About Bay Life Assembly of God
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At Bay Life Assembly of God in Tampa, our doors are wide open to people from all backgrounds, regardless of where they are on their spiritual journey. What people usually notice first about us is the life-giving nature of our ministry. Our goal is to infuse life and God's love into people and families through engaging, powerful worship services that offer biblical truth in relevant and practical ways.
God has graciously disclosed his existence and power in the created order, and has supremely revealed himself to fallen human beings in the person of his Son, the incarnate Word. Moreover, this God is a speaking God who by his Spirit has graciously disclosed himself in human words: we believe that God has inspired the words preserved in the Scriptures, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, which are both record and means of his saving work in the world. These writings alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God, which is utterly authoritative and 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, and final in its authority over every domain of knowledge to which it speaks. We confess that both our finitude and our sinfulness preclude the possibility of knowing God's truth exhaustively, but we affirm that, enlightened by the Spirit of God, we can know God's revealed truth truly. The Bible is to be believed, as God's instruction, in all that it teaches; obeyed, as God's command, in all that it requires; and trusted, as God's pledge, in all that it promises. As God's people hear, believe, and do the Word, they are equipped as disciples of Christ and witnesses to the gospel.
About Repenting: We believe that one receives Jesus Christ's merits by repenting of sin, believing in the good news of His death and resurrection, and confessing Him as Lord and Savior. As a sign of this salvation, every professing believer is to be baptized by immersion. We believe that the entire salvation experience consists of regeneration, justification, sanctification, and future glorification. We believe that every Christian is called to proclaim this good news to the nations.
About Separation of Church and State: We believe that each local church is self-governing, and must be free from interference by any external ecclesiastical or political authority; that every human being is ultimately responsible to God in matters of faith and life; and that each person is free to worship God according to the dictates of his/her conscience. We further believe that governments are established by God; that Christians, as good citizens, should be subject to governing authorities insofar as possible, recognizing our greater allegiance to God and His kingdom in matters wherein human authorities conflict with clear, biblical mandates.
