About Us
who we are
We are a new church on the NW side of Grand Rapids committed to helping the next generation fall in love with Jesus.
When Jesus was baptized, beloved was the identity the Father spoke over him. Our hope and prayer is that God would use our church in people's lives to see heaven opened to them and to hear God's voice pronouncing God's heart for them: beloved.
What do we believe?
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We believe there is one divine being who has existed eternally. He exists and reveals Himself to man in three distinct, equally divine persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. At the beginning of time, God created the entire universe and all its creatures. He continues to exercise His supreme power to sustain His creation. Throughout history, He has expressed His desire to be our God and to have a personal, eternal relationship with us.
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We believe that Jesus is the eternal divine Son of God. He chose voluntarily to be made in human likeness and was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. Although He lived a sinless life, He allowed Himself to be executed by crucifixion. However, as prophesied, He rose from the dead three days after His execution, securing salvation for all who will believe.
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The third person of God is the Holy Spirit. We believe the Holy Spirit dwells in every Christ-follower. His indwelling presence gives spiritual life to believers and distinguishes them as children of God. The Holy Spirit guides Christ-followers in applying God’s principles and equips Christ-followers with talents and abilities for the purpose of building up God’s kingdom. The Spirit is an advocate for us, helping us, defending us and empowering us.
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God created mankind to live in relationship with Him. However, the first man and woman were deceived by Satan. They rebelled and chose to be wrongfully independent from God. We all fail to live up to the perfect standard God desires and are open to Satan’s deception. Unless a relationship is re-established with Him, our failure to please God results in condemnation under God’s judgment and would cause us to spend eternity in hell. Furthermore, there is nothing we can do on our own (we can’t be “good enough” or do “more good deeds than bad deeds”) to re-establish our relationship with God.
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Our inability to re-establish our relationship with God leaves us dependent on God’s mercy. God graciously provided the means to reconcile this relationship through faith in Jesus Christ. Our relationship is re-established when we make a commitment to accept Jesus as God’s son and our Savior and Lord. We demonstrate our commitment privately by faith (acting upon our belief that God has the power to save us) and repentance (turning back to God and depending on Him to direct our lives). At the same time, we publicly express our commitment by confessing our acceptance of God’s salvation and submitting ourselves in Christian baptism.
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Once our relationship is re-established with God, we naturally want to spend time with Him and know Him better. The Holy Spirit enlightens us as we read God’s Word (the Bible), as we communicate with Him in prayer, and as we enter into loving relationships (Biblical community) with other Christ-followers. In this way, we begin to know God more intimately. The process of spiritual development motivates us to seek ways to serve God and prepares us to spend eternity in fellowship with Him.
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The word church literally means assembly or gathering. It is the gathering of Christ-followers around Jesus and was created by God for our benefit and His glory! The Bible speaks of the church as Christ’s body. It compares it to a living organism, where Jesus is the head. He gives each Christ-follower special functions to perform for the good of the body. To remain healthy, the body’s members must work together. Each part contributes to the growth and maturity of the body. For this reason, it is important for Christ-followers to regularly gather together for the purpose of celebration. Celebration in this way enables believers to serve one another and neighbors in their sphere of influence.
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God divinely inspired human authors to write the sixty-six books of the Bible. He communicated through these writers the values, principles, and ideals which please Him and are in our best interests. We believe the Bible is entirely accurate, complete, and reliable. It can be trusted and it reveals who God is to us and how we can be reconciled to Him through Jesus.
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We believe that the Holy Spirit empowers and gifts all believers, both men and women, for the work of Christ’s Kingdom. Here at The Beloved Church, both men and women serve as elders and participate in pastoral ministry, including the preaching and teaching ministry of the church as a whole.
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We believe that every human life is sacred, bearing inherent dignity and value from the moment of conception to natural death. Here at The Beloved Church, we are committed to upholding the sanctity of life while also extending compassion, care, and support to those facing complex and deeply personal circumstances. As a community, we seek to embody both truth and grace, walking alongside one another with humility, love, and faithfulness.
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We believe that God has designed sexuality as a gift to be expressed within the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman. Although we maintain a loving and non-affirming posture, we believe all have sexual brokenness regardless of sexual orientation and this truth should produce humility, compassion and a desire to be a welcoming community (regardless of sexual identity) to love one another towards Jesus.
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We believe that our ultimate allegiance is to Jesus Christ, whose Kingdom shapes how we engage in every aspect of public life. Here at The Beloved Church, we seek to approach politics with humility, integrity, and a deep commitment to unity, recognizing the dignity of every person as an image-bearer of God. As a community, we aim to embody a faithful presence marked not by fear or division, but by grace, truth, and love.