Is Bethel Worship Center a part of a denomination?

Short answer - yes. We are a part of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church. But we are not about denominationalism and we’re not asking you to become Pentecostal Holiness. Our desire is for you to follow Christ. We want to be a part of your journey, and have you be a part of ours, being catalyst for transformation here in our community and every where God opens up doors for us to go.

Bethel Worship Center is made up of people who have been a part of Pentecostal, Charismatic, Baptist, Church of God, Assemblies of God, Methodist, Catholic and other traditions. The gospel of Jesus Christ is our primary focus. We do not put anything manmade above the gospel.

We know that historically there have been customs and ideologies that have arisen out of denominations that have been more of man than they are of God. We recognize that and our goal is to learn from those and move forward under the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. No denomination is perfect, just like no church is perfect, just like no man is perfect. That’s not an excuse, it’s just a reality.

You can find a summary of our beliefs on our about us page. While our denomination offers us legal covering and additional spiritual covering, we are governed locally within our body with the pastoral staff serving as elders and with an administrative council board comprised of five individuals who serve to bring voices of accountability, reason, wisdom and insight to financial and business decisions of the church. Our pastor also receives counsel from former pastors of Bethel Worship Center, pastors he has networked with in the IPHC, as well as pastors who are nondenominational and in other denominations.

Who we are is who you see every Sunday morning, within our ministries, and serving in our community. We work in relationship locally and globally with people who are in our denomination and who are not. We believe in what the IPHC is doing all over the world, but we also believe that there are other denominations doing great things all over the world as well. We know that churches who are nondenominational, typically themselves linked with networks, are being used by God in phenomenal ways. We have great relationships with many of these churches from all over.

Our prayer is that if God has brought you here and that you feel connected to our body, you will allow God to use you to help us reach those around us, not to grow a denomination, but to grow the Kingdom of God.

faqs

Does BWC believe speaking in tongues is a mandatory requirement for being saved? 

We believe that the only requirement for salvation is to believe in Christ’s death and resurrection, and then to confess Him as Lord of your life. Then when a person does that, becoming a follower of Christ, they receive the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit can operate in multiple ways through a believer. While the IPHC states the belief that speaking in tongues is initial evidence of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we do not believe that if someone has not spoken in tongues that they do not walk with the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit doesn’t operate in their life through other ways.  Click here to see a two part series Pastor Javin did on being filled with the Spirit and receiving the Spirit.

Does BWC believe that your salvation can be lost for any reason after you are saved? 

In regards to losing salvation, there’s so many aspects to that question. Our belief is that God is judge, and he determines the final eternal home for every individual. Scripture tells us that if we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, we will be saved. So we believe that whole heartedly, and we believe that if someone makes that confession then salvation is theirs. We also believe that if someone makes that confession, then there is transformation and change that comes into their life as well. To use terminology from scripture - we become a new creation. Lifestyles that were in line with walking in our flesh change as we begin to walk with the Spirit. Now does this mean we become perfect? No, because no man is perfect. We believe Paul’s words that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But we also know that we wrestle just like Paul said - “Why do I do the things I don’t want to do, but the things I want to do I don’t do.” As Paul constantly speaks of in Romans and Galatians, there is a wrestling that takes place in our lives between our old life and the new in Christ. So on one end we do believe that a person who believes in Christ and confesses Him as Lord, lives their life following Him, even though they are not perfect, salvation is theirs and they are covered in the righteousness of God. Now there are scriptures such as Hebrews 6:4-6 that say, "For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.” This is known as apostasy, an abandoning of faith. So in this regards we couldn’t say that “once saved, always saved.”