The Onarga Christian Church is just one of over 5,500 independent Christian churches and churches of Christ in America. They believe in Jesus Christ as Lord (authority figure) and Savior (removal of sin and guilt). These people are not perfect; they still sin, still say the wrong things, still make mistakes. They are somewhat like patients in a hospital. The hospital patients are not there because they have been healed, but because they know they are sick. We come to Christ because we recognize how sick with sin we are.

The people who attend our worship are those who know they need help with living. Most have made a commitment to love and serve the God Who created heaven and earth. Some are still learning what that commitment means. And some are just curious enough about the church to keep returning, as they look for answers to the problems of life.

We welcome people in every category. We want our neighbors to find the satisfaction and contentment we have found in Jesus Christ. We have found Him to be the answer to the longing of mankind for security and happiness.

Consequently, we employ a variety of programs and ministries to introduce people to our church. We try to plan an interesting worship experience for each week. We support a youth camp that offers Bible training to young people during the summer months. We provide Bible training for every age group each Sunday morning before our worship time. And we have fellowship groups that meet throughout the week.

The Church of Jesus Christ has been active for almost 2,000 years, and the independent Christian churches and churches of Christ have been meeting for 200 years. The movement to restore the authority of the Bible began in several places simultaneously, during the period of American history known as “The Great Revival” (1795-1815).

A growing frustration with denominational friction caused men and women to abandon all divisive names and doctrines devised by men. In place of these things, they chose to follow the Bible as the only rule for running the church. Instead of many creeds, they chose to believe in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. And the name they chose came from Acts 11:26 — “and the believers were first called Christians at Antioch.” The name Christian is accepted by all denominations as describing the believers, but does not build walls to divide the church of Jesus Christ into rival factions.

James A. Garfield, the nineteenth president of the United States, was a preacher of the Christian church. As president, he wrote a summary of the beliefs of the Disciples of Christ in a booklet entitled “What We Stand For.”

1. We call ourselves Christians, or Disciples of Christ.
2. We believe in God the Father.
3. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and our Savior. We regard the divinity of Christ as the fundamental truth of the Christian system.
4. We believe in the Holy Spirit, both as to His agency in the conversion and as indwelling in the heart of the Christian.
5. We accept both the Old and the New Testament Scriptures as the inspired Word of God.
6. We believe in the future punishment of the wicked and the future reward of the righteous.
7. We believe that the Deity is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God.
8. We observe the institution of the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day. To this table we neither invite nor debar; we say it is the Lord’s Supper for all the Lord’s children.
9. We plead for the unity of God’s people on the Bible and the Bible alone.
10. The Christ is our only creed.
11. We maintain that all the ordinances should be observed as they were in the days of the Apostles.

The Onarga Christian Church is an independent and autonomous congregation. We have no denominational ties, no bureaucracy or headquarters, and no regional directors. The church is guided by appointed elders (or bishops), men of faith who prayerfully direct the spiritual welfare of the congregation. The people of the church decide what ministries to support and how to reach our corner of the world with the message of Jesus Christ.

Though we are independent of a governing board, we work cooperatively with other churches. We do not say or believe that we are the only Christians. We want to be Christians only, with no other names, and with no other rule of faith than Christ, the risen Lord.

We invite any who would work with us to unite in the name of Jesus Christ. Our plea for salvation is that of the Bible: to believe that Jesus is God’s Son, sent to pardon our sins by His death; to repent of personal sin; to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior; and to be immersed in water as “the pledge of a good conscience toward God.”
 

The Onarga Christian Church supports evangelistic, educational and benevolent work around the world. With one exception, all mission support comes through a Faith/Promise program. In the Faith/Promise campaign, each family and each individual makes a promise to God to give financially to the mission program as God blesses and prospers them. It is based on what God will give, not on what a person already has. This year our campaign surpassed its goal of $20,000.
 
The church also sends an offering each month to Haitian Christian Outreach, through our Sunday School department, to provide food and education for a needy child.