Antioch Church

安提阿教會

Statement of Faith

We, the Antioch Church, accept wholeheartedly the revelation of God given in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and is summarized in the statements of the Christian church as the Apostles?Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creeds. We explicitly assert doctrines that are regarded as crucial to our faith and to the Christian living.

1. The Scripture, both Old and New Testament, to be the inspired Word of God, the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men, and the supreme authority for all the personal and collective aspects of Christian life.

2. The triune God, one God in three persons: the Father as Creator and Preserver, His Son Jesus Christ as Redeemer and Lord, and the Holy Spirit as Regenerator and Sanctifier.

3. The universal sinfulness and guilt of human being bring everyone under God’s righteous condemnation. All human being, created in the image of God, fell into sin but requires regeneration by the Holy Spirit for salvation.

4. The justification by the grace of God through believers?faith in Christ, the incarnate and crucified Son of God, is the sole ground of our salvation and redemption.

5. The work of God the Holy Spirit is to illuminate, regenerate, indwell and sanctify the believers.

6. The unity of all true believers form the one universal Church, the Body of which Christ is the Head.

7. We believe and expect the personal, visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in the resurrection of all people to final judgement and the resurrection of the believers to eternal life with God

Why do we call ourselves "Antioch Church"?

"Antioch" was a metropolitan city in ancient Syria. According to the Bible (Acts 11:19-30), the church of Antioch was one of the earliest Christian churches established outside the Jewish Palestine region. This church was also known to be the personal spiritual home of the apostle Paul. Paul designated this church as the "headquarter" of many of his missionary trips, and he often returned to Antioch after a long and busy journey to replenish his spiritual energy and to prepare for his next trip.

There were many special things about the ancient Antioch Church, and one of them was that they put a lot of effort into the work of evangelism. On one hand they preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the local Greek-speaking residents, and on the other they sent out many missionaries to other parts of the Roman Empire. Moreover, they emphasized the importance of diligently studying the Holy Scripture. Later in history the ancient Antioch Church even developed the Syrian Antiochene School, which turned out to be a very significant source of literary- and history-based exegesis. Even the Great Reformation in Europe, taken place more than one thousand years later, was also significantly inspired by the teachings of this school of thought. Finally, this church followed the example of the ancient Jerusalem Church and received many gifts of the Holy Spirit. By the power of the Spirit, they were able to develop many important and influential ministries at that time.

We found the ancient Antioch Church an extraordinary example worth following. Therefore, when we were about to officially register our church with the provincial government of British Columbia many years ago, we decided to follow the spirit of our predecessor and named our new church the "Antioch Church" in Vancouver. The mission statement of our church, then, can be summarized into 3 foundational principles: (1) to share the gospel with Chinese people around the world, (2) to focus on the ministry of the exegetical teaching and interpreting of the Bible, and (3) to respect and follow the work and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Antioch Church's Missions and Visions

"Mission to the Chinese Community" – Our Mandarin-speaking church was founded by a group of would-be pastors studying theology at Regent College, Vancouver, and the pastors graduated from the China Evangelical Seminary of Taipei, Taiwan, and several graduate students from the University of British Columbia. We discovered the need and urgency to share the gospel in Mandarin Chinese when Mandarin-speaking Chinese new immigrants started to increase in number dramatically over the last decade or so in lower Mainland area. Whenever possible, we also like to extend our love and service to the Cantonese-speaking community and people from other cultural groups. Our sincere hope is that Chinese people, with their rich history and vast cultural traditions, would come to see a major renewal of their lives and characters by personally knowing Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord. Therefore, we love Chinese people, we cherish the value of every Chinese soul, and we wish that every Chinese person would live freely and joyfully in this life, and by the mercy of God be fully prepared to enter into God’s Kingdom when he/she departs from this world.

"Scriptural Teaching and Theology" – Our church is an evangelical church that upholds the orthodox doctrines of the Protestant Christian faith. We do not belong to any denominations, and we are not a charismatic church, either. We accept and practice all kinds of Bible-based faith and experience that God has been giving to Christians throughout history. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, is infallible, and is the standard and foundation upon which our beliefs and lives are built. We confirm all of the important church traditions like the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Chalcedonian Creed. However, we also acknowledge that, while many incredibly rich and profound theological traditions and personal faith statements have emerged over the two thousand years of church history, these great wisdoms may only approximate the Truth, or represent aspects of it, but they are not the Truth itself. Therefore, we emphasize the importance of a careful study of the church history, the incorporation of sound exegetical principles in our preaching ministries, and the necessity of informed theological research and application. Several pastors in our church have devoted a significant amount of their time into the ministries of research and writing in the disciplines of theology and Christian ethics. We hope that accurate biblical interpretations would become the basis of developing a new set of applied theology and ethics that is suitable for the new generation of Chinese people in this modern era, adding a brand-new life force into the vast and age-long Chinese culture.

"The Gifts of the Holy Spirit" – Once again, we are not a charismatic church. However, we honour a careful but respectful attitude towards any manifestations of spiritual gifts. We are committed to use the principles given in the Bible, along with past experience of the Christian tradition, to test and see whether each “gift” – be it a rational gift such as preaching and teaching or a supernatural gift such as healing, and performing miracle – is from the Holy Spirit or not. We cherish and respect anything that comes from the Spirit, because we believe, just like ages past, He is still working among us today, leading and cleansing the Church of Christ in the 21st Century. Our prayer is that every believer, grounded in a solid foundation of biblical truth, would come to accept the supernatural works of the Holy Spirit.

These are the three foundational principles of the Antioch Church in Vancouver. It inherits the vision and commitment of the ancient Antioch Church near the Mediterranean Sea. We do not claim to be a group people that have known it all; instead, we are humbly learning from the vast body of knowledge and experience of the triune God accumulated over the two thousand years of church history.

 

Church Location

Sunday Service

  • Worship starts at 10: 15 AM to 11:45 AM

Contact Us

  • Tel: 604-440-3504
  • Email: esvpai@gmail.com