Essential to our mission to cultivate a culture of Christ-centered care within and through local churches are the following core doctrines:
Because the Bible is God’s inerrant Word, we trust it as the foundation of our care. Because the triune God is infinite, eternal, and unchanging, we trust His sovereign care in all our matters of care. Though we always change, He remains the same.
- Because we have a good and loving Father, we trust that whatever we suffer in this life will not have the final say, but that He will use all things for our good and His glory.
- Because the Son came to earth as truly man and truly God, never sinned, and yet died for our sins and was resurrected, we rest in the One that has overcome sin and death. We also find comfort in knowing that he sympathizes with our weakness.
- Because the Holy Spirit indwells, convicts, and equips believers to be conformed to theimage of Christ and empowered to do good works, we recognize that all true and lastingheart change is a work of the Spirit.
Because men and women bear the image of God, we recognize that the objective worth and dignity of each human being is based on who God is and how he made us, not on any cultural standard.
Because men and women are born with a sin nature, we recognize that every aspect of human nature is tainted by sin and that the only answer to this condition is the grace of God through the regenerating work of the Spirit and repentance and faith in Christ. All the problems in our world are due to the consequences of sin.
Because Scripture teaches that all humans are embodied souls and that we live in a world where the spiritual is as real as the physical, we will care for the whole person, body and soul.
Because God is the Creator of all, He has revealed His character through nature; there are many facts that can be learned about the human body and heart through the light of nature. These facts are rightly understood through the lens of God’s Word. Without the framework of God’s Word, the facts revealed through nature will not be handled in a way conducive to human flourishing.
Because God is good to all people, believer and unbeliever alike, the corrosive effects of sin are not absolute. This is known as common grace. Though common grace cannot save a person, we recognize that because of it unbelievers can make true observations about the world and the heart from the light of nature. We can learn from these true observations, but methods of care must have Christ at the center to give people what they ultimately need.
Because the church is the body of Christ, with Jesus as the Cornerstone and Head, NCCF seeks to partner with the church in helping people work through matters of soul care—not to supplant the church but to support the church.
Because Christ will return again, we have hope that in the end, justice will be done, and that His children will abide in joy with God forever. This hope in the character and promises of God sustains us as we seek to grow increasingly more like Jesus.