SURPRISE

Our mission is to build a community of believers who are empowered by the God’s Spirit to engage in heart-felt worship that glorifies God. Following Christ’s example, we strive to live lives of service to each other and share the good news about the kingdom of God with others.

Our vision is to be a community of believers who glorify God and who are being transformed into Christ’s likeness. We provide an atmosphere where strangers become friends and friends become family. 

Click on links to see supporting scriptures for our faith.

Our goal is to maintain unity by following God's Word – the Bible. From the Bible, we learn that "God is love". Jesus taught that the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all our being. The second command is to love your neighbor as yourself. God demonstrated his love for us by the sacrifice Jesus made for us. Our love for God is demonstrated by lives lived according to these two great commandments. We love because He first loved us.

We are a non-denominational body of Christians. Following the New Testament example, we meet on the first day of the week. We worship by observing the Lord's Supper, singing,  praying, Bible study, and giving back to God.

We are united by these truths:

There is one God - Father, Son, and Holy spirit; three spiritual beings eternally united as one (Matthew 28:19; John 17:11).

Jesus Christ is the Son of God He came to earth to finish God's plan for our salvation. (1 Corinthians 15: 3-4; Ephesians 1:18-23).

Salvation is by God's grace through faith He gives this gift to those who demonstrate faith when they:

• Believe in Jesus Christ
• Confess Jesus as Lord
• Repent (turn) from their sins
• Are baptized for the remission of their sins.

(Ephesians 2:8-10; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16 Romans 10:10).

The Bible is the inspired Word of God. It was written by men inspired by God’s Spirit. It is the final authority in life and teaching. (2 Timothy 3:15-17).

Jesus will return to take His own into Heaven. He will judge the living and the dead. The unrighteous will go to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life (Mathew 25:31-46).

Our church is structured much like the New Testament church. The Surprise Church of Christ is an independent church that seeks to follow the Christ. The foundation of our beliefs and practices is His life and teaching.

Following the New Testament example, we refer to our leaders as, “Elder/Pastors,”. Christ directs them to lead the local church (Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 5:1-2). We also have a “Minister” who leads the church through preaching and teaching the Word of God (2 Timothy 4:1-5). In addition, we are blessed with a group of servants that the Bible calls “Deacons” who are appointed to specific church tasks (1 Timothy 3:8).

We are a diverse family with a variety of ages, races, social and economic backgrounds. Our diversity produces great strength for our family. Every person is of equal value in God’s sight and vital to the continued success and growth of Christ’s Church.