A Brief Introduction
Lakewood Presbyterian is a Bible-believing, evangelical congregation enthusiastically committed to loving and serving our Lord Jesus Christ through seeking the lost and teaching the found. We are a reformational church plant currently meeting in a home, teaching the great doctrines of the 16th century magisterial Reformers. We are a liturgical church, worshiping the Lord in accordance with the participatory patterns and examples He has given us in the Scriptures. We are a family integrated church, welcoming children into the worship of God’s people and seeking to minister to families as families.
What We Believe
At Lakewood Presbyterian Church, our beliefs are rooted in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and shaped by the rich heritage of the historic Christian church.
We gladly confess the great doctrines of God’s sovereign grace, the centrality of Jesus Christ and His gospel, and the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctifying His people.
About the Bible
All Scripture is self-attesting and being Truth, requires our unreserved submission in all areas of life. The infallible Word of God, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is a complete and unified witness to God’s redemptive acts culminating in the incarnation of the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible, uniquely and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, is the supreme and final authority on all matters to which it speaks, wholly without error with respect to history, science or ethics as well as theology. On this sure foundation we affirm these additional essentials of our faith.
About God
There is but one God, the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all things, infinitely perfect and holy, existing eternally and simultaneously as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three persons in the Godhead share equally and completely the one divine nature, and are therefore the same God, coequal in power, glory and eternity.
About Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ, the living Word, became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. He who is true God became true man united in one Person forever. He led a sinless life, performed many attesting miracles, and died on the cross a sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures. On the third day He arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven where, at the right hand of the Majesty on High, He is now our High Priest and Mediator.
About the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity, coequal with the Father and the Son, who has come to glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to us. The Spirit convicts us of sin and draws us to the Savior. He brings about the regeneration of the lost, giving us new life, so as to make us willing to believe. He indwells our hearts, empowers us to lead a godly life, and imparts gifts to us for service. He guides us into all truth, and seals us for the day of redemption.
About Man
God created man in His image as a rational and moral being, endued with knowledge, righteousness and holiness for His own Glory. Human beings are therefore the crown of God’s creation (possessing inherent dignity and moral worth), and thus distinct in kind from all other life on earth. Adam and Eve, the first human beings, rebelled against God by disobeying His command.
As a result of Adam’s sin, all of mankind fell from their original state, and the image of God in man is now distorted so that our sinful, broken nature is passed on to all our progeny. Because of this original sin, unregenerate human beings are incapable of pleasing or commending themselves to God, and apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, are unable and unwilling to repent and believe.
About Redemption
Being estranged from God and condemned by our sinfulness, our salvation is wholly dependent upon the work of God’s free grace. God credits His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justifies them in His sight on the basis of his Son’s atoning, substitutionary death on the cross at Calvary. Redemption therefore is solely a work of God’s grace, received exclusively through faith (which is itself a gift from God) in Jesus Christ, and never by any works or human merit. Only such as are born of the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus Christ become children of God and heirs of eternal life.
About Justification
Justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of the completed cross work of Jesus Christ alone. Justification is a judicial act of God’s grace wherein He declares a person righteous in His sight because of the imputed righteousness of Christ received through faith. The individual who is thus legally restored has a right standing with God and all his sin has been forgiven.
About the Church
The true Church is composed of all persons past present and future who through saving faith in Jesus Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit are united together as the body of Christ. The Church finds her visible yet imperfect expression in local congregations where the Word of God is preached in its purity and the sacraments are administered in their integrity, where scriptural discipline is practiced, and where loving fellowship is maintained. This community of believers is made up of people who are neither perfect nor sinless, but by the work of the Holy Spirit, their lives are being conformed more and more to the image of Christ. For her perfecting the Church awaits the return of her Lord.
About the Mission of the Church
The Lord Jesus Christ commands all believers to proclaim the gospel throughout the world and to make disciples of all nations. Obedience to the Great Commission requires a life of witness, self-denying love, and service to the One that has redeemed us. The promise of Christ, the sole Head of the Church, is that the gates of Hades (Mt. 16:18) will not prevail against His church’s assault, and that at the Last Day there shall be an innumerable host of those redeemed (Rev. 4:9, 11).
About Creeds and Confessions
Creeds and confessions help to summarize what the Bible teaches on particular issues important to the faith and life of the church. As an historical church, we stand in a long line of believers who embrace the ancient Apostolic, Nicene, and Chalcedonian creeds; while as a Protestant church, we are in essential agreement with the great confessions of the Reformation, including the Augsburg Confession, the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Three Forms of Unity, and the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1646. The Westminster Confession of Faith, which is the confessional statement of orthodox Presbyterianism, is our standard of doctrine and sets forth the above essentials in greater detail.
About Future Things
Jesus Christ will come again to the earth personally, visibly, and bodily in great power and glory to judge the living and the dead and to consummate history and the eternal plan of God. At this time, His Kingdom will be fully manifested on earth and will never end. As the sovereign Lord, He will resurrect and judge all humanity. Those who have received Him by faith will go to eternal blessings, and those who have not, to eternal condemnation. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).
About Us
Lakewood Presbyterian Church is an independent Presbyterian church plant and is pastored by the Rev. Dave Queener. Dave is a native of Knoxville, a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary (St. Louis) and of the University of Tennessee. Additional information, directions and ministry resources, including the pastor’s weekly sermons, are posted on our website.