoming a community linked to Jesus in both agreement and acceptance. We are unapologetically aligned with every word of his teaching. Equally, we are uncompromisingly insistent on becoming the sort of community where those out-of-alignment with his beliefs (including sexuality) feel welcome and accepted in our fellowship.