Our Beliefs:

We affirm the Holy Bible as the inspired word of God and the basis of our beliefs. The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.

There is one and only one living and true God. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing, all loving, and all wise; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In his incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. In His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into Heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgement. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

Our purpose:

To be a dynamic spiritual organism empowered by the Holy Spirit to share Christ with as many people as possible in our church, in Celina, then reaching out to Clay County, and ultimately throughout the world.
To be a worshiping fellowship, experiencing an awareness of God, recognizing his person, and responding in obedience to his leadership.
To experience an increasingly meaningful fellowship with God and fellow believers.
To help people experience a growing knowledge of God and man.
To be a church which ministers unselfishly to persons in the community and the world in Jesus’ name.
To be a church whose purpose is to be Christ-like in our daily living by emphasizing total commitment of life, personality, and possessions to the lordship of Christ.

 Celina First Baptist Church is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The SBC is a fellowship of over 47,000 Baptist churches scattered across the United States and its territories. These congregations are called “cooperating churches” who have organized themselves to accomplish specific ministry initiatives and missions, all with the purpose of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all people everywhere.

Our church is also a member of the Riverside Association of the Tennessee Baptist Convention (TBC). The purpose of this association is to promote missions, education and the spreading of the Gospel throughout the association, our nation, and the entire world in cooperation with the TBC and the SBC. Through the Cooperative Program, Tennessee Baptist churches give a percentage of their undesignated receipts to their state and the SBC missions and ministries.