Public Positions
Where We Stand
The Christian church does not invent her ethics any more than she invents her worship. The same God who has spoken in his Word about how to worship him has also spoken about how to live, love, marry, raise children, and treat the vulnerable. On the convictions below, Pray’s Mill Baptist Church stands with the historic Christian church and with the Scriptures that produced her.
We hold these positions not to be combative, but to be clear — so that anyone who joins this church, sends their children here, or sits under our preaching knows what we believe and where we will be found standing.
The Authority of Scripture
The Bible is the Word of God, inerrant and sufficient.
The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are the verbally inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God — the supreme and final authority for what we believe and how we live. Every other authority — tradition, conscience, culture, personal experience — is subordinate to it. (2 Tim. 3:16–17; 2 Peter 1:20–21)
Life
The image of God begins in the womb.
Every human being is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26–27) and bears intrinsic worth from the moment of conception. The taking of unborn human life through abortion is the taking of a life God has made. We oppose it without qualification — and we love and support women who are pregnant in difficult circumstances, before and after the child is born. The gospel speaks tenderly to those who have been wounded by abortion: there is forgiveness in Christ for every sin, and a community to walk with you in recovery.
Marriage & Sexuality
One man, one woman, one flesh, for life.
Marriage was instituted by God at creation, between one man and one woman, as a permanent, exclusive, covenant union (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:4–6). Sexual intimacy belongs within that covenant, and there alone. Homosexual practice, pre-marital and extra-marital sex, and the redefinition of human sexuality outside the male-female created order are contrary to God’s Word.
We hold this position with both conviction and compassion. The gospel calls every one of us — whatever our particular pattern of temptation — to repent and trust Christ, who freely receives sinners. “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). Anyone struggling here will find at Pray’s Mill a church willing to walk with them in the long, costly road of faithful obedience.
Manhood, Womanhood, and the Family
Distinct, complementary, and good.
God created humanity male and female (Gen. 1:27). The two sexes are not interchangeable; they are distinct and complementary, designed to glorify God in different but equally honorable ways. Husbands are called to sacrificial, Christ-like headship in the home; wives to gracious, Christ-honoring submission. Children are a heritage from the Lord (Ps. 127:3), to be raised in the discipline and instruction of the Lord by their fathers and mothers (Eph. 6:4).
The Church
Visible, local, governed, and accountable.
Christ has not left his church to drift. He has given her ordinances (baptism and the Lord’s Supper), offices (pastors/elders and deacons), and order. We practice believer’s baptism by immersion, observe the Lord’s Supper as the climax of corporate worship, and structure our life by a plurality of qualified elders. Loose, casual, or unchurched Christianity is not the New Testament pattern. (Heb. 10:24–25; Acts 2:42)
If You Disagree
You are still welcome.
If you read the above and find yourself disagreeing, you are still welcome at Pray’s Mill. Come, sit under the Word, and let us reason together from Scripture. We would rather have an honest conversation about the Bible’s teaching than have you agree with us for the wrong reasons or stay away over a misunderstanding.