East Side Baptist Church exists to reveal Christ to the heart of our city and be the church where God has planted us.
Seek Jesus
The gospel message of the Bible is essentially a blueprint of how God is restoring all of Creation back to Himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ. We believe the gospel is clear that our salvation alone comes from faith in the finished work of Christ and this salvation is a gift, not one that can be earned. However, the gospel is not just a one-time experience, but we believe a template which impacts our relationships, our identity, our practices, and how we see others. That is why we believe at East Side that the gospel should be central to everything we do because the gospel message and the fruit that it produces is applicable in every area of our lives. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). Our sanctification is an ongoing process and is refined best in discipleship relationships.We hold to the reality that God desires us to be in restored community with each other and that we were never meant to do this life alone. At East Side we have a desire to grow together in the likeness of Christ and not fade into nominal believers. We desire to fight the residual effects of sin in our life, to form healthy gospel relationships, to grow in our knowledge of God, and see lives changed to the glory of God. In all that we do, we will seek Jesus for the rest of our days.
(Matthew 5:14-16; 1 Corinthians 1:11).
Display Compassion
For us means displaying unrelenting effort to those in need by giving our time, resources, and care. We also feel compelled to be advocates for people who have been marginalized by society in order that they may feel valued. All of our efforts are displayed so that people may be redeemed and God glorified. We believe that the church should be a place where a diversity of believers learn to walk, worship, and work together so that the world will know and believe the gospel. In John 17:2, Christ clearly defined His mission. He was sent to the world to give eternal life to all who would believe. He prayed that we would be one, or “perfected in unity.” Our unity, He declared, will be a visible witness to the world of God’s love for all people. Our oneness will demonstrate that He is Messiah, who alone can bring peace to men.
Love Our City
We feel called to seek the welfare of others in our city because our welfare was sought through Christ by God. We believe the gospel allows us to be people that conducts our lives with love, honesty, and purpose. The gospel restores us as individuals, but also as a community. One of the ways we respond from being restored by the gospel is to seek to see others restored, as well as, our community. We demonstrate our gospel renewal by caring about the physical, cultural, and spiritual needs of our city (Jeremiah 29:7). We believe that church planting will be one of the key ways we will see a gospel movement occur in our community, city, and the world. Our hope is to maintain a greater “sending power” rather than worry about the seating capacity of our facilities. We hope to raise up several planters in the years to come so that more churches may be started and more people reached with the gospel (Acts 14:21-23).