Pastors: John Bornschein, Perry Rohlfs, Justin Lee, Cody Ritter, and David Hayes

Board of Directors: Mike Snider, Bill Fernandez, Justin Lee, Perry Rohlfs, Cody Ritter, David Hayes and John Bornschein

Calvary Fellowship Fountain Valley (CFFV) has been formed as a fellowship of believers under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Our supreme desire is to know Christ and to be conformed into His image by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are a verse-by-verse, Bible-believing church with teaching and fellowship designed to help you establish a firm foundation of faith – to inform, mobilize and equip as we reach out locally and impact globally.

History:

Calvary Fellowship Fountain Valley church began in 2003 as a church plant of Calvary Worship Center (led by Pastor Al Pittman). CFFV is also part of the Calvary Chapel Association (CCA) of Churches. CCA is the administrative connection point for the Calvary Chapel Movement. It is overseen by the Calvary Chapel Association Council, which consists of over 20 seasoned Calvary Chapel senior pastors from around the world.

There are currently 1600 associated Calvary Chapel churches and related ministries. Notable teachers include Greg Laurie, Jack Hibbs, Gary Hamrick, Skip Heitzig and many others. Pastor John Bornschein, here at Calvary Fellowship Fountain Valley (CFFV), worked with Pastor Greg Laurie while he served at the National Day of Prayer Task Force.

Today, CFFV ministers to families all around the world (via regular church attendance, international and online communities).

POSITION STATEMENT OF CALVARY FELLOWSHIP FOUNTAIN VALLEY

THE SCRIPTURES

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the verbally and plenarily inspired Word of God (Matthew 5:18; 2 Timothy 3:16–17). We hold the Bible to be inerrant.

1. In the original writings, infallible, God-breathed, and the complete and final authority for faith and practice (2 Peter 1:20–21).

2. We believe the Scriptures, interpreted in their normal, literal sense, reveal divinely distinguishable economies in the outworking of God’s purposes. These dispensations are divinely ordered stewardships by which God directs man according to His purposes. Three of these – the age of law, the age of the church, and the age of the millennial kingdom – are the subjects of detailed revelation in Scripture (Genesis 12:1–3; John 1:17; Romans 4:1–5; 2 Corinthians 3:7–18; Galatians 3:13–25; Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:24–25; Hebrews 7:19; Revelation 20:2–6).

3. Calvary Fellowship Fountain Valley has established its position statement, theological perspectives, and teachings from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible, which was completed in 1982 after seven years of work by a 130-person team, including Greek, Hebrew, and English scholars, editors, church leaders, and Christian laity, who were commissioned to work on the project.

THE GODHEAD

We believe in one Triune God, Creator of all (including the literal six days it took to create and form the heavens and the earth) (Genesis 1–2; Deuteronomy 6:4; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:16), eternally existing in three distinct persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14), yet one in being, essence, power, and glory, having the same attributes and perfections (John 10:30).

THE PERSON AND WORK OF CHRIST

1. We believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is very God, the image of the Father, who, without ceasing to be God, became man in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man (Matthew 1:21; John 1:18; Colossians 1:15).

2. We believe God the Son became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ; that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and was born of the virgin Mary; that He is truly God and truly man; that He lived a perfect, sinless life; that all His teachings and utterances are true (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23).

3. We believe the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for all mankind (1 John 2:2) as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice (Isaiah 53:5–6). We hold that His death is efficacious for all who believe (John 1:12; Acts 16:31); that our justification is grounded in the shedding of His blood (Romans 5:9; Ephesians 1:7); and that it is attested by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead (Matthew 28:6; 1 Peter 1:3).

4. We believe the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven in His glorified body (Acts 1:9–10) and is now seated at the right hand of God as our High Priest and Advocate (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25).

THE PERSON AND WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

1. We believe in the deity (Acts 5:3–4) and the personality of the Holy Spirit.

2. We believe the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8–11). He regenerates sinners (Titus 3:5) and indwells believers (Romans 8:9). He is the agent by whom Christ baptizes all believers into His body (1 Corinthians 12:12–14). He is the seal by whom the Father seals believers unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13–14). He is the Divine Teacher who illumines believers’ hearts and minds as they study the Holy Scriptures (1 Corinthians 2:9–12).

3. We believe it is the duty and privilege of all the saved to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31). This filling is commanded (Ephesians 5:18). Conditions for being filled are yieldedness to the Spirit’s control (Romans 8:14) and a dependent life (Galatians 5:16). The results of filling are victory over sin, Christlike character, worship, submissiveness, and service (Galatians 5:22–23).

4. We believe the Holy Spirit gives gifts to each member of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:11). The Son of God sovereignly assigns the place of the ministry of the gifts in the body, and the Father provides the energy in the outworking of the gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4–6). Each believer is to exercise their spiritual gift(s) for the common good to the building up of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11–16).

ANGELS, GOOD AND EVIL

1. We believe in the reality and personality of angels. We believe that God created a vast number of these spiritual beings who were to be His messengers (Nehemiah 9:6; Psalm 148:2; Matthew 24:31; Luke 1:19; Hebrews 1:14).

2. We believe in the personality of Satan. He is a fallen cherub who led a great company of angels into rebellion against God (Isaiah 14:12–17; Ezekiel 28:12–15). He is the great enemy of God and man, and his angels, called demons, are his agents in the prosecution of his unholy purposes. He shall be eternally punished in the Lake of Fire (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10).

SIN

We believe the human race sinned in Adam (Romans 5:12), that sin is universal in man (Romans 3:23), and that it is exceedingly heinous to God (Psalm 5:5). We believe that man inherited a sinful nature (Psalm 51:5), that he became alienated from God (Colossians 1:21), that he became totally depraved, and that of himself, he is utterly unable to remedy his lost estate (Ephesians 2:1–5, 12). We believe all men are guilty and in a lost condition apart from Christ (Romans 2:1; 3:10–18).

SALVATION

1. We believe salvation is a gift of God’s grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross (Ephesians 2:8–9). Christ shed His blood to accomplish justification through faith, propitiation to God, redemption from sin, and reconciliation of man. “Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8–9) and “bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

2. We believe all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are secure in Christ forever (John 6:37–40; 10:27–30; Romans 8:1, 38–39; 1 Peter 1:5; Jude 24).

3. We believe it is the privilege of all who are born again to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word (Romans 8:16; 1 John 5:13). We also believe that Christian liberty should never serve as an occasion to the flesh (Galatians 5:13).

4. We believe the Scriptures disclose several aspects of sanctification. In addition to God’s work of bringing a sinner to Christ, he is set apart to God. This is positional sanctification and refers to his standing. He then undergoes a process whereby the Holy Spirit quickens his affections, desires, and attitudes, enabling him to respond in faith to live a life of victory over sin. This is progressive sanctification and refers to his state (2 Corinthians 3:18; 7:1; Galatians 5:16–25; Ephesians 4:22–29; 5:25–27; Colossians 3:10). Someday his standing and his state will be brought into perfect accord. This is prospective, or ultimate, sanctification (1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 John 3:2).

THE CHURCH

1. We believe Christ is the Head of the Church, and the Church is the body and espoused bride of Christ, which began at Pentecost and is a spiritual entity made up of all born again persons of this present age (Acts 2:1–42; 11:15; 1 Corinthians 12:12–14; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 1:22–23; 5:25–27; Colossians 1:18).

2. We believe the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures (Acts 14:27; 20:17; 1 Timothy 3:1–13; Titus 1:5–11).

3. We believe in the autonomy of the local church and its freedom to reject any governance that would demand compromise of the Holy Scripture, in part or in its’ entirety (Acts 13:1–4; 15:19–31; 28:28; Romans 16:1, 4; 1 Corinthians 3:9, 16; 5:4–7, 13; 1 Peter 5:1–4).

4. We believe in the ordinances of believer’s water baptism by immersion as a testimony and the Lord’s Supper as a remembrance in this age of Christ’s death for the Church (Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 2:41–42; 18:8; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26).

5. We believe the saved should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord, and that separation from religious apostasy, sinful pleasures, practices, and associations is commanded by God (Romans 12:1–2; 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1; 2 Timothy 3:1–5; 1 John 2:15–17; 2 John 9–11).

6. We believe in the Great Commission as a primary mission of the Church. It is the obligation of the saved to witness, by word and life, to the truths of Holy Scripture. The gospel of the grace of God is to be preached to all the world (Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians 5:19–20). Converts are to be taught to obey the Lord and to testify concerning their faith in Christ as Savior in water baptism and to honor Christ by holy living and observance of the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 28:19–20; 1 Corinthians 11:23–29).

THINGS TO COME

1. We believe in that “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), the personal, imminent (Matthew 24:42, 44; 1 Corinthians 15:51–52; Philippians 3:20; 4:5), pretribulational and premillennial (Revelation 19:11–20:10) coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to rapture His saints and receive His Church unto Himself (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18).

2. We believe in the subsequent, visible return of Christ to the earth (Matthew 24:29–31), with His saints to establish His promised millennial kingdom (Zechariah 14:4–11; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Revelation 3:10; 19:11–16; 20:1–6).

3. We believe in the physical resurrection of all men, the saints to everlasting joy and bliss, the wicked to conscious and eternal torment (Matthew 25:46; John 5:28–29; 11:25–26; Revelation 20:5–6, 12–13).

4. We believe the souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord, where in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection when spirit, soul, and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17; Revelation 20:4–6).

We believe the souls of unbelievers shall appear at the Great White Throne of Judgment and shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting, conscious punishment (Matthew 25:41–46; Mark 9:43–48; Luke 16:19–26; 2 Thessalonians 1:7–9; Jude 6–7; Revelation 20:11–15).

HUMANITY AND MARRIAGE

MAN AND WOMAN

We believe mankind came into being by direct creation of God and that mankind is made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26–27; 2:7).

We believe the Scriptures accurately define that mankind, both male and female, was created by God (Matthew 19:4–5; Mark 10:1–12) and the offspring of Adam and Eve, for all generations thereafter, have all been formed by God in the womb and, as a result, life begins in the womb with intentionality and purpose (Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 139:13–16 - see also Galatians 3:28; 1 Corinthians 12).

THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE

We believe human life is created by God in His image. It is of inestimable worth and significance in all its dimensions, including the preborn, the aged, the mentally disabled, those deemed unattractive, the physically challenged, and every other condition in which humanness is expressed from the single cell stage of development to natural death. Christians are therefore called to defend, protect, and value all human life (Psalm 139:13–14a; Jeremiah 1:5).

THE PERMANENCE OF MARRIAGE

We believe the institution of marriage is a sacred covenant designed by God to model the love of Christ for His people and to serve both the public and private good as the basic building block of human civilization. Marriage is intended by God to be a thriving, lifelong relationship between a man and a woman enduring through trials, sickness, financial crises, and emotional stresses. Therefore, Christians are called to defend and protect God’s marriage design and to minister in Christ’s name to those who suffer the consequences of its brokenness (Matthew 19:4–6).

EXPANDED STATEMENT REGARDING HUMAN GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND MARRIAGE

The biblical and philosophical goal of Calvary Fellowship Fountain Valley is to develop people in the church into mature, Christlike individuals (Ephesians 4:11–16; Hebrews 6:1; 2 Peter 3:18). Of necessity, this involves Calvary’s understanding and belief of what qualities or characteristics exemplify a Christlike life (Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18).

1. We believe the Bible to be the inspired, authoritative Word of God. Therefore, everything we say and do must be under the guidance and authority of the Scriptures. Our integrity depends on consistent application of our commonly understood biblical truths (Psalm 19:7–11; 2 Timothy 3:16–17; 2 Peter 1:20–21).

2. God created human beings distinctly as male and female (Genesis 1:27). The distinctness, complementary, and relational nature of the human race as “male and female” is based on the created order given by God when He created humanity “in His image” (Genesis 1:26–27; 5:1–3; 9:6; 1 Corinthians 11:7; James 3:9; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 4:23–24; Colossians 3:10), and these establish a normative connection between biological sex and gender. The created distinctness, complementarity, and relational nature also establish the basis for the marital relationship as being between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:23–24; Ephesians 5:21–33).

3. The Bible affirms two options or giftings for sexual expression: monogamous marital relations between one man and one woman (Genesis 1:27–28; 2:18, 21–24; Matthew 19:4–6; Mark 10:5–8; 1 Corinthians 7:1–16; Hebrews 13:4; Ephesians 5:22), or sexual celibacy, if one is not in a monogamous marital relationship between one man and one woman (1 Corinthians 7:7; Matthew 19:12). Within this Biblical design there can be found sexual fulfillment, whereas outside this design sexual expression is improper (1 Corinthians 6:13–20; Leviticus 18, 20).

4. The Bible affirms that human sexuality is a gift to be treasured and enjoyed (Genesis 2:24; Proverbs 5:19, 31:10; 1 Corinthians 7:4), as is sexual celibacy (1 Corinthians 7:7). The fall of humanity (Genesis 3) corrupted human sexuality in both spiritual and physical ways (Romans 1:18–32; Ephesians 2:1–10), and one result is confusion and pain in the lives of those who struggle with brokenness regarding gender, and who struggle with the guilt of desiring sinful expressions of sexuality (Genesis 3:1–7; Romans 3:9–18, 5:12–17). The Bible prescribes faith in Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:2–3) as the remedy and as the provision for life (Romans 3:23, 6:23; John 3:16), and the Bible prescribes an ongoing relationship with Him as the means for a whole and fulfilling life (John 15:1–11, 17:3; Colossians 3:12–17; Galatians 5:16–25; Romans 8:28–38).

We understand the Bible to teach that we must not condone sin while demonstrating compassion for sinners (Romans 3:23), distinguishing between the value and identity of each person as an individual, and the behavioral choices which some individuals may make (Galatians 5:19–25). We understand the Bible to differentiate between recognition of personhood and rejection of those actions which it defines as immoral, while simultaneously extending forgiveness and healing to all who respond in believing faith to its universal offer of God’s grace (Luke 15:10; John 8:3–12).

THE VALUE OF CHILDREN

We believe children are a heritage from God and a blessing from His hand. Parents are therefore accountable to Him for raising, shaping, and preparing them for a life of service to His Kingdom and to humanity (Malachi 2:15).

CALVINISM, ARMINIANISM and THE WORD OF GOD

There are certain distinctions that cause Calvary Chapel Fellowships to stand out among other evangelical churches. We could point to our shared commitment to systematic Bible teaching or the emphasis upon love that transcends all cultural and ethnic barriers. Calvary Chapels have also been known for focus on worship, featuring contemporary music loyal to the Word of God and the desire of His people to praise their Lord. Without exception, Calvary Chapels have taken a strong stand for a pretribulational and premillennial view of the second coming of Jesus Christ. We have also expressed a steadfast love and support for the nation of Israel, its right to a historic homeland and its need for the Messiah. In addition, Calvary Chapel has been known for striking a balance between extremes on controversial theological issues that have often caused division rather than unity in the body of Christ.

Calvary Chapels have no desire to be divisive nor dogmatic in areas where Bible believers and teachers have disagreed. However, it is important to state as clearly as possible the doctrinal basis of our fellowship and unity with one another, especially in the area of pastoral leadership and teaching. While we welcome believers who disagree with us to our fellowship, we do encourage a measure of doctrinal understanding and unity among our pastors who teach us the truths of God's Word.

Calvary Chapels try to avoid conclusions, terminology, and arguments which are not clearly presented in the Bible. In no area of controversy is this approach more essential than in the long simmering debate between Calvinists and Arminians. In the midst of this heated argument it is easy to ignore or neglect the plain statements of the Bible, or to believe that we have the ability to fully understand the ways of God (Romans 11:33-36). But how tragic it is when we become more concerned with being "right" than being loving. When we discuss the ministry of the Holy Spirit, it is easy to disagree over terms such as "baptism" and "filling" and to miss the blessing and power of God's Spirit in our lives. The way we conduct our debates and express our opinions will sometimes "quench" as well as "grieve" the blessed Spirit who dwells within the believer. In the midst of our arguments over spiritual gifts, we can miss the Biblical admonition to love, which clearly is greater than all the gifts (I Corinthians 12:31 - 14:1). Our desire is to bring believers together in the love and unity of the Holy Spirit. Our focus is on our awesome God, not on ourselves. We are committed to glorifying our Lord in all we say and do.

Perhaps no issue is as important or as potentially divisive as the doctrine of salvation, reflected in the debate between followers of John Calvin (1509-1564) and those of Jacob Hermann (1560-1609), best known by the Latin form of his last name, Arminius. Since the Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century, Christian churches and leaders have disagreed over such issues as depravity, God's sovereignty, human responsibility, election, predestination, eternal security and the nature and extent of the atonement of Jesus Christ.

CLICK HERE to read the church position on Calvinism and Arminianism >>

Special recognition and appreciation to Calvary Chapel, Focus on the Family and Calvary University for excerpts of this Belief Statement.