Sneedville First Baptist Church is a Christ-centered congregation of Southern Baptist Christians, committed to reaching our city, state, and world with the life-changing message of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
We are located in Eastern Tennessee, in the city of Sneedville. Our mission is to fulfill the Great Commission, as described in Matthew 28:20, by connecting to and leading people in an authentic and growing relationship with Jesus Christ. This is accomplished by creating an environment of worship where God is at the center and where people are equipped and encouraged through His perfect Word and Will.
We invite you and your family to join us for traditional worship and fellowship at SFBC. You are invited to come and share in the wonderful heritage and history of service to our Lord! There is always a place for you and your family at Sneedville First Baptist Church!
OUR VISION
We strive to be a church that is constantly concerned about reaching our community and the world with the love of Jesus. Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and body," and "love your neighbor as yourself." Then, Jesus said, "If we get those two right, we could then get everything right." Once you do that, you can take the spiritual gifts that God gave you and embrace God's Kingdom for service.
In summary...
We make much of Jesus and the Bible. We love others real big. And we look to serve in some capacity to the glory of God. We would love for you to join us on our journey to reach our community and the world for Christ!
We strive to be a church that is constantly concerned about reaching our community and the world with the love of Jesus. Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and body," and "love your neighbor as yourself." Then, Jesus said, "If we get those two right, we could then get everything right." Once you do that, you can take the spiritual gifts that God gave you and embrace God's Kingdom for service.
In summary...
We make much of Jesus and the Bible. We love others real big. And we look to serve in some capacity to the glory of God. We would love for you to join us on our journey to reach our community and the world for Christ!
OUR HISTORY
Sneedville First Baptist Church was admitted into the Tennessee Baptist Association in 1829 as Union Baptist. It was later called Greasy Rock Baptist, and became a charter member of the Mulberry Gap Association. The church was named Sneedville Baptist in 1858, then Sneedville First Baptist in the 1970s.
The church has been a member of the Holston Valley Baptist Association since 1972. Since its beginning, the church has been strong in its support of the Sneedville community as well as residents of Hancock County. The church has always supported local, domestic, and international missions.
We are united with the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board and with the churches of the Houston Valley Baptist Association in supporting missions, both local and foreign.
SFBC adopts the beliefs of the Baptist Faith and Message of the Southern Baptist Convention as a confession of faith.
OUR BELIEFS
The Scriptures
We believe the Bible was written by men who were divinely inspired by God and is God's revelation of Himself to man. God's Word is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, we believe all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
God
There is one and only one living and true God. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He exalts Christ, and He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and in service.
Man
Man is the special creation of God, in His own image. God created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. By his free choice, man sinned against God and brought sin into the world. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense, salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation, each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its Scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
Baptism & the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
Evangelism & Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church of Jesus Christ to endeavor to live out the Great Commission and make disciples of all nations and to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.
The Lord's Day
The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion.
Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly, the dead will be raised, and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell. The righteous will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
The Christian & the Social Order
All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society. In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose every form of racism and every form of greed, selfishness, vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death.
Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption. We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male and female. These two distinct, complementary sexes together reflect the image and nature of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Rejection of one's biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person. We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other.
Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage.