Beliefs

Core Beliefs

The following are the core beliefs of Tracy Community Church based on the foundational truths taught in the bible.
All of our teaching and ministry is rooted in and flows out of these biblical doctrines.
  • We believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, authoritative, and the inerrant Word of God. (2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:21)

  • We believe there is one God, eternally existing in three persons: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Genesis 1:1; Deuteronomy 6:4;Matthew 28:19; John 10:30)
  • We believe in the deity of Christ. (John 10:33); His virgin birth. (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:34-35); His sinless life. (Hebrews 4:15, Hebrews 7:26); His miracles. (John 2:11); His substitutionary and atoning death. (1 Corinthians 15:3; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 2:9); His resurrection. (John 11:25; 1 Corinthians 15:4); His ascension to the right hand of the Father. (Mark 16:19); His personal return to earth in power and glory. (Acts 1:11; Revelation 19:11-16)
  • We believe in the absolute necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit for salvation because of the sinfulness of the human nature, and that all are justified on the single ground of faith in the shed blood of Christ, and that only by God’s grace through faith alone are we saved. (John 3:16-19; John 5:24; Romans 3:23; Romans 5:8-9; Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 3:5)
  • We believe in the ordinances of baptism (as an expression of our new life in Christ) and communion (to commemorate Christ's atoning death and anticipate His return) as commanded by Christ. (Luke 22:19-20; I Corinthians 11:23-26; Matthew 28:19)
  • We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; those who are saved unto the resurrection of life, and those who are not unto the resurrection of condemnation. (John 5:28-29)
  • We believe in the spiritual unity of the believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Galatians 3:26-28)
  • We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit, Who gifts us to accomplish Christ’s purposes in the world and Who manifests His presence to the world through Christ’s church. (Romans 8:13-14; Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Corinthians 12; 1 Corinthians 14; Ephesians 4:30, Ephesians 5:18)
  • We believe that we as Christians are examples of the love of God in this world. It is this love that we desire to possess and without which we have no right to call ourselves Christians. (1 John 4:16-17)

Values

AUTHENTICITY
We believe we can not be what God has called us to be if we play games with each other.
Whether it is what happens on stage, within our smaller communities, in serving teams or in our homes, we need to be able to share our faults and weaknesses and not fake it. That is authenticity, just being real. - Philippians 3:17


CULTURALLY CURRENT COMMUNICATION
TCC is a place that helps connect those who are exploring God's love and truth. The challenge for us is that the Bible was written a long time ago for people in another culture. The fact that we live in 21st century California does not change the message that God gave 2000 years ago, but it does mean that we need to do some work to connect it to our lives today. Jesus did exactly the same thing when he was teaching. He used the current language and daily life experiences of those around him to communicate truth. That is what we mean by "culturally current communication." - Ecclesiastes 12:10
EXCELLENCE
We do not believe in striving for unrealistic perfection. Real excellence is about bringing your best to God's work and to life in general.  We want to bring our "A-game" to everything that we do, whether it's our communication and music, how we hold babies in the nursery or how we take care of the building, we want it to reflect excellence for Christ.  
- Colossians 3:23-24
BIBLICAL TRUTH
TCC is a place for people on every part of the spiritual journey, from those just investigating whether there is a God, to those who have made following Christ the priority of their life. The Bible presents a dangerous message of life change. We do not assume everyone believes, or even knows the Bible, but we do assume everyone who comes through our doors is open to exploring it. We believe the Bible is God's inerrant truth and it is the foundation to everything we do. - 2 Timothy 3:16
DOING LIFE TOGETHER
We are not interested in being a place where a lot of people get together for an inspiring service but never move beyond the casual "arm's distance" relationships of an auditorium. We want to grow by really doing life together. People who grow in their relationship with God also grow in  friendships with each other, moving beyond the auditorium to smaller community groups. Real community is knowing and being known, loving and being loved, celebrating and being celebrated, serving and being served. - Hebrews 10:24-25

REPRODUCTION
Reproduction is about recognizing something that God has created and then reproducing it in His name.  We want to be a place where Christ-followers reproduce Christ-followers, leaders reproduce leaders and churches reproduce other churches. - Matthew 28:19-20


GROWTH
We do not expect anyone who walks into TCC to be a committed Christ-follower, but we do expect everyone who is around our community for any length of time to be growing. We expect every person to be moving closer to reflecting the complete image of Christ in every area of life. This is a safe place for everyone. But safe does not mean comfortable. The answers are not always comfortable. In fact, we often grow only when we are pushed out of our comfort zone.  - Colossians 1:10