Evangel is a Reformed Church in Wichita, Kansas. To help you get to know us, we’ve outlined three words that we feel describe the kind of church we are: Evangelical, Reformed, and Presbyterian. While we believe these are all important distinctives for our church, we hope to hold those last two humbly since we know that there are many sincere and earnest Christians with other views. You should know that it is not required for you to agree with every aspect of our doctrine in order to become a member. Any evangelical Christian is welcome to join and be a participating member of our church. Elders and deacons, however, must hold to all of these distinctives.
Evangelical
We are “evangelical”, meaning that we stand with all other believers who affirm the essential aspects of the Christian faith. We don’t want to exist as an isolated or completely independent church; instead, we pray for other Gospel-minded churches and look for opportunities to partner with them to reach our city and ultimately the world with the good news of the Gospel. To be evangelical means we take seriously the Great Commission to “go and make disciples of all nations.” Evangelism matters. Every Christian is called to be a witness for Christ in our respective spheres of influence as God gives us opportunity. As a church, we affirm and preach the necessity for every person to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. We hope to herald that offer of the Gospel far and wide to every person, without distinction, so that, by faith, many will find forgiveness of sin and realize the hope of eternal life with Christ our Lord.
Reformed
To start, ‘reformed’ points to the fact we have an appreciation for church history. Not only do we want to be connected to other gospel-minded churches today (described above), we want to build upon the work of countless Godly men and women who went before us throughout history. Specifically, we tend to follow in the footsteps of the 16th-century Protestant Reformers like Luther, Calvin, and others. Although Scripture is our only authority, our Christian family history is a tremendous resource that informs how we worship, do ministry, reach the lost, and beyond. Even as we contextualize the gospel to a new generation, our historical roots provide us with a sense of freedom from the burden of constantly trying to reinvent the wheel as we minister the timeless truths of Scripture.
Being reformed also involves holding to certain theological views. Our reformed theology can be summarized in three words: confessional, covenantal, and Calvinistic. First, like the reformers and other church fathers, we hold to a written confession of the faith (The Westminster Confession). We don’t believe our Confession is flawless, but we do find it immensely helpful (and most importantly, Biblical)! You can read more about our confession and beliefs here. Every church ‘confesses’ something, formally or informally, and we believe a formal confession helps keep us faithful to God’s Word.
Second, we are covenantal. In the Bible, God often deals with people by way of ‘covenant’, or a promissory agreement that involves blessings if kept and curses if broken (like marriage, for example). We believe that God’s covenants are the unifying theme of Scripture. Specifically, all of Scripture is unified by the “covenant of grace”, which essentially teaches that God saves sinners by grace alone, through faith alone. This covenant was ratified with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and finally, and most importantly, in Jesus Christ himself. There is (and always has been) only one way to salvation: faith in Christ.
Third, we are Calvinistic, meaning that we, like Calvin, have a high view of God’s sovereignty and man’s chief end being the glory of God. We don’t shy away from recognizing the deep sinfulness in every person’s heart, but we also believe that our inability to earn our salvation incredibly magnifies God’s grace! We are humbled by the reality that while we were dead in our sins, God, in his mercy and love, made us alive with Christ (Eph. 2:1-9). As Christians, we find great confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit to give us a new heart and help us persevere in the faith (Eph. 1:13-14). These truths are sometimes referred to as the “doctrines of grace” and should bring us great joy.
Presbyterian
This word refers to our form of governance. We believe that the most clear and biblical pattern is for churches to be governed by presbyters (elders), or godly men (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Pet. 5:1-4) who rule jointly in “church courts”: sessions (elder meetings), presbyteries (regional meetings), and our General Assembly (national meeting). Click here to view more information about our denomination and our regional presbytery.
