OUR CHURCH

What Kind of Church are We?

We are a Jesus-loving, Bible-believing, Spirit-filled church. We summarize below what we mean by that. For more information on our beliefs, please visit our "Statement of Faith."

Bible-Based and Gospel Centered

When we say "Jesus-loving and Bible-believing," we mean that we are gospel-centered and that we maintain fidelity to the basic teachings of Christianity throughout its history, especially concerning who God is. Jesus is the Son of God, sent by the Father to save the world in the power of the Spirit. In other words, we worship one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we honor the Bible as God's infallible word, which is the supreme authority for our church on matters of faith and doctrine. We teach that salvation is by grace through faith, and not by works. God visited us by becoming the man, Jesus. He died and rose again to save us from sin, death, and Satan, and he is returning to consummate his kingdom.

Non-denominational

We are a non-denominational church, which means locally autonomous. We have various churches where we are networked, but we are not under a larger denominational structure beyond our own locality. That also means that we determine our own leadership structure, worship styles, and ministry emphasis without necessary reference to a denominational creed, a governing council, or a bishop. In other words we are free to operate as God leads us locally!

Spirit-filled

We are a Spirit-filled church because we believe the church owes the world an encounter with God! What does an “encounter” look like? Glad you asked! We celebrate encounters with God in terms of at least seven supernatural works of the Spirit, all of which continue to happen in today’s world.


1)  Conversion: The Spirit moves to advance the kingdom by causing people to experience a supernatural conversion to Christ (John 3:1-8). 


2)  Transformation: Converted believers continuously grow to be like Christ as they are filled with the fruits of the Spirit like love (Galatians 5:16-26).


3)  Deliverance: When the kingdom advances, people are delivered from harmful demonic strongholds that hinder their destiny in Christ (Matthew 12:28; Acts 8:4-8; Ephesians 2:1-6).


4)  Empowerment: In order to partner with Christ to advance the kingdom, believers experience powerful infillings of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:1-8; 2:1-4).


5)  Supernatural gifts: Believers receive gifts from the Spirit like prophecy to help others enter the kingdom and grow to become like Christ (1 Corinthians 12:1-11; Ephesians 4:7-13).


6)  Healing:  When the kingdom draws near, people receive physical healing (Luke 10:9-11), and Jesus commands his followers to pray for the sick (Matthew 10:8; James 5:13-20).


7)  Signs and wonders: God also causes other signs and wonders to show us his care and to advance his kingdom; these often come in in the form of supernatural abundance (John 2:1-11; Luke 5:1-11; 9:1–17). 


These supernatural manifestations of God’s Spirit are promised to believers (Mark 16:17-20), so we aim to make them an essential part of our life, worship, and outreach. We pray that you will come encounter God with us!

What about Tongues?

Waters Edge believes that people often speak in unknown tongues when they are filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:6). These “tongues” are ecstatic speech, which is an exciting gift of the Spirit, but not the only gift or manifestation. We deny the doctrine which says that tongues are the necessary initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We say, rather, that tongues are normal but not normative, a teaching which makes us charismatic but not Pentecostal. In other words, when people encounter the Spirit throughout their lives, there are a variety of exciting manifestations! We would love to pray for you to encounter the Spirit, but do not insist that you experience any one gift or manifestation. At our worship gatherings you might overhear people worshiping God in tongues, but we do not have the practice of addressing the whole church from the stage in tongues unless there is an expected interpretation. 

PLAN A VISIT

Three a day for a hundred years

At the beginning of the foundation of Waters Edge Church in October of 2023, God gave Pastor Larry a vision that our church will be used by God to see three people a day converted to Christ for the next hundred years. That is how long it would take to reach all of Lexington! We are believing this vision, praying for it, and organizing our efforts to see that come to pass. This vision means that our church values and focuses particularly on evangelism outreach.

The Name

He noticed two empty boats at the water's edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish". Luke 5:2-4

The first followers of Jesus encountered him at the water's edge! We named our church Waters Edge because we are a place where people are being transformed by encountering Jesus.

Our Core Values

The values of our church are summarized by our understanding of the fivefold gifts of Ephesians 4:11. When these gifts are valued within our church, we become more like the "fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). These gifts are our means of self examination to determine our internal health and maturation towards Christ.

Apostolic Expansion

We value the apostolic gift to help us maintain a supernatural environment, activate and mobilize spiritual gifts, keep us focused on our mission, and build lasting structure.

Prophetic Power

We value the prophetic gift to help us hear from God to stay faithful to God's heart and God's word.

Evangelistic Zeal

We value the evangelistic gift to help us lead people to Christ in authentic conversion. This means effective and attractive communications and bold outreach initiatives.

Shepherding Care

We value the shepherding gift to help make our church a loving, healthy, and unified family.

Teaching Excellence

We value the teaching gift to help us become theologically deep and grounded in God's word.

In late 2018 the previous elders of the previous church (Lexington Church of Christ), prayed for God's vision and future direction of their struggling church. In September of 2020, God provided a new leader and the elders stepped down and handed over leadership to Ross Kellis in partnership with Larry Baker. Ross was a missionary in Tanzania for five years and later planted two churches in South Carolina. Larry was a previous elder and long time servant in the previous church.


God showed up in miraculous ways, and the church successfully transitioned from a Church of Christ to a non-denominational Spirit-filled church. Ross served as the church planter and lead pastor from September 2020 to September 2023, and then God called Larry Baker to take over the church.


Larry still recalls the clarity of God's call over him into leadership, including that he "felt the oil of God running down his forehead into his eyes."Larry is the second pastor of Waters Edge Church and continues to lead the church in the same stream in which it was founded.

Where We Came From

Our History