Pathway Church

We practice continuous expository preaching, where the meaning of the text is the meaning of the sermon and we preach through whole books of the Bible one passage at a time.  We believe that the Scriptures must be carefully examined, powerfully proclaimed, and actively applied in our lives.

We believe that the faith once for all delivered to the saints by our Lord Jesus Christ and written down by His Apostles is that faith that has come to be called “Reformed” in recent years.  We believe that the substance of the Reformed faith is the faith that was held by the Apostles, the Church Fathers, and a majority of the believing church from the Middle Ages and to the current day.

A New Testament church is an autonomous, local congregation of baptized believers.  The church has a body of elders (or pastors) who teach and shepherd the flock. In accordance with Hebrews 13:17, they keep watch over the congregation as men who must give an account to God. According to the same text, the congregation is to obey them and submit to their authority so that their work will be a joy and not a burden. The elders must meet the qualifications set forth in I Timothy 3:1-7, and they exercise authority over the church only to the degree that they teach and lead according to the Scriptures.

According to the teachings of Jesus, the life of every Christian is to be marked by service (Mark 9:35). However, the New Testament also speaks of the specific office of deacon. The word ‘deacon’ means ‘helper’ or ‘servant’. Before a person can be appointed as deacon, he or she must be tested for the qualifications found in I Timothy 3:8-13. The tasks of a deacon are primarily that of meeting the physical and material needs of individual believers and the congregation as a whole. If the deacon serves faithfully, he or she “obtains for himself a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 3:13).

The Church is not a social club.  Upon joining a church individual Christians take on certain obligations toward one another and the church as a whole, while the church and its elders also take certain obligations towards its members.  We have described those obligations that we accept upon joining Pathway Church in our Membership Covenant.