Our Distinctives

We are Reformed in our theology, adhering to the same precious truths of Scripture that led godly men to lead the church in the Protestant Reformation over 500 years ago. We believe in the doctrines of God’s Sovereign Grace, which teach us that God alone is the Supreme Creator and Ruler of all the universe, known and unknown and that He alone is to be praised, worshiped, and adored. 

We believe that all men, women, and children are by nature sinners, and in need of salvation from that sin. We believe that salvation from our sinfulness comes only by God’s sovereign grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and the work that was fully accomplished on the cross of Calvary. Without salvation, upon death, the soul will suffer punishment in Hell, separated for eternity from the Love of God, but for those who are saved, their souls will be united with God in glory forever. We believe that water baptism is a sign and seal of the inward grace and working of the Holy Spirit and that it binds us to the body of Christ until that day when He shall return again in glory. 

The Five Solas (Latin for “Alone”) of the Reformation summarize our understanding of how this faith is revealed:

We believe that the Church, both local and global, functions best when Christians can affirm belief in common understandings of Scripture. This both protects the individual from straying from orthodoxy and binds us in unity with believers throughout the ages, as we join with them in affirming the historic creeds of the Church since it was established by Christ through the Apostles in the Book of Acts. For more information on the various creeds of the Reformed Church, look under the Reformed Creeds and Confessions tab.

As a confessional body, we confess certain truths that are detailed in a lengthier creedal statement called a “Confession.” Like a statement of faith, a confession details the more intimate beliefs of any particular body of believers and gives anyone new to the body a solid understanding of the basic doctrinal tenets of the church. Our church confesses the First London Baptist Confession of Faith, written in 1644, and can be found in the Reformed Creeds and Confessions tab.

Covenant Theology is a framework for understanding the overarching storyline of the Bible, which emphasizes that God's redemptive plan and his dealings with mankind are without exception worked out in accordance with the covenants that he has sovereignly established.

Basically, Covenant Theology organizes biblical revelation around three unified but distinct covenants: the Covenant of Redemption, between the persons of the Trinity in eternity past, in which the Father promises to give a people to the Son as his inheritance, and the Son undertakes to redeem them; the Covenant of Works, which God enjoined upon Adam in the Garden, solemnly promising him eternal life if he passed the probationary test in the Garden of Eden; and finally, the Covenant of Grace, which God first entered into with Adam immediately after the Fall, when he promised to send a Seed of the woman, who would defeat the tempting serpent (Gen. 3:15). In the Covenant of Grace, God promises a champion to fulfill the broken Covenant of Works as a federal representative of his people, and so to earn its blessings in their behalf. All the later covenants of the Bible, such as those which God confirmed to Noah, Abraham, David, and the New Covenant which promises to fulfill these prior covenants in the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, are all organically connected, essentially being different administrations of the one eternal Covenant of Grace, which build upon each other and are all brought to completion in the New Covenant which Christ inaugurated with his shed blood.

Covenants are typically characterized by a visible sign and seal, which serves to “remind” God of his promises to those whom he has entered into covenant with. Some examples of these covenant signs are the rainbow, given to Noah; circumcision, given to Abraham; and baptism and the Lord's Supper, given to believers after the coming of Christ.

Briarwood is Calvinistic in our soteriology (“The doctrine of Salvation”), which means that we understand that God is Sovereign over all things, including those whom he has chosen and elected unto Salvation. Calvinism is a broad term, and has many implications, but is generally defined by the five points of the acrostic, TULIP, whereby John Calvin’s teachings were summarized against the teachings of Jacobus Arminius at the Synod of Dordt in 1618-1619. These five points are:

(https://www.monergism.com/topics/doctrines-grace/five-points-calvinism)

Simply put, we understand that God has chosen to elect – before the foundations of the earth – a particular people unto Himself, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, and that He has sovereignly predestined and ordained all the affairs of men, both the elect and the reprobate, and will keep those fast whom He alone has chosen and called (and which mankind can nowise determine) until that day of redemption when all His own will be made known.

Credo literally means “belief,” and Credobaptists literally are those who baptize believers, or those who have themselves professed faith in Christ’s salvific work on the Cross. Many Reformed believers adhere to Paedobaptism, where the infants and children of Christian parents have the sign of baptism applied to indicate a trust in God’s promise of salvation for children in Acts 2:38, while many others, including Briarwood, believe that Scripture most accurately teaches that the sign of baptism under the New Covenant revealed in Christ, is to be administered only to those whom have professed faith by their own confession of sin, and desire for repentance and salvation.

As a member of the Pulaski County Baptist Association, Missouri Baptist Association, and the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Briarwood cooperates through giving and prayer with other like-minded churches for the purpose of local, national, and global outreach. This covers everything from supplying local food pantries in our county, supporting the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home for foster children, Disaster Relief efforts, local and global church plants, and supporting over 4,000 international missionaries around the world.

Briarwood is congregationally-governed, meaning that the entire membership is jointly responsible for the final decisions of the congregation. While the Elders are responsible for the spiritual watch-care and direction of the church, all other decision-making is congregational in nature.

As an elder-led body, we follow the Biblical model for local congregations being led by a plurality of co-equal elders (or pastors) for teaching and direction, where no single man is the head of the church, but the head of the church is Christ. This means that we have not one single pastor, but three – each of whom shares the burden of preaching, teaching, and shepherding the church. On a given Sunday, any or all of the three elders will lead the congregation in the public reading, teaching, and preaching of the Word.

Believing that children learn and grow best in the care and nurture of their own parents, Briarwood integrates families together as much as possible when we come together for our regular worship times. Rather than separating into different worship settings, we encourage families to join together for the purpose of teaching every member of our body – from the oldest to the very youngest – that worshiping God is something we delight to do together! We do have Sunday School available for those who are old enough to read, but children are welcome and encouraged to attend class with their parents if you wish.

One of the most foundational and rewarding experiences in the life of a believer is the personal way in which they feel called by God through His Word to minister for His Kingdom. Briarwood is a church which strongly encourages the individual believer to look for ways to minister to others around them, both inside the church body, and outside as well. One of our core beliefs is that a life transformed by the Gospel and edified by daily interaction with God through the Word and prayer produces a heart that desires to carry out the Great Commission and to reach people, in season and out, with a heart that yearns to be as Christ to them. Each person in our body has a unique ability to reach those within their sphere of influence, and no two people’s ministry endeavors look exactly the same. It is in these personal life experiences that we often find the strongest elements of growth in our church, as people forge connections in an intimate way that the church at large may not and gives us each the opportunity to serve others by caring and sharing of the wonderful joys and blessing that we each possess as believers in Christ.

See our Ministries Page for Information on our other areas of Ministry.