OUR BELIEFS AND HERITAGE
- Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God who died for our sins and arose from the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)
- The Bible is the inspired word of God – a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. (2 Timothy 3:16)
- Every person has worth as a creation of God, but that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
- Forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life are available to those who trust Christ as Savior and Lord. (John 3:16)
- Those accepting Christ should repent of sin, confess their faith and be baptized into Him. (Romans 10:9; Acts 2:38)
- The church is the body of Christ on Earth, empowered by the Holy Spirit and exists to save the lost and edify the saved. (Ephesians 4:1-16)
- Jesus Christ will one day return to Earth and reign forever as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
OUR HERITAGE
Why does Legacy Christian Church just call itself a “Christian” church? To answer that question, one must understand the history and purpose of the Restoration Movement (also called the Stone-Campbell movement), which is our heritage.
The Restoration Movement began in America around 1800 focused on the goal of restoring the church to the order and ideals pictured in the New Testament. The two primary concerns of the movement’s founding fathers were:
- The unity of all Christians based on scripture rather than the subjective concepts so prevalent in denominational Christianity. (John 17:20, 21)
- An uncompromising commitment to the Bible as God’s inspired, authoritative Word and the Church’s only rule for faith and practice. They believed it was the various creeds and denominational structures that most divided Christians. The restoration pioneers believed that divided state of Christendom was the greatest hindrance to the church fulfilling its primary mission – the evangelism of the world.
The following slogans or mottoes were adopted by the Restoration Movement, and helped to capture the essence of what the Movement was about:
- “No creed but Christ!”
- “The Bible is our only rule of faith and practice!”
- “In essentials-unity, in opinions-liberty, in all things love.”
- “Where the Bible speaks, we speak. Where the Bible is silent, we are silent.”
- “Not the only Christians, but Christians only.”
- “Let us do Bible things in Bible ways, and call Bible things by Bible names.”
This vision of a unified, undenominational church following the faith and pattern of the New Testament captured the imagination of thousands and became the fastest growing religious group of nineteenth century America. Today, in all of her expressions, the Restoration movement remains the largest religious group indigenous to the United States. Today, over 6,000 independent autonomous congregations compose a loose knit worldwide “brotherhood” with about two million people in membership. Together, these congregations support over 1,500 missionaries, 35 Bible colleges, three seminaries and several hundred para-church organizations (publishing companies, benevolent agencies, youth organizations, campus ministries, etc.).