Sovereign Grace Churches Statement of Faith
Our supreme prayer is that the SoF will serve the doxological goal of all biblical truth—to lead our churches into a deeper knowledge of God that we might more deeply love him, more fully trust him, and more genuinely worship him, all to the praise of his glory.
The Statement of Faith (SoF) that unites the churches of Sovereign Grace is also a product of our churches. The establishment of our new polity in 2013 revealed the need for a far more extensive SoF to serve our confessional purposes. We desired a SoF that was both rigorously biblical and informed by historic Christian formulation. It needed to be of sufficient clarity and scope to protect us from forms of heresy ancient and contemporary. Finally, we wanted a SoF that would teach and celebrate doctrinal emphases our churches hold dear. At the direction of the SGC Council of Elders, our Theology Committee embarked upon a seven year process of developing a new SoF in collaboration with the elderships of our churches.
Each section of the SoF was deeply researched, drafted, and edited, and then submitted to the elders of Sovereign Grace churches for review, discussion, and suggestions. Taking into account this feedback, the Theology Committee revised each section and returned them to our elders for further review and provisional approval. This process continued until all 13 sections had been thoroughly discussed, revised, and affirmed by our elderships. After a final year of consideration, including external theological and editorial reviews, the SGC Council of Elders voted to approve the new SoF in November of 2020.
The new SoF stands firmly within historic Christian orthodoxy, confessing the great doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation of Christ as set forth in the Nicene and Chalcedonian creeds. The SoF also makes explicit what is foundational to our doctrinal commitments—the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the primary passion and the driving influence in our churches’ common life, worship, and outreach. Beyond this, the SoF affirms the glorious sovereignty of God over all things, including the redemption of sinners; our practice of credobaptism; our celebration of God’s distinct and complementary purposes for men and women; and our continuationist convictions regarding the Spirit’s ongoing ministry in the church.
As a confessional document, all SGC elders subscribe to the Sovereign Grace Statement of Faith, owning it as a faithful expression of biblical doctrine and a guide for their preaching and teaching. In this way, the SoF functions to nurture our churches on sound doctrine, protect our churches from false teaching, and lead our churches into faithful worship and witness. Our supreme prayer is that the SoF will serve the doxological goal of all biblical truth—to lead our churches into a deeper knowledge of God that we might more deeply love him, more fully trust him, and more genuinely worship him, all to the praise of his glory.