About us

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What does "Berean" mean anyway?

 

In the book of Acts, people from a town called Berea were commended because they "searched the Scriptures" to see if what they were being taught was true (Acts 17:11).  So calling ourselves "Berean" is a way of saying the Bible is our truth authority.  Several Berean churches call themselves "Berean Bible Church" to make this more clear.  But we're old school. We like the name the way it is.

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Our mission

Our church’s mission statement reads, “The Berean Church of Imperial exists to please God by examining the Scriptures, equipping the saints, and evangelizing the lost.”  This little motto can tell you a lot about who we are.

 

First, we desire to please God.  That, my friend, is a tall order, because God is perfect and nobody in our church comes close.  So how do imperfect people go about pleasing a perfect God?

 

To answer that question we start by examining the Scriptures—what we call the Bible.  We try to focus our church services and Sunday school times—as well as our daily lives—on what we consider to be the literal truth of the Bible.  In its pages we learn how we might please God.

 

One way the Bible says we can please God as a church is by “equipping the saints” (Eph 4:12).  By calling people “saints,” the Bible simply means “the people who have decided to believe in Jesus.”  It’s another word for a Christian or a Jesus-follower.  When we say we want to “equip the saints,” what we mean is we want to help one another by giving to each other the tools we need to be real followers of Jesus in a world that is none too keen on that idea.  To equip ourselves we study the Bible and hear sermons, but we also befriend, support, care for and pray with one another on Sundays, in each other’s homes, and during lots of other times when we get together.  We love our church family as it is, but we’d sure love to have you join us.

 

Finally, our purpose statement says we try to please God by “evangelizing the lost.”  Calling people “lost” might sound harsh or mean.  But the Bible says that anyone who has not come to faith in Jesus Christ remains destined for God’s wrath (John 3:36).  The only way to avoid the wrath of God is to place one’s faith in Jesus as Savior (John 3:16; Acts 4:12).  All of us here at Imperial Berean were once lost, too (Eph 2:1), and we can’t think of anything nicer we could do for someone else than to help them understand how they can move from a position of wrath from God into a position of grace from God.

 

In a nutshell, that’s who we are.  We would be honored if you would join us.