We believe that the Bible, composed of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, is the divinely inspired Word of God, the final written authority and trustworthy for faith and practice. It is to be interpreted responsibly under the guidance of Holy Spirit within the community of faith. The primary purpose of the Bible is to point to Jesus Christ, the risen Savior.
Although Baptists have produced numerous confessions to express our common understandings of Christian faith, we hold the Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, as our final authority. We accept no humanly devised confession or creed as binding.
We affirm that the One True and Living God is sovereign over all and that this sovereignty is expressed and realized through Jesus Christ. Therefore, we affirm the Lordship of Christ over the whole world and His local churches. We joyously confess that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord. We are called in loyalty to Jesus Christ to proclaim the power of Holy Spirit, the Good News of God’s grace, and to declare the saving power of the Gospel to every human being and to every human institution. We celebrate Christ’s charge to "make disciples of all nations" and to bear witness to God’s redeeming reign in human affairs.
Ben was born again at the age of nine in Southern California and baptized by Immanuel Missionary Baptist Church under the pastorate of Dr. E.A. Sharver. Ben is married to his beautiful and loving wife Terese and has successfully raised their five awesome children, Stephanie, John, Amber, Aaron & Samantha. He answered God’s call to the Gospel Ministry in 2000 under the pastorate of Mike Raines in Norman, Oklahoma. Within the Lord’s churches he has held the positions of music director, teacher, youth minister, treasurer, and interim pastor and has chaired building, missions, finance, bus ministries and pastor search committees. Ben is currently attending Heritage Baptist Institute and Seminary in Missouri City, Texas. He has been involved in missions and church planting for most of his life and is no stranger to the processes and challenges of mission work and community evangelism. He is fairly fluent in Spanish and has lived in Peru (Lima and the Amazon) and Kenya. He enjoys singing conventional church music, southern gospel and contemporary Christian music and loves to play guitar. Ben was most recently employed by BP America (British Petroleum) Corporation as a safety and health professional and Crisis Management Advisor. Ben has worked in the oil and gas industry for more than thirty years holding positions of management in some of the largest energy sector corporations in the U.S. and the world. He has extensive leadership experience in the church, corporations, civic, and professional organizations. Preparing to take early retirement from BP in December 2010, again, Ben has answered God’s call to the foreign mission field and is preparing for service in Belize, Central America.
Terese became a child of the King at 14 years of age as a result of neighbor’s faithfulness, love and willingness to pick her and her brothers up and take them to Sunday School and church. Terese is married to her loving husband, Ben and is so thankful for her five beautiful children, Stephanie, John, Amber, Aaron and Samantha. Children are her blessing and she counts it all joy that she is able to teach them about Jesus Christ the Lord. She is committed to her family, and her husband’s ministry. Terese has extensive experience running several different businesses including electrical contracting and real estate, not to mention a very active household with five children and all their friends. Terese enjoys arts and crafts, baking and serving others. She has a great burden for missionaries everywhere and looks forward to any opportunity to help them and be a part of their work wherever she can. She has served leadership roles in church and local associations as teacher, VBS Director, President and Vice-President of local and associational auxiliaries and has planned and produced successful women’s conferences.
