Who We Are

We seek to be a family in Christ that loves God with our whole being. We want our affections, thoughts, desires, and lives to demonstrate that God is our most valuable treasure.

We encourage one another to engage in weekly worship services, connect through small groups, and find places in which to serve one another, our community, and our world.

Our Mission

We exist as a family in Christ to love God, love our neighbors, and make disciples of all peoples.

We are a blood-bought family of heavenly citizens whose identities are rooted in our union with Jesus. The Bible teaches that we are in Christ—that we have died with him, been raised with him, and that our lives are now hidden in him.
And we are in Christ together. We are bound to him and to one another.
We seek to be a family in Christ that loves God with our whole being. We want our affections, thoughts, desires, and lives to demonstrate that God is our most valuable treasure. We know we can’t do this perfectly, which is why we rejoice that Jesus has perfectly fulfilled this command on our behalf!
Love of neighbor starts in our care for one another in the body of Christ. We want South Cities Church to be a different kind of community—one that does not give into the culture of quick outrage and offense, but rather is quick to forgive and ask for forgiveness. We want to be eager to lay down our rights and preferences for love’s sake and to maintain the unity that the Holy Spirit has created among us.
We believe that embodying the greatest commandments will necessarily lead to us being a people that engages in the Great Commission—namely, making disciples of all peoples. The whole church is called to this—not just pastors or church leaders. How do we do this?
Go to them. Some of us will go across the street or across the office, while others may be called to go across the world. But we all must engage other people. We all must “Go.”
We baptize them. This signifies a person’s conversion. When the Spirit causes someone to be born again, we baptize them and welcome them into the family of God and invite them to walk with us in our family towards maturity in Jesus.
We teach them to observe all Jesus commanded. We want to teach people the commands of Jesus and call them to actually follow him. We want our teaching and calling to include both words and deeds. We want to speak to them and walk with them.

Our Beliefs

God Relates
In the beginning, God created everything out of nothing. This included mankind. (Genesis 1-2) God created mankind in order to have a relationship with him. He created mankind to enjoy his perfect goodness and glory.
God revealed himself and related to Adam and Eve, the first humans, in a perfect relationship in the perfect home of the Garden of Eden. Our God desires a relationship with human beings and therefore has revealed himself to them in creation, in his word, and in his Son (Psalm 19, Hebrews 1).
Man Rebels
God gave man one loving command. They were not to eat from one tree in the garden. They could eat from every other tree, simply not this one, because God knew that if they did, they would surely die. Satan disguised himself as a serpent and deceived Adam and Eve into disobeying God. He twisted God’s word so that they put their faith in the serpent rather than in what their perfect and loving God had revealed to them. This was rebellion against an infinitely holy God, thus sin entered the world, and death entered through sin (Genesis 3). Mankind had broken their relationship with God and deserved eternal punishment.
But even then, God in his mercy promised that one day a perfect Man would come who would crush the head of the serpent and bless all the nations of the earth (Genesis 3:15). The rest of the Old Testament has the reader looking to see when that perfect Man will arrive—yet even the best heroes in the Old Testament ultimately fall short, being tainted by sin.
Jesus Redeems
Finally, the perfect Man comes on the scene. Indeed, it is the God-Man who was with God in the beginning (John 1). Infinite sin against God required an infinitely valuable sacrifice for sin. Therefore, God sent his Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, to bear the condemnation for the sin of the world in his body on the cross. Jesus died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (Romans 8:1–4).
Jesus is a merciful High Priest, because although he was tempted in every way that we are, he did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). There God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21.) Jesus took all of our sin, and God gave us all of the perfect righteousness of Jesus. Therefore, we are no longer condemned to the sinful state we were born into (Romans 5:12), but are redeemed into the family of God as his sons and daughters (Romans 8:1–17), if we put our faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 2:1–9).
Those who put their faith in Jesus are united with Christ, and when he returns, they will be revealed with him. (Colossians 3:1–4) Therefore, they look forward to that day when Jesus will return and they will be with him forever in the New Heavens and the New Earth (Revelation 21).
Why does the church exist?
God has called out an “assembly” (the literal translation of the word “church” in our New Testament) for himself from every tongue, tribe, and nation. The description of the church might be best found in Ephesians chapters 2 and 3, where it is said to display God’s glory to the nations and to the heavens! Do you want to know what God is like? Look to the gathered individuals in the church. There you will see his love, his kindness, his anger at sin, his peace, and his discipline on display.
What does the church do?
The church acts as an embassy on earth, one that speaks on behalf of heaven and helps the saints represent their true nation in a foreign land. It is a passport issuing agency that places a high priority on membership as a way to affirm professions of faith and support the proclamation of the gospel through protecting the holiness of the church (as Adam/Eve and the Old Testament priests were charged). In this way, each individual embassy corporately displays God’s holiness and glory. The church acts as an example to all peoples of a holy nation and invites others to join them in pointing towards the nation that will rule over the earth someday: the kingdom of God.
Who is baptism for?
Baptism is the way that an individual publicly identifies with Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection. It signals in an outward manner what has already become true by faith: an inward cleansing of sin and faith in Christ. Because it is only for those who have turned in faith towards Christ and turned in repentance away from their sin, baptism is reserved for those who have professed faith in Christ and been examined and affirmed by both the elders and the church as a whole.
What does baptism do?
We affirm that baptism continues God’s good work of sanctification in the life of the believer, like other means of grace that he grants to his people. It does not justify us, as some in church history have believed, but instead is a way that God meets and continues to minister to us as he draws us to himself. When we gather on Sundays, our life as a church revolves around God’s Word. When someone comes to be baptized, we are watching a dramatic reenactment of that word in an individual’s life.
What if I was baptized as an infant?
Since we believe that baptism is reserved only for those who have professed faith in Christ, we do not believe that infant baptism is a valid form of baptism. That being said, we would welcome you to join us in worship and for conversation around these topics.
What is the process for baptism and membership at South Cities?
We follow this process in assessing an individual for baptism and membership:
1) Come to a Baptism & Membership Class.
2) Write a short testimony and signal your desire to be baptized / become a member.
3) Be interviewed by an elder and a congregant, who then recommend your name to the elders, who then recommend your name to the congregation.
4) Be baptized at our next baptism date, and then join the congregation at our next family meeting (typically the latter follows one week after the former).
Who is membership for?
We believe that church membership is the normal way that baptized believers identify not only with Jesus, but with a particular body of believers. This is the vision of the New Testament that the biblical authors present for discipleship: believers that are associated together in local churches for the sake of mutual encouragement, holiness, and advancement of the gospel. Formally committing to participate in the life of the body enables the whole church to recognize who they are covenanted with for the sake of spreading the good news about Jesus.
What do members do?
Members at South Cities are formally responsible to oversee the addition and removal of members from our church, as well as appoint and remove officers (elders and deacons). In addition, members have the responsibility to vote on our budget and larger expenditures of the church, as well as vote on proposed changes to our founding documents. Informally, we believe that our members are responsible for building each other up in our faith and evangelizing the lost world. Our commitments to each other can be found in our Membership Covenant, and our common beliefs can be found in our Congregational Affirmation of Faith.
What is the process for baptism and membership at South Cities?
We follow this process in assessing an individual for baptism and membership:
1) Come to a Baptism & Membership Class.
2) Write a short testimony and signal your desire to be baptized / become a member.
3) Be interviewed by an elder and a congregant, who then recommend your name to the elders, who then recommend your name to the congregation.
4) Be baptized at our next baptism date, and then join the congregation at our next family meeting (typically the latter follows one week after the former).