Welcome
Here at The Lighthouse, you'll find a friendly, warm, inviting atmosphere with people who genuinely care about you and desire to see you learn about Jesus and grow in your relationship with Him. Come as you are, wherever you are in life, and experience God's changing power!
Located at 206 S. Park Avenue in New Sharon, Iowa, we hold in-person services for those residing in or near south Central Iowa. If you find the drive to be a bit of a challenge, we also livestream on Facebook every Sunday and share devotionals and worship videos throughout the week.
Pastor Mike Sereg
Our Core Beliefs
1) The Bible is the inerrant, inspired word of God. The authors of Scripture were under Divine direction as they wrote down the teachings we find in the Bible.
2) Jesus Christ was God-in-the-flesh, sinless, and perfect. He died on the cross and rose bodily from the grave, proving His claims to divinity and paying the price for sin.
3) God exists as three persons in one essence. We reject the modalist proposition that God is only one person in three forms and count Jesus Christ among the Godhead.
4) Jesus is alive and active today. His Holy Spirit is with us, edifying us, and ministering to us throughout our daily lives. The gifts of the Spirit are therefore alive and active just as much today as they were in Biblical times. God is thus very personal, caring, and passionately loving.
What We Believe About
God exists eternally, uncreated, as a trinity (three persons in one essence). We reject sabellianism and modalist propositions that God is only one person in three forms and count Jesus Christ amongst the Godhead, fully divine yet fully human. God’s necessary properties (moral perfection, omnipotence, and omniscience) are unchanging and each member of the Godhead is co-eternal with the Father.
Deuteronomy 6:4, Psalm 90:2, Isaiah 61:1, Matthew 28:19, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 1:35, John 5:21-23; 14:10, 1 Corinthians 8:6,
2 Corinthians 13:14, Hebrews 1:8-10, James 2:19
The Bible is the inerrant, inspired word of God. The authors of Scripture were under Divine direction as they wrote down the teachings we find in the Bible. All Scripture within the Bible is usable for teaching and it forever remains a valid source of wisdom and moral guidance for us.
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, Psalm 119:11, 89, 105 Isaiah 40:8, Matthew 22:29, John 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17 Romans 15:4, 2 Timothy 3:15-17, Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12, 1 Peter 1:25, 2 Peter 3:16
The blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross, provides the only way of salvation through the forgiveness of sin. Salvation occurs when people place their faith in the death & resurrection of Christ as sufficient payment for their sin. Salvation as it’s ordained is a free gift from God and we have a free-willed choice to accept this gift of salvation or reject it.
Isaiah 1:18; 53:5-6; 55:7, Matthew 1:21; 27:22-66, 28:1-6, Luke 1:68-69; 2:28-32, John 1:12; 3:16, 36; 5:24, Acts 2:21; 4:12; 16:30-31 Romans 1:16-18; 3:23-25; 5:8-10; 6
1 Corinthians 1:18, 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 Galatians 2:20; 3:13, Ephesians 2:8-10, Philippians 2:12-13, Hebrews 9:24-28, Revelation 3:20
Once we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, baptism is a way for us to publicly declare our new life in Christ. It is also a step of obedience based on God’s commands and allows us to follow the example of Jesus, who submitted himself to baptism to “fulfill all righteousness.” While we do not affirm paedobaptism as a core doctrine (baby baptism), we do believe in dedications to the Lord and so we still commemorate newborns and young children in this way.
Matthew 3:16-17, 28:18-20
Acts 2:41, 8:12
Romans 6:4
Colossians 2:12
While we must follow Paul’s advice in Galatians 1 about avoiding heresy, we must carefully understand what that means from a classical, historical position as a church so that we can allow for minor theological disagreements without simultaneously allowing for major flaws to creep into our beliefs. For that reason, we as a church affirm the following classical Christian creeds as essential doctrine:
1) The Apostles’ Creed
2) The Nicene Creed
3) The Definition of Chalcedon
4) The Athanasian Creed
Each of these gives us room to disagree on minor things (i.e. Calvinism vs. Molinism) without devolving into a place where heresy takes hold.