The Healing House Plan
The Plan
The Healing House will mainly do two things: Gatherings and Groups. We will gather as the church to participate in congregational singing, praying, reading the Bible, hearing God’s word preached, observing the Lord’s commands, and being sent out on mission. From these gatherings, we are sent out to be the church in DFW City Groups to eat, pray, read the bible, serve the city, and be on mission in our neighborhoods.
GATHERINGS
As God’s people, we will establish a weekly rhythm of gathering for the purpose of remembering, equipping, celebrating, and sending. We will gather to remember the story of God’s saving work and redemption in history and the part that we play in that story by God’s grace. We will gather to be equipped by God’s word to learn how to love him more, trust him more, and grow in obedience to what he commands. We will gather to celebrate the reality that we’ve been saved from our sins, that Christ is raised victorious, and that he is coming again to make all things new. Lastly, at the end of each gathering, we will send the church out into the city to live on mission for God’s glory.
CITY GROUPS
City Groups are missionary teams of 6-12 adults sent on mission to a particular people in a particular neighborhood. They will do this by gathering often to eat together, study the Bible, serve the city, frequent local businesses, invite their neighbors into their community, and declare the gospel. City Groups are the context in which we will live out our identities as worshipers, family, servants, learners, and missionaries in everyday life. It’s encouraged within City Groups for everyone to identify two to three other people within the group that they study the Bible with, confess sin to, and pray with frequently.
DISCIPLESHIP
Our Gatherings and City Groups are our chosen structure and strategy to the end that we make and grow disciples. The church exists by and for this purpose. Discipleship happens when people are saved, transformed, and matured by the gospel, leading them to love Jesus, seek to live like him, and to teach others to do the same. This is the task that the church is called by God to participate in with him. When people are saved, they are called into this life of participating with God in disciple making by declaring and displaying the gospel.
MULTIPLICATION
The early church began as 120 people praying together and has multiplied dramatically ever since into a few billion people today. Of course, this is not the work of human individuals or communities, but of God miraculously working through people to glorify himself. But it is a work that we’re called to join God in, and he gladly welcomes us to join him. So as we join God in his mission, we want to multiply into as many City Groups as God sees fit to plant, and to plant as many churches as he allows us to.
Statement Of Faith
Statement of Faith
Article 1 – The Trinity.
It is the testimony of both Testaments and of the Christian Church that God is both One and Triune. The Biblical revelation testifies that there is only one God, and that He is eternally existent in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- God the Father. God the Father is the Creator and sustainer of all things, who created the universe in love to respond to Himself. He created man in His own image for fellowship, and calls man back to Himself through Christ after the rebellion and fall of man.
- The Son. Jesus Christ is eternally God. He was together with the Father and the Holy Spirit from the beginning, and through him all things were made. For man's redemption He left heaven and became incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary.
- The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, the Lord and giver of life, who was active in the Old Testament, and given to the Church in fullness at Pentecost. He empowers the saints for service and witness, cleanses man from the old nature, and conforms us to the image of Christ. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, subsequent to conversion, releases the fullness of the Spirit and is evidenced by tongues, joy, praise, and other inward and outward manifestations and gifts.
Article 2 – The Scripture.
We affirm that the Bible containing the Old and New Testaments is alone the only infallible inspired Word of God, and that its authority is ultimate and final and eternal. It cannot be added to, subtracted from, or superseded in any regard. The Bible is the source of all doctrine, instruction, correction and reproof. It contains all that is needed for guidance in godliness and practical Christian conduct.
Article 3 – The Atonement.
Christ's vicarious death on the cross paid the penalty for the sins of the whole world, but its benefits are only applicable to those who receive Jesus as their personal Savior. Healing of the body, soul and spirit, is provided for in the atonement, as well as, all of God's provision for His saints, but these must be appropriated.
Article 4 – Salvation.
The Word of God declares clearly that salvation is a free gift of God, based on the merits of the death of His Son, and is appropriated by faith. Salvation is affected by personal repentance, belief on the Lord Jesus (justification), and personal acceptance of Him into one's life as Lord and Savior (regeneration). The new life in Christ includes the privileges of adoption and inheritance in the Kingdom of God's beloved Son. Salvation is an act of free will in response to God's personal love for mankind. It is predestined only in the sense that God, through His omniscience, foreknew those who would choose Him. It is secure in the eternal unchanging commitment of God, who does not lie and is forever the same. Salvation should produce an active lifestyle of loving obedience and service to Jesus Christ our Savior.
Article 5 – The Christian Life.
We believe that the Scriptures portray the life of the saint in this world to be one of balance between what is imputed to us as Christians and what is imparted to us according to our faith and maturity. Hence God's provision for His children is total and the promises are final and are forever. The shortcomings of the individual and of the Church are because of the still progressing sanctification of the saints. The Christian life is filled with trials, tests, and warfare against a spiritual enemy. For those abiding in Christ until their death or His return, the promises of eternal blessing in the presence of God are assured. To remain faithful through all circumstances of life, it requires dependence upon the Holy Spirit and a willingness to die to personal desires and passions.
Article 6 – The Church.
- The goal of the Church is to make disciples of all nations and to present the saints complete in Christ.
- The Church is governed by the five-fold ministry as outlined in Ephesians 4:11-12, the office of Elder, as well as other offices mentioned in Scripture.
- Church policy is governed by Eldership authority, emphasizing the final authority of the Church Eldership.
- It is essential to the life of-the Church that scriptural patterns of discipline be practiced and that oversight for Church discipline, individual and corporate, be exercised by the leadership of the Church.
Article 7 – Water Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
The Word of God enjoins on the Church two perpetual ordinances of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first, baptism, is the outward sign of what God has already done in the individual's life, and is a testimony to all that the person belongs now to Jesus. Water baptism allows believers to identify with Jesus and is performed in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Lord's Supper is a commemoration of the death of the Lord and is done in remembrance of Him until He comes again, and is a sign of our participation in Him. Both institutions are restricted to those who are believers.
Article 8 – Eschatology.
We affirm the bodily, personal, second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the Saints, the Millennium, and the final judgment. The final judgment will determine the eternal status of both the saints and the unbelievers, determined by their relationship to Jesus Christ. We affirm with the Bible the final state of the New Heavens and New Earth.
Article 9 – Statement of Marriage.
We affirm there are two sexes as created by God - male and female (Gen. 1 - 2), and that marriage is a sacred institution exclusively between one man and one woman (Matt. 19:4-6).
Article 10 – Use of Church Facilities.
This Church specifically prohibits acts or omissions, including but not limited to, permitting any Church assets or property, whether real property, personal property, intangible property, or any property or asset of any kind that is subject to the direction or control of the Church, to be used in any manner that would be or could be perceived by any person to be inconsistent with the Church’s Statement of Faith.
Article 11 – Common Law Marriage Policy.
In no case shall persons be accepted into Church membership and/or Church employment that are known to be living in: (1) a common-law state of matrimony; or (ii) a manner inconsistent with the Church’s teaching on marriage or sexuality pursuant to these Bylaws.
Article 12 – Sexuality Policy.
Sexuality and the divinely prescribed boundaries for the expression thereof is covered clearly in the Holy Scriptures, which limit sexual expression to the marital relationship of one (1) man with one (1) woman. Homosexual acts, adultery, bestiality, and all forms of fornication are categorically condemned in the Holy Scriptures. See 1 Corinthians 6:18; 1 Thes. 4:3; Rom. 1:26-27; Prov. 5:3-4, 8-13; 7:21-27; Gal. 5:19; Exodus 20:14; Deut. 5:18; Matt. 5:27; 19:18; Luke 18:20; Rom. 13:9; James 2:11; Lev. 20:10-21; 1 Cor. 6:18; 10:8; and Jude 7. Furthermore, the Church believes that sexuality is assigned by God at birth, whatever that may be, and the Holy Scripture does not permit an individual to alter their sexual identity physically or otherwise. See Deut. 23:1.
Article 13 – Bathroom Policy.
Consistent with the Church’s sincerely held religious beliefs, gender-specific bathroom facilities may only be utilized consistent with the gender assigned at birth and not gender identity or expression. Optional family (non-gender specific) bathrooms may also be made available.
