Welcome to the Ascension Life Family

Welcome to the Ascension Life Family

What to Expect

When visiting Ascension Life, one of the first things you will see is that we are a “loving” church. We are all about loving God and loving people. We also love good worship! If you love Bethel Music, Jesus Culture, Elevation, Maverick City, Kari Jobe, Brandon Lake, Phil Wickham, etc., then you will love the Ascension Life worship experience.

As to our main doctrinal perspectives, we are a “grace” and “faith” church. In other words, we are all about the goodness of God (God’s love, mercy, and grace) and faith (i.e., doing the greater works), with Jesus being our ultimate example. Some of the ministries we support include Andrew Wommack Ministries (ARMI), Dr. Paul Ellis (Escape to Reality), and Joseph Prince (Grace Changes Everything).

In addition, we have an amazing children’s and youth ministry, to include a School of Applied Ministry (adults) that meets Mondays and Wednesdays (6.30pm), as well as Life Groups that meet at different times throughout the month.

If this is the kind of church you are looking for, we would love to meet you this Sunday!

VICTORY OVER SIN

We believe that as born-again believers in Jesus Christ, we are called to live victoriously over the power of sin and to “walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10). We believe that sin is always accompanied by destructive consequences. THIS IS NOT THE RESULT OF GOD’S PUNISHMENT AGAINST BELIEVERS BUT THE DESTRUCTIVE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN ITSELF (Rom. 8:1; 2 Cor. 5:19; Gal. 3:13). To illustrate, a believer may exercise their free choice and place their hand in an open fire. The destructive consequence is the result of this person’s proactive (or free will) choice rather than punishment from God.

We also believe that sin is always accompanied by destructive consequences. THIS IS NOT THE RESULT OF GOD’S PUNISHMENT AGAINST BELIEVERS BUT THE DESTRUCTIVE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN ITSELF (Rom. 8:1; 2 Cor. 5:19; Gal. 3:13). To illustrate: a believer may exercise their free choice and place their hand in an open fire. The destructive consequence is the result of their (bad) free will choice; it is not God’s punishment.

We believe that grace is a teacher who teaches true believers to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. The Bible is very clear in stating that “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11–12).

Furthermore, grace is not a license to sin. Any person who makes this false claim to justify their own life/sinful choices does not understand the gospel of grace, and it does not represent what we believe.

We believe sin shall not have dominion over believers who have an accurate revelation of the gospel of grace and who lay hold of their righteous identity in Christ. Romans 6:8–14 makes this clear: “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. . . . Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

We believe that grace preaching (a grace focus) leads to victorious living, beautiful marriages, strong families, genuine generosity, and believers who reign in every area of their lives to the glory of God. Romans 5:17 tells us, “Much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”

We believe that born again believers are not looking for an excuse to sin. How can they if they have been genuinely impacted by Jesus’ love and sacrifice? We also believe that those who have been impacted by God’s love, mercy, and grace are looking for a way out of sin and out of the prison of fear, guilt, and condemnation.

We believe that today, we are under the new covenant of grace: “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). The old covenant law was given through a servant (Moses). Grace and truth came through the Son (Jesus). The law talks about what man ought to be to God. Grace reveals who God is to man. In the first miracle of Moses, the water was turned into blood, resulting in death. In the first miracle of grace, Jesus turned the water into wine, resulting in life and celebration. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6).

Under the law, God demands righteousness from spiritually bankrupt man. But under grace, God provides righteousness as a gift to those who put their trust (faith) in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 5:17). We believe that through the cross at Calvary, all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and acknowledge Him as their Lord and Savior (being born again a new creation in Christ Jesus) are under the new covenant of grace.

Under the law, God said He will by no means clear the guilty but will visit their sins to the third and fourth generations (Exod. 34:7). Under grace, God says, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb. 8:12). The law is man-centered; grace is Jesus-centered. The law focuses on what we must accomplish to be justified (or made right in God’s sight). Grace focuses entirely on what Jesus has accomplished for our
justification (our righteousness). Under the law, we are disqualified by our disobedience. Under grace, we are qualified by Jesus’s obedience. Under the law, we are made righteous when we do right. But under grace, we are made righteous when we believe right (Rom. 4:3–8). 

We believe the Ten Commandments are holy, just, glorious, and good, and we have the utmost honor and esteem for the perfect law of God. We believe the Ten Commandments are so pristine in their standard and so unbending in their holy requirements that, as Galatians 3:11, says, “no one is justified by the law in the sight of God.”

The Bible says that justification can only come through faith in Jesus Christ: “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. . . . For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain” (Gal. 2:16; 19–21).

We believe that believers who have been transformed by the power of the Lord’s grace will desire to fulfill and keep the moral excellencies, values, and virtues espoused by the Ten Commandments. True grace produces true holiness. As the apostle Paul proclaimed, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10).

TRUE REPENTANCE IN CHRIST

We believe it is essential to understand the original meaning of the Greek word for repentance and not just its traditional meaning of doing outward penance. The Greek word for repentance is metanoia, which means “a change of mind.” Repentance that involves a genuine change of mind goes deeper than mere outward expressions of repentance. A person can appear outwardly remorseful and even cry bitter tears and still not experience a breakthrough over their sin. True repentance (metanoia) speaks of genuine contrition, a recognition of wrongdoing, and a real inward desire to turn away from sin and to return to grace by having a revelation of the cross (2 Cor. 7:9–10).

We believe that one can only experience true repentance through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We also believe that if a believer has fallen into sin and is struggling with a sinful habit, it is essential they have a change of mind and believe by faith that even that sin has been punished in the body of Jesus and begin to receive afresh God’s forgiveness, God’s unmerited favor, and God’s righteousness to overcome that weakness. Jesus is the solution, the answer, and the victory out of any destructive cycle of sin (Rom. 5:17).

We believe that the moment we were born again a new creation in Christ Jesus, we were forgiven, cleansed, perfected in righteousness, and saved. We also believe that we were sanctified and made holy (in Christ) once and for all (Heb. 10:10). This is why the writer of Hebrews says that “by his one perfect sacrifice he made us perfectly holy and complete for all time” (Heb. 10:14 TPT).