Our Core Values

Not many people would travel by boat, plane, train or automobile without a destination in mind.  If a person is going to arrive at a particular destination...they need an"absolute essential" in ensuring their successful arrival.  That essential is a map.  Without it they would get lost or arrive at the wrong place.  With it they enjoy everything that they had planned for the their trip.

When it comes to church not much is different.  Too many churches are floating around without direction and a place of destination.  Proverbs 29:18 (NIV) says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish."  SGC has taken the first step in securing its future by having a destination worth living and dying for.  That destination is reaching out to people and building believers and our Core Values is the map that will get us there.

These Core Values are the driving force of Sugar Grove Church.  They help answer the question, "Why are we doing what we are doing?"  They also answer the questions, "Who are we?" and "What's most important to us?"  Core Values affect decisions, goals, change, priorities, conflicts, and spending.  They motivate people to meaningful ministry, touch the heart, and stir people to action.

Core Value #1 - Worship Actively

Celebrating the presence of God in our lives should be an important part of every Christians life.  To worship actively we must be willing to deal openly and honestly with God every day of our lives and to ultimately live lives of submission to Him.  At Sugar Grove Church we seek to cultivate an active and intimate relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ.  At Sugar Grove we want to be passionate about honoring God with our lives. 

Core Value #2 - Grow Purposefully

We believe that God desires people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.  For that reason we are committed to teaching, training, and equipping people to spiritually reproduce themselves in others and to be involved in and committed to a meaningful ministry at Sugar Grove Church.  We know that to be successful we must each be willing to make the growth journey from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity.  Sugar Grove Church is committed to equipping people to influence their world for Christ.

Core Value #3 - Serve Sacrificially

Jesus was the perfect example of a sacrificial servant.  Throughout his ministry here on earth he communicated to everyone around him that the practical expression of love is sacrificial service.  At Sugar Grove Church we want to be Jesus to the world around us.  We believe that the church exists to serve as the body of Christ and our desire is to engage our culture through that commitment to serve.  Sugar Grove Church is committed to a ministry where we will seek ways to sacrificially serve each other, our community and our world.

Core Value #4 - Communicate Truthfully

All people matter to God!  It doesn't matter where you're from or the color of your skin, God cares for and loves you.  So because you are so important to God, you're important to us and we want to share with everyone the great truth that God gave us through His Word and through His son, Jesus Christ. Sugar Grove Church is fully committed to communicating the Word of God to all people.

Core Value #5 - Love Passionately

It's all about relationships!  The relationship we have with God and the relationships we have with each other.  The Bible tells us that we should love God and also to love each other.  It's not an option, we are commanded to do it!  Jesus modeled this love to us through his life here on the earth and through his death on the cross so one of our Core Values is to love God and each other passionately.  Matthew 22:37 says: "Jesus replied, Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."  Sugar Grove Church is committed to loving God and loving each other in authentic relationships.

Our Core Beliefs

The Holy Trinity
We believe in the Holy Trinity consisting of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three persons co-equal and co-eternal, having the same nature and attributes and worthy of precisely the same worship, confidence and obedience (John 14:16; 2 Cor. 13:14; Matt. 3:16, 17; 1 Pet. 1:2).

The Father
We believe in God the Father, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal and immutable; full of love, justice, goodness, mercy, and truth (Eph. 4:6; Eph. 2:18).

The Son
We believe in God the Son, Jesus Christ our only Savior, full of grace and truth, by whom all things were made, who is the image of God in whom all the fullness of the god-head dwells in bodily form (Col. 1:14-19; John 1:1-3; Acts. 4:12). We believe in His deity (John 1:1); humanity (John 1:14); virgin birth (Matt. 1:18-20); death (John 19:33,34); burial (Matt. 27:57-60); bodily resurrection (Matt. 38:6,7); ascension (Acts 1:9); advocacy (1 John 2:1; Heb. 7:25); exaltation (Heb. 1:3); and coming again (1 Thess. 4:16,17).

The Holy Spirit
We believe in God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, whom the Father sent into the world to reprove it of sin, righteousness, and judgment and to testify of Jesus Christ (John 16:7-14); who is the source and power of all acceptable worship and service, the infallible interpreter of the infallible word, who indwells every true believer to guide him in grace and truth (Rom. 8:9; Eph. 1:13,14).

The Scriptures
We believe that the Scriptures both Old and New Testaments, as originally written, are verbally inspired of God without any admixture of error in their substance and that they were written by holy men of God who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit and they are final in authority in all matters of conduct and doctrine (2 Tim. 3:16,17; 2 Peter 1:21).

The Church
We believe in the Church, the bride of Christ, and that it is the body of which Christ is the head, and that all who are united by faith to Christ are members of the same. Having been baptized by one spirit into one body which is Christ's and having thus become members one of another, it is our solemn and covenant duty to fellowship with one another with a pure and fervent heart (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 1:22,23).
Section 7. The Ordinances
We believe in the holy ordinances of water baptism (Matt. 28:19; Acts 8:36-39) and the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. 11:23-36). We believe these ordinances are not essential to salvation but should be observed by all true believers.

Satan
We believe in the reality and personality of Satan, the Christian's adversary, a created being, who was originally the anointed cherub, but who sinned, losing his estate and thus becoming the father of lies and that his destiny is the lake of fire (1 Peter 5:8; Isa. 14:12-15; Rev. 20:10).

Sin and Fall
We believe that man was created in the image of God, after His likeness, that man through his own choice, at the temptation of Satan sinned and thus alienated himself and all the human race from God (Gen. 1:26; Gen. 3:1-7; Rom. 3:23; Rom. 5:18). We believe that the wages of sin is death and that man is totally unable to save himself (Rom. 6:23; Titus 3:5).

Salvation
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice; and that all who believe in Him are justified by His shed blood and that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become the children of God (Titus 3:5,6; John 1:12; John 1:29; Heb. 9:13-15; 1 Peter 1:18,19).

Assurance and Possession
We believe that believers can enjoy the assurance of the possession of salvation (1 John 5:13); security in Christ (John 3:36; John 5:24); the inheritance of incorruptible things (1 Peter 1:4); redemption (Gal. 3:13); justification (Rom. 5:1); propitiation (Rom. 3:25); adoption (Gal. 4:5-7); reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-19); sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30); and ultimate glorification (Phil. 3:20,21); and that they are partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

Future Destiny
A. We believe in a literal hell, a place of torment and anguish, prepared for the Devil and his angels, in which those who reject the Son of God as their personal Savior shall be tormented forever and forever (Matt. 25:41; Luke 16:23-26; Rev. 20:10, 13-15).
B. We believe in an eternal heaven where all the redeemed shall live in perfect peace and bliss forever before the face of God (Rev. 21:7; Rev. 22:7).

Resurrection
We believe in the resurrection of the dead. The righteous dead shall be raised at the appearance of Christ (1 Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 20:4-6); but the wicked dead shall not be raised until after the millennium and then face the judgment of the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11-15

Second Coming
A. We believe in the imminent, personal, pre-millennial return of Christ in the air for His saints, which event is the blessed hope of the Church and at which time the righteous dead shall be raised and the living believers translated, thus the righteous dead and the living saints shall be caught up into the air to be eternally with Christ (1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-54).
B. We believe in the personal, pre-millennial return of Christ to the earth with His saints in power and great glory; judging the nations and setting up His Kingdom (Matt. 25:31-24; Rev. 19:8-16).