BELIEFS

Our core beliefs about the Gospel, what it means to belong to the body of Christ, and how those beliefs are lived out in our church life.

Gospel Essentials

What holds our fellowship together

We believe God, who created the entire universe, is deserving of perfect obedience and wholehearted worship from every human individual, and He has made this right clear to everyone on earth.
Every person is born a sinner and has sinned against the perfectly righteous, holy God who created them, and is without excuse for their sin.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God and was fully incarnated on earth, now in heaven. He is the perfect expression of who God is. He is not a created being, having always existed as God, equal to the Father and Holy Spirit, while also being fully human.
Jesus Christ was born of a virgin mother, herself a sinner, and lived a perfectly righteous life that fulfilled His requirement of perfect obedience. He died an innocent Man, condemned for the sin of every human ever to live, and was buried a few hours later.
Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day after His execution, vindicating Him of any and all charges of sin.
Whoever places their personal trust in Jesus Christ’s death as a perfect substitute on their own behalf, and in Christ’s literal, physical, resurrection from the dead, is freed from both the punishment and power of sin.
Every genuine believer has the Holy Spirit living in them and is therefore able and responsible to obey God’s commands, by His enabling grace.

The Church

Christ's body on earth

Because Scripture clearly teaches that all genuine Christians (those who hold to the Gospel Essentials as described above) are members of the body of Christ, we do not have an official “Membership Policy” as such. Instead, we recognize as belonging to our Fellowship those who:

Profess to believe the essentials of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as described above, so that they are named a brother or sister
Attend Greenville Christian Fellowship
Endeavor to walk in the Spirit in order to live a consistent Christian testimony

Accountability

How we deal with self-destructive conduct

Because the Lord Jesus Christ places a responsibility upon all true Christian churches to hold one another accountable to obeying and honoring Him in their conduct, we actively practice church discipline according to Matthew 18. When a brother or sister of GCF habitually practices sin, we attempt to help him or her by implementing Matthew 18 as follows.

We will endeavor to approach this whole process with prudence, aiming to confirm all things according to truth.
Any believer within the Fellowship will talk privately with the one observed sinning. They will explain why the action or lifestyle is sinful according to God’s Word. If the one sinning repents, the conversation will remain private.
If, after genuine private attempts to help the one sinning to see their sin in light of Scripture, they still refuse to acknowledge the actions as sinful or to demonstrate a repentant heart, two or three believers in the Fellowship will attempt to correct them together. If the one sinning repents, the conversation will remain private.
If, after genuine attempts by this group, the one sinning remains unrepentant and entrenched in sin, the group will bring it to the elders. After confirming all things as best as possible, the elders will bring the matter to the attention of the people of the church, who will then deal with the person’s sin and restoration publicly and as a whole.