Sovereign Grace Baptist Church has been gathering as an independent congregation of believers since 1976, meeting then as Grace Baptist Church of Anniston, and holding to the Biblical and historical truths of the doctrines of God’s sovereign grace. We believe that we are a great Baptist church, not because we are great (we are not), but because we serve a great Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
JESUS CHRIST, the holy Son of God, is our vision at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. The Reformed believers of the Christian faith called this Solus Christus, meaning “only Christ.”
God the Father, is glorified in the Son (Matthew 17:5; John 13:32). The Holy Spirit brings glory to the Son (John 16:14). At Sovereign Grace, we revere and rejoice in the will, glory, and sovereign work of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (also known as the Trinity).
The Old Testament word for vision can just as easily be translated into the New Testament word “revelation.” Vision is a revelation from God. It is a revealing, an unveiling of His will and truth, particularly, the revealing of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Jesus said that everything in the Scriptures was about Him (John 5:39). So at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church we read, study, teach, and preach the Bible to know more about Christ and His attributes in order to grow closer to Him, to honor Him, and to submit to His holy will.
If God’s work upon Calvary’s Tree some 2000 years ago was the central, most holy, and most excellent work in all the universe; if His resurrection from the dead is the only sign given to an evil and adulterous generation that Jesus was, is, and ever more shall be who He claimed to be: God in human flesh; if He ascended into heaven with a promise to return; if life is only in Him and apart from Him is eternal condemnation; then, to have a vision other than Christ, to have a desire other than Jesus, to delight in anything else above the Son of God, is sin.
Jesus Christ is EVERYTHING! He’s not just something. It is written, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever” (Psalm 73:25-26); and again, “And this is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:11-12).
When the early Christian Church met in Antioch, they didn’t have a missions conference or a church growth seminar. The leaders of the church merely got together and “ministered to the Lord, and fasted” when the Holy Spirit stirred them (Acts 13:2), and the largest mission movement in history was born.
If the truth that JESUS CHRIST is our vision, that He is God and worthy of worship, and that anything in heaven and earth that competes with loyalty to Him is a sin, then our mission is to live every day according to that truth, being transformed daily by that truth, and surrendering ourselves to Him without reservation for that truth. Therefore, because of that truth…
…we will be moved by God’s Spirit to minister to our families as husbands and wives, as fathers and mothers, and as children, as a testimony of that truth.
…the Holy Spirit will move us to encourage one another as Christian believers in bringing honor and glory to Christ in all our speech and actions.
…we will grow in maturity by God’s grace through His holy Word, bringing even more glory and honor to Christ because it has been by His supernatural power to do so.
…it will be evident to the community of Anniston that our love and passion for Christ and His truth is so Biblical and so authentic that it could only be possible by the supernatural power of God’s Spirit to regenerate totally depraved sinners into new creatures in Christ. Further, we will be supernaturally compelled to want to convey and express this truth with compassion to every soul in Anniston and beyond.
…we will be available for Christ’s call to carry His truth wherever that may lead us, even “unto the uttermost part of the earth.” We don’t have to “start” a mission. The truth of Jesus Christ is the mission!
PREACHING the Gospel of Jesus Christ without shame. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
Certainly, no mere man can sufficiently express the truths of the Cross of Jesus Christ. That infinite, awesome, and glorious work of God is a truth that we will chase down for all eternity. Yet, the one thing that we try to do at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church is to preach Christ, and Him crucified as the central, essential, and most holy and excellent work of God in the entire universe, for all eternity. We desire to preach, teach, and live according to the truth of the atoning work of Christ upon the Cross without compromise.
TEACHING the Word of God to all nations. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19).
Expositional teaching through the Bible, in our Sunday School classes, at our worship services, and all that we do within ministry will build up the believers in Christ with the truth of God’s Word; not just with information for the mind, but by prayerfully seeking the glory of God in those truths, realizing that it is by God’s supernatural grace and mercy that we are encouraged to understand God’s Word, motivated by God’s Word, and empowered by God’s Word to be faithful to please God in all our behavior.
WORSHIPPING in spirit and truth. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16).
Our worship of God, not only consists of preaching and teaching, but also in prayer and song. The musical portion of our worship service is traditional, singing psalms and traditional and contemporary hymns as a reverent expression of the honor we bestow upon our almighty Creator and Savior. It is during this time in our worship service when we, as a body of believers, can lift up our voices in worship unto God with one heart, one mind, and one accord.
Preaching the gospel is foolishness to the intellectuals and offensive to the religious because the preaching of the cross of Jesus Christ is absolutely absurd to the unbelieving world. God, therefore, is glorified because it is by His power alone, through the proclamation of scriptural truth, that souls are saved.