Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28
The mission of First Baptist Church of Medford, Wisconsin is to treasure God and love people. We believe this is what defines us as God’s people in this world: Jesus, Community & Mission.
“This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” –John 17:3
We have eternal life & treasure Jesus because we’re loved by Jesus. The love of Christ isn’t only something we receive; it’s something we become. The love of Christ transforms us—our identity (who we are), our life (the way we live), and our worldview (how we see the world around us). We gain eternal life and treasure Jesus because we’re loved by Jesus.
“We love because he first loved us.” –1 John 4:19
As we receive Jesus’ invitation to be loved by him, by grace through faith, we enter into a new community called God’s family. God’s family is a gospel-rooted community in which we experience the reality of our union with Christ and communion fellowship with one another. As brothers and sisters who have been adopted by God, we grow together in gospel-rootedness as we love one another by embracing our God-given identity & purpose, practice humble honesty, extend grace & honor, forgive & live forgiven, and trust God with our relationships.
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” –Matthew 28:18-20
We are called to live on mission because we are sent out by Jesus. It is Jesus who sends us; Jesus promises to go with us; and, we represent Jesus as his ambassadors as we live out our lives in this world.
DOCTRINAL SUMMARY
FBC (First Baptist Church) is a gospel-rooted church located in Medford, Wisconsin. Our beliefs at FBC are mainstream, biblical, and Jesus-focused.
THE TRINITY
We believe in one God, the sovereign creator and sustainer of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who know, love, and glorify one another. This one true and living God is worthy to receive all glory and adoration.
THE BIBLE
We believe that God has inspired the words of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. These writings alone constitute the Word of God, utterly authoritative, without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of his will for salvation, sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do.
JESUS CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ is the living Word, who became flesh, fully God and fully human being, one Person in two natures. He was conceived through the Holy Spirit and was born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified, rose on the third day, and ascended into heaven as our substitute.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe the Holy Spirit has come to glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to our lives. He was sent by the Father and the Son to glorify Jesus Christ and is present with and in believers. He convicts the world of sin, and by his powerful and mysterious work, regenerates spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith, baptizing them into union with Jesus Christ.
CREATION OF HUMANITY
We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in his own image. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to significant engagement in family, church, and civil life.
THE FALL
We believe that Adam, made in the image of God, distorted that image and forfeited his original blessedness—for himself and all of future offspring—by falling into sin through Satan’s temptation. As a result, all human beings are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being and condemned to death, apart from from God’s own gracious intervention.
THE GOSPEL
We believe that from all eternity God determined in grace to save a great multitude of guilty sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation, and to this end he foreknew them and chose them, all to the praise of his glorious grace. In love God commands and implores all people to repent and believe, having set his saving love on those he has chosen and having ordained Christ to be their Redeemer. We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ, which centers on the cross and resurrection of Christ.
RECONCILIATION & GOD’S FAMILY
We believe that those who have been saved by the grace of God through union with Christ by faith and through regeneration by the Holy Spirit are adopted into God’s family, which is the kingdom of God. The people of God in God’s family are known as the church, while Christ Jesus is the head. In God’s family, we are brothers and sisters in Christ, heirs to an eternal inheritance, which is secure and guarded by the Spirit, who dwells among and within believers for our sanctification and perseverance in God’s grace until we are glorified with Christ. Our good works are not the means by which we are saved but indispensable evidence of God’s saving grace applied to our lives.
BAPTISM & THE LORD’S SUPPER
We believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism is an outward expression and proclamation of a believer being regenerated by faith; it symbolizes the entrance into God’s family. The Lord’s Supper is a spiritual meal, in which we partake together as the gathered body of Christ to remember Christ’s saving work, enjoy his grace, and experience on-going covenant renewal. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are God’s promise to us and our public submission to Christ.
RESTORATION
We believe in the personal, visible, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will come to judge the living and the dead. The unrighteous will be resurrected to eternal, conscious punishment in hell; while, the righteous will be resurrected to the eternal, glorious presence of God. On that day, the church will be presented blameless before God by Christ. Everything will be to the praise of his glorious grace. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).
FBC is a part of an association of churches called Converge.
Contact us to learn more about FBC or ministries.