About Us

Our church began in the late '80s through the efforts of the Rural Home Missionary Assocation (RHMA) of Morton, IL. RHMA is a ministry that plants and strengthens churches.

Ron (and Joan) Denlinger began serving the church in August of 2005.  They have celebrated 25 years of marraige and 25 years of ministry this year. You can learn more about Ron, his family, and their previous ministry with RHMA at their family web site.  It also features a book they've written called Joy in a Foreign Land. Though the book is presently out of print, you can read it in its entirety on line.

Who is The Pastor of our church?  Jesus Christ is the ulimate pastor / overseer of the One Flock (made up of all believers everywhere).  Ron is an elder who serves in shepherding and overseeing this pariticular church family in Lincoln.

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What a church believes is important (and equally important that they really believe it and live by it).  Our beliefs are pretty much the same as others who take the Bible to mean what it says.  Click here if you'd like to read the details.

Let me share with you some important truths about what it means to have a relationship with God...

1. We are God's special creation. That is a profound truth in that God has made mankind special. Although we share some common characteristics with other living things, we are unique in that we bear the image of God. We are like him in that we have intellect, emotions and the ability to make conscious choices (will). Further, there is a part of us that can respond to God. However, there is a big problem.

2. Creation is no longer what it was at the very beginning and neither are we, as his special creation. We see it all around us. We are broken. We no longer live in an atmosphere of wholeness, peace and harmony. Instead, we find the world to be marked by suffering, violence, disrepair and evil of all sorts. Where does this evil come from?

3. God gave our first parents (Adam and Eve) a choice. They were not content with the good that God had given them. They believed the lie that true fulfillment and enlightenment was to be found outside of God's boundaries. And everyone since that time (except one) was influenced and marred by that same lie. And we cannot say that society alone is the problem...

4. By our own choice we have all bought into lies and rejected God's design and his plans for us. We are, for the most part, deceived into believing this is a peripheral problem (if a problem at all). The Bible considers it a huge problem - the great problem to be solved. The evil in our world does not come from without, but rather is the outworking of individual, self-centered choices that reject God. The predicament is great. What is the remedy?

5. In his love for the world, God provided a solution - one that is most profound. He sent His Son to come into our world. In other words, He provided the solution - Himself. He didn't send a philosophy. He didn't send a code of ethics or a set of suggestions (yes, he did succinctly give us a standard by which to live, but those Ten Commandments managed to do only one thing - reveal our total inability to keep some "simple" rules - the problem being our heart).

6. In coming to the world, Jesus (God himself taking on humanity, the form of a man with which we could interact) lived out what no man ever had before - living completely within right behavior, thoughts and attitudes - living as defined by God. In doing so, he showed himself to be the most remarkable man on the face of the earth - ever. And more importantly (as to the impact on us) he showed himself to be the adequate solution (how could an "unspiritual" person ever be trusted to be the way of spirituality?).

7. Getting things straightened out / our becoming spiritual / being forgiven by God... These are things that are more difficult and profound than we would tend to believe (and we only believe the solution is trivial if we regard the problem as trivial). Extreme measures are required for extreme problems and issues. No one can repair this great spiritual problem. Turning over a new leaf or becoming "religious" will not do. At times, something can degenerate into such total disrepair that the only answer is throw it away or exchange for new. Our whole being is affected that adversely. I need to be made new. Nothing I can do will repair me. The Bible goes so far as to say we are dead and need to be made alive spiritually. And so the answer is...

8. Substitution - Yes, the evil is so great that we must be punished. In the God-appointed sacrifice of his son, the sins of the world were placed upon him. God is offering an exchange. He will take our sins (and the punishment we deserved) and He will give us life. By the way, it is one thing for someone to make a claim that one can forgive sins (Jesus made that claim). It is another thing to prove it. God proved that this offer is real by raising Jesus from the dead (the historic proof of which is the number of witnesses to whom he appeared). Only a living Savior (not just a martyr) is able to offer forgiveness to us today. This is an offer that is free. God has taken care of all the payments and the arrangements. Are there strings attached?

9. In order to receive an offer of forgiveness, we need to agree we need to be forgiven. In order for a promise of "new life" to mean anything, we need to understand that we are spiritually dead. In order to acknowledge that He is our Lord and Savior, we need to agree that we've not recognized him as the creator God who has every right to rule over us. In short, we need to agree that we are a ruin, that we need to be rescued. How can a person be convinced of these truths?

10. The Spirit of God speaks clearly through the Word of God (another name for God's communication - the Bbie). The Bible refers to acknowledgment of these critical truths as belief or faith. It is coming to terms with certain truths about God's provisions and receiving them personally. For those who "receive" this Savior (agreeing with God about our predicament and his solution), he gives us the spiritual life we needed all along. And with that life are all the promises of God that apply to believers - including the hope of life that continues beyond the day of our death, namely heaven.

Does this make sense to you? Do you have questions? "Contact Us" if we can assist you in understanding what God has spoken. We'll show where these truths are located within the Bible - God's revelation of himself and his design for mankind.