We practice missional cooperation that makes Christ known among all peoples in Puget Sound and wherever we are present or have influence.

The PSBA and member churches hold to the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M). Some aspects of the BF&M include preferences, structure and culture not applicable to all churches. The following is a summary of the essential values and beliefs among PSBA member churches.

VALUES

Missional, in the sense of making Christ known in all that we do locally and wherever we are present or have influence. This includes contextually making new disciples both in and beyond our local churches, leading to new groups and new churches.

Cooperative, in ministry and relationships. We have no executive authority but agree to the right and responsibility to consult with one another. We submit to one another’s strengths and protect one another’s weaknesses, respecting people and cultures. We work with theologically, philosophically, and personally aligned partners.

Peaceable, graciously helping people move beyond inner, relational, and spiritual conflict, developing trustworthiness in character (Matthew 5:1-13), conduct (Galatians 5:22-23), and communication.

Biblical Fidelity. We are accountable to and strive to get out of scripture what God intends, consulting trustworthy sources and people. We are committed to impacting local culture with biblical values, principles and teaching.

Stewardship. All that we are and have comes from God. We reflect God’s glory by managing all resources to make Christ known. This includes Christian living that encourages and permits generosity for ministry, including humanitarian relief beyond the Church. Christian Stewardship recognizes God’s affirmation of creation and seeks to preserve it for future generations.

BELIEFS

God

We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, perfect, and eternal, existing in three equally divine and unique Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Father

God the Father is the eternal creator and sustainer of all things. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in attitude toward all humanity.

The Son

Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God and His supreme revelation. He was together with the Father and the Holy Spirit from the beginning, and through Him all things were made. For the sake of redemption, He left heaven and became incarnate by the Holy Spirit through the virgin Mary, lived a perfect life of obedience, gave Himself up in sacrifice, and rose from the grave defeating the powers of sin, Satan, and death. He will return in power to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission.

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit empowers and indwells believers for service and witness. Specifically, He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, gives spirituals gifts by which they serve God through His church, and seals believers unto the final day of redemption.

The Bible

The Bible is the inspired and complete word of God and is His revelation to humanity. All Scripture is trustworthy, authoritative, and sufficient for all matters of faith and conduct. The Bible reveals God's plan of redemption in Jesus Christ and the principles by which God instructs people to live. Thus, the Bible is the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be weighted. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ Jesus, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation and redemption.

Redemption

Redemption of humanity is the process through which God restores individuals to a right relationship to Himself, made possible by Jesus Christ's sacrificial death on the cross for sin, and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Redemption is offered freely to all who repent and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior. The totality of redemption includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification (see definitions below).

God gives believers in Jesus Christ the privilege and responsibility of making His work of redemption known in ways that include sharing the good news of Jesus as Lord and Savior with others.

Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, thus grieving the Holy Spirit, bring reproach on the cause of Christ, and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they are kept by the power of God through faith unto the completion of their redemption.

God's redemption also includes the restoration of right relationships between individuals, families, groups, etc. and ultimately the establishment of a new heaven and new earth under God's perfect dominion.

Regeneration: the new birth that is accompanied by repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ

Justification: God's full forgiveness of sin resulting in peace and favor with God

Sanctification: the process of being conformed into the image of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit

Glorification: the individual fully transformed into the image of Christ and dwelling eternally with God

Humanity

Humanity is uniquely created in the image of God, applying to both male and female persons and stretching across all racial and socioeconomic demarcations. Every person is worthy of dignity, respect, and love.

Through the temptation of Satan, human beings transgressed God’s command, and fell from sacred fellowship with God. They then inherited a sin-stricken nature and environment. Although sin distorts the image of God in all persons, it does not destroy the image of God in any person.

Only God’s grace in the person and work of Christ can liberate fallen humanity from the penalty, power, and presence of sin, and restore humanity to sacred fellowship with God.

God designed marriage and family to serve the flourishing of human society. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to illustrate the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the married couple the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression, and the means for procreation of the human race. Families are composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.

The Church

The New Testament speaks of the Church as the Body of Christ, which is the company of the redeemed consisting of believers from all historical and cultural contexts. The Church is represented locally by congregations of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel. Each local church operates under the Lordship of Christ while being served by qualified leaders (pastors/elders, deacons, councils, etc.). Moreover, each local church is governed by the Word of God and seeks to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.

The Church observes Christ’s two ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is a worshipful act of obedience signifying the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.

The Lord’s Supper is a worshipful act of obedience whereby followers of Christ through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine signify the death of the Redeemer and anticipate his second coming.

The Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God refers to the redemptive reign of God in Christ Jesus. It includes both his general sovereignty over the universe and his particular kingship of people who submit to his redemptive reign. Christians pray and serve for the Kingdom of God to appear on earth as it is in heaven. The consummation of the Kingdom will occur with the return of King Jesus at the end of the age.