For many people, their church building is a significant part of their identity as a church. That is not so for us. We are primarily concerned with having an adequate place in which to gather with one another to do the work that churches are to do as revealed in Scripture. In the Bible we do not read much about the physical places where churches assembled. They met in homes, they met in public places, they met in upper rooms, they met in schools, etc.. Whether these were borrowed, rented, or owned is not specified. What is specified is that the first Christians assembled together often (Acts 2:46; 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:18-26; 16:2;Hebrews 10:25). To assemble simply requires a place. Thus, a church is at liberty to decide what is most helpful in its unique circumstances.
Until the mid 1960’s, the church in Pontiac met in the home of Bob & Linda Davis. As the church grew, another location was sought. Our first building was at 935 N. Main Street. Old-timers might recall that when the old high school campus was located at the corner of Main and Indiana, the building housed a “mom and pop” grocery store called Quigley’s. That location served us well for over 50 years!
In March of 2016 we moved to our present location at 520 N. Oak St. The building was originally built in 1946 by Trinity Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod). When that church disbanded in 2015, we were given the opportunity to purchase the building.
We do what we read in the Scriptures that the early Christians did with “one another.” The primary purpose of our assembling is to spiritually edify, encourage, instruct, and challenge one another and to worship God together. We seek to motivate one another to “love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24). To that end, we feed on the Word of God by studying the Scriptures together. We teach and admonish one another in song (Colossians 3:16), and we pray together.
Each first day of the week (Sunday) we specifically assemble to remember Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross and His victorious resurrection from the dead by “breaking bread” (Acts 2:42; 20:7) in “the Lord’s Supper” (1 Corinthians 11:20-26). It is also on this day that we collect money to do the work that God has given churches to do (1 Corinthians 16:1,2).
However, we do not solicit money from our visitors. Giving into the collection is the work of the members of the church, not our guests.
A denomination by definition is “a religious organization uniting in a single legal and administrative body a number of local congregations.” We are not part of any denomination. There is no organization of which our church is a part. Never in Scripture are the local churches portrayed as being overseen by an outside entity other than Jesus Christ. Quite the opposite, the apostles taught that the oversight of churches was given to qualified men appointed from among the group they were to shepherd (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2,3).While denominations have become the norm in modern culture, no such organization is instructed, illustrated, or implied in Scripture. While many have likely been formed with the intent to create unity in faith and practice, we believe that such organizations promote disunity by having professing Christians identifying themselves by something inferior to Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:10-15) and ultimately having people using denominational doctrines and traditions as their authority rather than God’s Word (cf. Matthew 15:9).
NO. Salvation questions are always important. This is what the entire Bible is about. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news that despite, our sinfulness, we can be saved by God’s grace.
However, answering the question accurately and clearly depends on knowing what is meant by “you.”
If the above question is asking if we believe that only those who are part of our denomination will be saved, the answer is, “We are not part of a denomination.” (See question, “Of what denomination are you a part?”)
If the question is asking if we believe that only those who are a part of this local church in Pontiac will be saved, the answer is still NO. Salvation is not realized through any local church.
If the question is asking if we believe that only those who are part of the one church that Jesus said He would build are saved (Matthew 16:18,19), then the answer is YES.
However, it is important to understand that salvation is not realized by joining that church. Rather, that one church/body (Ephesians 1:22,23; 4:4) is made up of individual saints (Ephesians 2:19-22; 4:11-16) who have been saved through Jesus Christ and, therefore, have been added to His body of saved ones (cf. Acts 2:47).
The saved are those who confess their faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God (Romans 10:9-13), repent of their sins, and are baptized into Him for the remission of their sins (Acts 2:21-39), calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21). The saved are those who follow Jesus Christ as Lord (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15,16; John 8:21-24; 14:6).
