Who Are We?

Our Vision

Our vision is to be a community of secure believers who are glorifying God and who are being transformed into Christ’s likeness.  Our goal is to provide an atmosphere where strangers become friends and friends become family. 

Our Mission

As empowered by God’s Spirit, our mission is to build a community of faithful believers who are engaged in God-glorifying, heart-felt worship and are being transformed into the fullness of Christ’s image. Transformation includes sacrificial service to our family of believers and sacrificial service of drawing all to Christ.

Statement of Faith

At the Surprise Church of Christ we make every effort to follow God's Word, the Bible, and its teachings (Hebrews 4:12).  We believe at the core of its teachings that "God is love" (I John 4:8 & 16).  Jesus taught that the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, followed by the second commandment, which, is to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22: 37-39).  God's love for us is demonstrated in Jesus Christ  by the sacrifice He made for us (John 3:16).  Our love for God is reflected by our living according to these two great commandments.  We love because He first loved us (I John 4:19).

We are an autonomous body of Christians under the spiritual oversight of elders (Acts 14:23; I Peter 5:1-3).  Following the New Testament example, it is our practice to meet on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7), to partake of the Lord's Supper (I Corinthians 11:24), and to worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), through, a cappella singing (Ephesians 5:19), prayer (Acts 2:22), Bible study (Acts 2:42), and the grace of giving (I Corinthians 16:2).

We believe these truths are most important:

There is one God - Father, Son, and Holy spirit; three spiritual beings united as one in divine love throughout eternity (Romans 8:1-7; Ephesians 1:2-14).

Jesus Christ is the Son of God and came to earth as a part of God's plan for our salvation, lived a sinless life, suffered death on the cross, was raised from the dead to again be with God in power and glory, and established His church with the power of the Holy Spirit working through the apostles (I Corinthians 15: 3-4; Ephesians 1:18-23; I Peter 2:22). 

Salvation is a free gift of God through His grace given to believers who place their faith in Jesus Christ, confess Jesus is Lord, repent of their sins, and they are baptized into His name for the remission of their sins, at which time God adds them to His body, the church, and they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38 & 47; 9:31; 15:11, Romans 10:9; Galatians 3:26-27; Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:24; Revelation 22:17).

The Bible is the inspired Word of God, written by men with inspiration from the Holy Spirit, and is the final authority in life and doctrine, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (I Thessalonians 1:4-5; II Timothy 3:14-17).

Jesus will return in His heavenly glory, at a time only known by the Father, to judge the living and the dead, and the Lord will separate the righteous from the unrighteous.  The unrighteous will go away to eternal punishment but the righteous to  eternal life (Matthew 24:36; 25:31-46; Acts 10:42).

Our Structure

Our church is structured and functions much like the early church of the New Testament.  Surprise Church of Christ  is an independent church that seeks to be totally allegiant to the leadership of Christ and to center our belief and practices on His life and teachings.

We have a group of leaders that Christ calls “Pastors” or “Elders” who are directed by Christ to guide and shepherd our church (Ephesians 4:11; I Peter 5:1-2).  We also have an “Evangelist” who leads the church through ministering and teaching the Word of God (Ephesians 4:11).  In addition, Surprise Church of Christ  is blessed with a group of servants that the Bible calls “Deacons” who are appointed to focus on specific church activities (I Timothy 3:8).

We’re also a very diverse family with a variety of ages, races, social and economic backgrounds.  And we celebrate our diversity because it brings great strength to our family.  Because we truly believe in the equality of Christ’s family, every diverse person in our church is of equal value in God’s sight and very significant to the continued success and growth of Christ’s Church.