A Reformed Evangelical Church
PROCLAIMING CHRIST AS KING OVER EVERY AREA OF LIFE
Reformed,
Evangelical
Mission church
of the crec.
We are a
We are Reformed.
Christ the King Evangelical Church stands in the Reformational tradition of historic Protestant orthodoxy, with its emphasis on sola gratia, sola fide, soli Deo Gloria, sola scriptura, and solus Christus. Just as the sixteenth century Reformers sought to recover the centrality of the gospel and the sovereignty of God in salvation, as well as correct errors that had crept into the life, liturgy, and doctrine of the Church, so we believe the Church militant ought to be ever reforming, until she finally becomes the Church triumphant at the last day.
Christ the King Evangelical Church is an evangelical church, confessing with our mouths and believing in our hearts the saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. As evangelicals, we seek to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ as the power of God unto salvation, for the crucified and risen Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life. We are motivated and inspired by an evangelical spirit to herald the gospel in all of creation, that sinners might be converted and saved, that the nations might be discipled, and that the rule of Christ might be made visible to the ends of the earth. As evangelicals we insist that true religion is not just a matter of public membership in the institutional Church (as vital as that is), but also a loving, trusting personalized relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son and by the working of the Holy Spirit.
We are Evangelical.
We are a mission church.
Christ the King Evangelical Church is a mission church of the CREC. A mission church is a constituted body of Christians under the oversight of a particularized church whose intent is to establish a new particularized church. The King’s Chapel is CTK’s particularized, sponsoring church and is providing oversight by way of a pro tempore session until CTK becomes a particularized church of its own.
What We Believe
This page is a summary list of our beliefs. For a more detailed treatment of our doctrinal standards and form of government, see our constitution below.
Creeds, Confessions, & Catechisms
Christ the King Evangelical Church takes the following creeds, confession, and catechisms as historic and reliable summaries of what Scripture teaches. They, therefore, faithfully represent our doctrinal commitments.
The Creeds
The ecumenical creeds of the early Church have always served as the doctrinal boundaries of orthodoxy. They have stood the test of time, and serve as the foundation of all our doctrinal commitments.
The Apostles’ Creed (ca. 200)
The Nicene Creed (325; revised, 381)
Definition of Chalcedon (451)
Confession and Catechisms
The Westminster Standards serve as the doctrinal standards for officers of CTK, in subordination to Scripture. While Scripture serves as the only infallible rule of faith and practice, the standards are regarded as a fallible but useful summation of biblical truth.
The Westminster Standards (including the Confession of Faith [1646] and the Shorter and Larger Catechisms [1647]; American revisions [1789])
OUR DISTINCTIVES
WHAT WE VALUE AS A PEOPLE
With the following values, we are striving to be a robust community in Jersey, for Jersey.
A Scriptural Faith
Because we believe the Bible is absolute truth, our aim is to be absolutely saturated with it. We come to the Bible with the hope and expectation that what it says will increasingly become what we say, think, and do instinctively. We’re allowing every bit of Scripture to shape every bit of our lives. In other words, all of Christ for all of life.
Rich Worship
All of life is downstream of worship. It is culture’s fountainhead. Worship must therefore be ordered by God’s infallible, life-giving Word in order to produce a blessed life and a godly culture. For this reason, our worship takes the shape of a covenant renewal service and is characterized by the holiness and joy that is fit for a feast at the King’s Table. Rich psalmody and hymnody are part and parcel of this glorious worship. In covenant renewal worship, we robustly worship the fearful and wonderful God who calls us, cleanses us, consecrates us, communes with us, and commissions us.
Keeping Our Kids
The gospel should not only spread miles wide in one generation, but also miles deep in the generations to come. This requires keeping our kids, which means enculturating them in the life of the church. It means rejoicing with them around the Table. It means providing for them a distinctly Christian education. It means training them in every area of life for their good. It means loving them in and through Christ always. At the end of the day, it means we will parent by faith for faithful generations.
Ordinary Hospitality
We are not a non-profit with programs. We are a microcosm of the new humanity in Christ. We are a community of households. Living out this identity can’t be done by filling our calendars with sterile, albeit positive, programs. It must be done by filling our homes with other households around home-cooked meals. Ordinary hospitality isn’t a strategy for effective church ministry, though it will be that; it is the way to live as neighbors in the borough we’re building for Christendom. Because of this we will prefer homes and friendships over programs every time.
Ambitious Optimism
The Father has given the Lord Jesus all authority in heaven and on earth, which means he now has every right and power to make heaven and earth his own. We believe history is the working out of just that. History isn’t the story of man’s depravity worsening and worsening until Christ rescues him last minute before ultimate catastrophe. History is rather the glorious outworking of Christ uniting all things in heaven and on earth in himself for a most jubilant crescendo. History will not end with a war, but with a banquet. The Bride won’t arrive battered and blemished for that final day, but will come having been gloriously renewed by the careful and patient work of her Bridegroom. And so, since history is characterized by Christ’s hopeful providence, we believe his Bride, the Church, should be characterized by a zealous, ambitious hope in the present. Our Lord will receive his inheritance.
Christian Boroughs
In the beginning, man’s duty was to mature the world for the glory of God. He was to build a culture that would radiate God’s beauty and mirror his creativity. In Christ and by the Spirit, we believe man has been redeemed to carry out his original calling. He’s been redeemed to renew what the Fall has disfigured. Therefore, our aim is to see Christians built up to be leaders in the arts, in business, in education, in politics, in literature, etc., toward the end of cultivating a distinctly and robustly Christian culture. We’re pursuing a faith that builds culture. We’re pursuing a faith that builds boroughs.
OUR DENOMINATION
The Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches