Our 4 Pillars
We’ve structured our core beliefs into 4 Foundational Pillars, upholding the house of Oasis. We live our lives from these pillars because we have been commissioned to bring the kingdom of heaven to our City.
Beginning with the source, God’s Word, we are led into His Presence, which calls us into community as God’s Family, and commissions us to impact His City.
We believe as disciples of Jesus, we trust in God’s Word, Abide in His Presence, Foster His Family, and Minister to His City
The way we are formed and shaped as disciples of Jesus is through our temple and our table gatherings.
As God’s people we have come to know His word as our defining reality. He has revealed his character, his emotions, and his heart to humanity through His word. It shapes and forms our story, our character, our minds, our identity, and our purpose.
As God’s people we have become the dwelling place of God’s presence. What God has done to us, He wants to do through us. His presence is what transforms the world and brings kingdom renewal. God’s presence permeating the world was His intention from the beginning. Through Jesus and the promise of the Holy Spirit, it is His mission for His church and His promise at the end of days for His presence to continue to be with us.
We know that God desires to bring all people into His family. For God so loved the world that He gave Jesus. As God’s people, who are saved by Jesus, we are now a part of the family of God. God has given us the spirit of adoption, giving us the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. As His family, we give up our rights and live sacrificial lives, loving one another as Christ has loved us and live according to the ways of the Kingdom of God.
As God’s people, we have been entrusted with the welfare of the city. We live as people who have been sent to proclaim the inbreaking of the kingdom of God and the ministry of reconciliation to all people. We have been commissioned to go and bring the kingdom of God to every corner and watch as heaven invades earth.
The Mission of Oasis Church Chicago is sustained through our Values as a House
LOVERS OF HIS PRESENCE
SERVING OVER SELF
GENEROSITY OUR GIFT
WE DO THE RIGHT THING
KINDNESS MATTERS
AGILE BUT DETERMINED
STEWARSHIP SPEAKS
HONOR ALL PEOPLE
BUILDING STRONG FAMILIES
What We Believe
The "Tenets of Faith" are a series of principles and belief we hold to be true as an organization. We believe these statements to be doctrinally aligned to our foundational convictions.
We believe the Bible to be the divine, infallible, and authoritative Word of God. We believe it to be transcendent through all time and applicable to our lives today. It is the revelation of God to man.
2 Timothy 3:15-17; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Peter 1:21
We believe there is one eternal God – existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is complete and still alive today. He is creator of heaven and earth, mankind, and is the redeemer of all things.
Isaiah 43: 10-11; Matthew 28:19; Luke 3:22
We believe it is only through Jesus that we can be reconciled to God’s original design for us. Jesus, born of a virgin, completely man, completely God, lived a sinless life here on Earth. He is the image of the invisible God. The God of heaven made manifest in human likeness. His life, death, resurrection, and ascension testify that he accomplished the work of salvation that was willed by the Father. Jesus Christ has disarmed the rulers and principalities that have plagued mankind forever, and has set free those who place their faith and trust in him, reconciling them to the heart of the Father. He forgave us of all of our sins and is now sitting at the right hand of the Father.
Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:31; 1 Peter 2:22; Acts 2:22, 1 Corinthians 15:3; Matthew 28:6; Hebrews 1-3
We believe that man is created in the image of God, but through sin and disobedience, has been separated from God. Man was originally created for good and was upright before God. However, man, by voluntary transgression fell and therefore incurred not only physical death, but also spiritual death, which separates everyone from God.
Genesis 1-3; Romans 5:12-19
Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit in which the unredeemed soul or inner person is called by the Holy Spirit to repentance. Regeneration is the necessary beginning point for a life of discipleship—believing loyalty—to Jesus Christ and God the Father.
Eph 2:1-10; 4:24; 2 Cor 5:17
We believe man is saved by grace alone, through personal faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation is a gift from God, not a result of our good works or of any human effort. Salvation means turning from our own efforts to merit the grace of God, or from rejecting the grace of God shown through the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we embrace the gospel we are made new creations by the regeneration and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who compels us to commit ourselves to turn from sin in every area of our lives and to live a life of complete loyalty to Jesus Christ, our King.
Romans 4:1-5; 10:9-10; Acts 3:19, 16:31; Galatians 2:16, 3:8; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 9:22
We believe baptism is by immersion and is an outward sign of an inward action. The command for all who have accepted the grace of Jesus must be water baptized. It is an inward work of us dying to self and uniting ourselves to Jesus’s death, and an outward declaration to the world that they have died to sin and are alive in Christ.
Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16; Romans 6:4
The Lord’s Supper is an act of remembrance and a sign of believing in the loyalty of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. (2 Peter 1:4) Furthermore, communion is a unifying act, as it testifies that Christ took upon the sins of all humanity, that he would disarm all rulers and principalities, and unite all tongues and tribes, through his precious body and blood on the cross.
We believe in the Holy Spirit and that His work and gifts are alive and available today. The Holy Spirit is the promise the Father sent us that indwells in those who believe. The Holy Spirit is active today and imparts and enables the Church to use spiritual gifts that edify and grow the Church. The Holy Spirit speaks (Acts 13:2), intercedes (Romans 8:26), testifies (John 15:26), guides (John 16:13), commands (Acts 16:6-7), appoints (Acts 20:28), leads (Romans 8:14), reproves and convicts of sin (John 16:8), seals God’s promise in believers hearts (Ephesians 1:13-14), and shapes the individual’s and community’s life to Christ (Romans 8:1-17).
We believe the baptism with the Holy Spirit, given at Pentecost, is the fulfillment of the new covenant promise of the Father for all believers. Each believer is baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ as part of salvation and regeneration. Every believer should also expect and seek the gift of the Holy Spirit that can be distinct and subsequent to his or her baptism into the Body of Christ. This baptism experience continuously empowers the believer for Christian service in God’s reconciliatory work in the world. The presence of the Spirit in the believer is God’s definite means of endowment of gifting and power for service. As the believer surrenders more to the Spirit’s control, this empowerment will produce more and more fruit in the life of the believer.
Joel 2:28-29; Matthew 3:11; Acts 1:5, 2:1-4, 17, 38-39, 8:14-17, 10:38, 44-47, 11:15-17, 19:1-6; 1 Cor 12:13
We believe the Holy Spirit is displayed through a variety of spiritual gifts to build and sanctify the Church, demonstrate the validity of the resurrection, confirm the power of the Gospel and to serve the world. The lists of these gifts in the Bible are not necessarily exhaustive and may occur in various combinations. These gifts always operate in harmony with the Word of God and should never be used in violation of Biblical parameters. Every believer should eagerly desire spiritual gifts and develop these gifts to promote the gospel in their everyday lives.
Romans 1:11, 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31, 14:1-40; Ephesians 4:16; 1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:5-16; Hebrews 2:4; 1 Peter 4:10
Sanctification is an act of separation from that which is evil, and of dedication unto God (Romans 12:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 13:12). The Scriptures teach a life of holiness and teach a life of holiness for “without holiness, no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). By the power of the Holy Spirit we are able to obey the command, “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). Sanctification is realized in the believer by recognizing his identification in Christ in His death and resurrection and by faith reckoning daily upon the fact of that union, and by offering every faculty continually to the dominion of the Holy Spirit (Romans 6:11-14; 8:1-14).
We believe in the necessity of the Church for all believers in Jesus Christ. We believe there is significance in community and the Body of Christ regularly meeting together through worship, prayer, baptism and communion. The church is both the representative of Jesus on earth and the earthly expression of His kingdom. The purpose of the church is to carry out the Great Commission.
Ephesians 1:22-23, Hebrews 12:3, John 17:11; I Timothy 3:15
Divine healing is an integral part of the Gospel of the kingdom. Deliverance from sickness if provided for in the atonement and is the privilege of all believers (Isaiah 53:4; Matthew 8:16-17). Jesus modeled this connection in his ministry, as his declaration of the inbreaking of God’s kingdom was always coupled with physical deliverance and healing that testified of Him and His message.
We believe in serving the city and the communities around us and abroad through giving of our time, commitment and resources for the advancement of the kingdom. We believe we have been commissioned to go and preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. To see generations restored, families restored, and for the gospel of Jesus to come and invade souls. We believe our God to be a God of overflowing grace, mercy, and love that wants to transform, heal (physically, emotionally and spiritually) (Isaiah 53:4-5; Matthew 8:16-17), and edify us to carry out the work of His kingdom- to go and save the lost through the power of Jesus’ name. (Mark 16:15-20; Ephesians 4:11-13)
We believe that God has established marriage as a lifelong, exclusive relationship between one natural born man, and one natural born woman, and that all intimate sexual activity outside the marriage relationship, whether heterosexual, homosexual, or otherwise is immoral and therefore sin (Genesis 2:24; Exodus 2:14; Leviticus 18:22-23; Matthew 19:4-6; Romans 1:18-31; 1 Timothy 1:8-11). We believe that God created the human race as male and female and that all conduct with the intent to adopt a gender other than one’s birth gender is immoral and therefore sin.
Genesis 1:27; Deuteronomy 22:5; Psalm 139:13-16; 1 Corinthians 6:19
Heaven is the place where God dwells; a place which will be reunited with a new earth at the end of the age. The new heavens and the new earth are the eternal dwelling place for all believers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ where we will fulfill our original purpose of ruling and reigning over God’s creation with Him and our Lord, Jesus Christ.
We believe that our eternity is either in Heaven or Hell, which depends on our acceptance or rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior who is still alive and working today. Unbelievers have no share in the eternal life on the new earth, but are instead eternally separated from God.
Matthew 25:41; John 14:1-3; 17:24; 1 Cor 15:26; Romans 8:18-25; 2 Corinthians 5:1; Hebrews 9:27, 11:16; 1 Peter 1:4; Revelation 20:12-15, 21:8
We believe and expectantly wait for the great promise that our Lord Jesus Christ is coming back for a second time to establish His kingdom, and reign on the earth. This will occur at a date and hour that no man knows.
Matthew 24:30, 26:63-64; Acts 1:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8; Revelation 1:7