WHO WE ARE

At Burning River Church, we want people to thrive with Jesus; life done in Cuyahoga Falls as it is in heaven.


We’re a new church plant in the pre-launch phase dreaming of real life change for people.


Where people who are lonely aren’t lonely any longer. Real, deep relationships can be formed.


Where people far from Christ can come into a safe, healthy environment and hear the Gospel and meet Jesus.


Where “worship” time isn’t just going through boring, religious motions, nor is it some manufactured frenzy... but in real, normal ways... we’re looking to meet with God and experience the presence of the Holy Spirit.


We’re praying and believing for story after story of life change. Lord, let your kingdom come.


Our Purpose

Burning River Church exists to see people thrive with Jesus; life to be done in Cuyahoga Falls as it is in heaven.


Our Vision

Burning River Church, by the grace of God, will be a healthy church that sees many people put their faith in Jesus and then produces deep, vibrant followers of Christ that live on mission in their world.


WE WILL BE a church where worship is purely about Jesus; where the Spirit of God is “this close.”  Where we make space, and really pray for each other. Where the Word of God is viewed as authority and we feast on it, taught to understand and apply to every aspect of our mind, heart, and lives… while adding transformational value toward the excitement of people who just can’t believe the grace they have received.  People who just have to tell their family and friends everywhere, anyone who will listen… about Jesus.


WE WILL BE a church where people can be free to forsake pretense and pose, with vulnerability leading a process of healing - yet our moral authority is high in the community because character cannot be faked for long.  The way we live as followers of Christ accelerates the depth of our relationship with God, adds catalytic value to our relationships with others, and validates the message of the Gospel to skeptics.  Through seasons high and low… people know there’s something different about us.


WE WILL BE a church where family ministries invest an understanding of God and His Word into a child’s heart which protects and prepares them like nothing else can.  Kids will beg their parents to come to church at Burning River.  The dysfunction that so many families experience in their kid’s adolescent wandering will be neutralized by high caliber adult relationships that pour into them.  So many pains will be avoided; and so much ground will be gained.  We will have a student ministry that is tipping the scales of peer pressure in middle schools and high schools- to the point where typical teenage problems are cleaned up in our town.  There’s something different about us.


WE WILL BE a community that is tight-knit, where there is enduring safety… but also gracious challenge and support toward spiritual formation.  Where community, relationship, and deep discipleship can happen.  Where leaders can be poured into, developed, and given opportunities to try, fail, and then succeed.  Where people stop going through this life being lonely.  We will produce depth of disciples in biblical literacy, a deep relationship with the Holy Spirit, and show people how to have healthy relationships with other people. There’s something different about us.


WE WILL BE a church that adds felt need value to our community.  Churches like to say this… we want to see to it that it is done.  Is our city authentically better because we are in it?  Are there less hungry people than before?  Are people on the fringes being brought in?  People don’t need to jump through invisible hoops to fit in the clique when they come here… but we’re also outside the walls involved in their everyday lives. We want to contribute to global mission… but don't want to write a check to another continent while across the street goes untouched.  Cuyahoga Falls has to change for the better because we are in it.


The Cuyahoga River which runs through our town was, in the 1960s, infamously coined “the burning river.”  This was from such pollution run-off into the river where it actually caught on fire.  It came to symbolize the hard times in which the region had fallen on; economically, and how they viewed life.  A local brewery popular in our area even makes a flavor of beer called “Burning River Pale Ale.”  It’s a colloquial expression in Northeast Ohio.


As our river has been cleaned up and is teeming with life, we see coming for our region a spiritual renaissance.  This burning river city is now a great place to live and raise a family.  As we dream of a church that evidences ideals God intended, we see a spiritual renaissance in our region: we’re coming back and what could be is becoming a reality.


Core Values


This is how we’re going to be.


Supernatural Stuff

it’s about living life with the leading of the Holy Spirit, and making space for Him to do the miraculous in us. We crave meeting with the Holy Spirit. To see Jesus supremely glorified, for worship to be as a preview of heaven, and for His now and coming Kingdom changing people’s lives


Outside In

it’s about people putting their saving trust in Jesus. We use inclusive language, real world flavor, and make easy on-ramps for people to feel at home. No politics, no cliques. We love the saints but don’t babysit them… we’re thinking outward, and look outward. Our community needs to be better because we are there


Love Your Neighbor

Jesus unites us and drives our priorities. In as much depends on us, we treat others with honor, assume the best, and resolve conflict fairly and quickly. We listen first. We let others in. We want to be a place where people can heal and experience redemption. You’re not alone here… let’s heal the pandemic of loneliness


Deep and Wide

is our focus toward reaching those not-yet-saved, or developing those who have already believed? YES! These aren’t competing ideas; they should work together. We can have a strong focus on seeing people trust Christ while we mobilize the mature toward mission and depth


Family Values

it’s about prioritizing resources and energy in kids and students spiritual and relational well-being. All stages of life matter and are seen… but investing in and developing young people is a priority



Less is More

it’s about simplicity and alignment propelling us from good to great. Healthy rhythms matter. Through energy, resources and attitude, we own what we do. We’d rather have focused excellence than spread-out mediocrity

Our Beliefs


  • The One True God

    There is one, and only one, true God… and He is the eternal King. He is the Creator and Lord of all, existing eternally in three persons in one substance - Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit (understood as “the Trinity”). They each possess equal power, glory, and authority. We believe that God’s kingdom is everlasting. From His throne, through His Son, His eternal Word, God created, upholds and governs all that exists: the heavenly places, the angelic hosts, the universe, the earth, every living thing and mankind. God created all things very good.


    Deuteronomy 6:4, 1 Corinthians 8:6, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Hebrews 1:8-10

  • God the Father

    The Father - God has made Himself known to us as our Heavenly Father. He is glorious, unchanging, and Holy. He is all knowing, all powerful, and present everywhere by His Spirit. He is good, loving, compassionate; and faithful to His people and His promises. 



    John 3:16, John 4:23-24, John 5:26-27, Acts 17:28

  • The Lord Jesus Christ

    Jesus is fully God, existing eternally. Everything was created by Him and for Him. In the fullness of time, God honored His covenants with Israel and His prophetic promises of salvation by sending His Son, Jesus, into the world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, as fully God and fully man in one person, He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God’s Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, inaugurating God’s kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead.


    Gathering His disciples, He reconstituted God’s people as His Church to be the instrument of His kingdom. After dying for the sins of the world, Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, fulfilling the covenant of blessing given to Abraham. In His sinless, perfect life Jesus met the demands of the law and in His atoning death on the cross He took God’s judgment for sin which we deserve as law-breakers. By His death on the cross He also disarmed the demonic powers. The covenant with David was fulfilled in Jesus’ birth from David’s house, His Messianic ministry, His glorious resurrection from the dead, His ascent into heaven and His present rule at the right hand of the Father. As God’s Son and David’s heir, He is the eternal Messiah-King, advancing God’s reign throughout every generation and throughout the whole earth today.



    1 Timothy 2:5-6, John 1:1-5, Titus 2:13-14, Hebrews 2:17, Hebrews 4:15-15, Colossians 1:15-20, Philippians 2:5-11, 1 Corinthians 15:1-7

  • The Holy Spirit

    The Holy Spirit is fully God, existing eternally. He is a person, was involved in creation and the inspiration of Scripture. His works of convicting and regenerating are essential to the believer’s salvation. Believers are entitled to the benefit and enjoyment of being filled and walking in the Spirit for empowerment in relationship with God, Christian life, service, and mission. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. The Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church at Pentecost in power, baptizing believers into the Body of Christ and releasing the gifts of the Spirit to them.


    The Spirit brings the permanent indwelling presence of God to us for spiritual worship, personal sanctification, building up the Church, gifting us for ministry, and driving back the kingdom of Satan by the evangelization of the world through proclaiming the word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. We believe in the filling or the empowering of the Holy Spirit, often a conscious experience, for ministry today. We believe in the present ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise of all of the biblical gifts of the Spirit. We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing, and for recognition and empowering of those whom God has ordained to lead and serve the Church.


    
John 16:7-15, Genesis 1:2, 2 Peter 1:21, Ephesians 5:18, Galatians 5:16

  • Angels, Satan and Demons

    God created a multitude of spiritual beings called “angels.” Righteous angels continue to serve God and work both in the heavens and on earth. By his disobedience, Satan, a fallen angel, became the adversary and usurper of God’s rule. He was cast out of God’s presence and carried with him a procession of fallen angels (demons). He then established a counter-kingdom of darkness and evil on the earth. Jesus Christ has overcome Satan so that the final judgement and doom of Satan and his demons are certain.


    The whole world is under the domination of Satan and that all people are sinners by nature and choice. All people therefore are under God’s just judgment. Through the preaching of the Good News of Jesus and the Kingdom of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, God regenerates, justifies, adopts and sanctifies through Jesus by the Spirit all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. By this they are released from Satan’s domain and enter into God’s kingdom reign.



    Daniel 7:9-14, Hebrews 12:22-29, 1 Peter 5:8-11, Ephesians 6:10-20, Revelation 20:1-15, Luke 10:18

  • Humanity

    God created man and woman in His image for relationship with Him and to govern the earth. As a result, all people are bearers of that image and should be treated with honor and dignity. However, Adam’s subsequent sin and fall resulted in a condition of spiritual death of sin and sickness, which all people since Adam have experienced, marring the beauty of God’s image in them and bringing God’s judgment of death to the earth.


    Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God’s good creation. This condition of spiritual death has rendered all people unable to save themselves, and leads to physical death and being captive to Satan’s kingdom of darkness. Therefore, new birth is necessary for salvation. Humans were created to exist forever, and will exist eternally either separated from God in Hell or in union with Him in Heaven. 



    Genesis 1:26-28, James 3:9, Romans 5:12-19, Romans 8:1-17

  • The Kingdom of God

    We believe that God did not abandon His rule over the earth which He continues to uphold by His providence. In order to bring redemption, God established covenants which revealed His grace to sinful people. In the covenant with Abraham, God bound Himself to His people Israel, promising to deliver them from bondage to sin and Satan and to bless all the nations through them.
 As King, God later redeemed His people by His mighty acts from bondage in Egypt and established His covenant through Moses, revealing His perfect will and our obligation to fulfill it. The law’s purpose is to order our fallen race and to make us conscious of our moral responsibility.


    By the work of God’s Spirit, it convicts us of our sin and God’s righteous judgment against us and brings us to Christ alone for salvation. 
 When Israel rejected God’s rule over her as King, God established the monarchy in Israel and made an unconditional covenant with David, promising that his heir would restore God’s kingdom reign over His people as Messiah forever.

  • Salvation

    The salvation brought by God is a complete and eternal salvation by His grace alone, received as the free gift of God through personal faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work, as He declares believers justified and righteous in Him. 



    Ephesians 2:8-10, Romans 5:1-2, Titus 3:5-8, John 14:6-7

  • The Christian Life

    Christian Life - The believer is saved by grace through faith alone. The faith that saves is expected to produce obedience, good works, and holiness: which are products of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Christian ethics are individual and social, and extend to every facet of life. God faithfully continues to finish the work of sanctification, which He initiated in the life of each believer with the goal of Christlikeness. 



    Romans 4:4-8, James 2:14-24, Titus 3:1-8, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

  • The Bible

    The sixty-six books, and only these, known as the Old and New Testaments, are the written Word of God. God’s inspiration and superintendence of the writing of every word of the Bible guarantees that what was written is His Word and therefore authoritative, true, and without error in the original manuscripts. God preserves His Word, which is powerful and effective to accomplish His purpose of salvation, holy living, and mission. It is our authority in faith and in practice.



    1 Peter 1:23-25, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:21

  • The Church

    There is one true Church, the Body and Bride of Christ, which is composed of all true disciples of Jesus Christ and created by the action of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the head of the church and we are its members. The church should prioritize unity and community, and be a light to the world and an instrument of the Kingdom of God.



    Ephesians 2:19-22, 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Ephesians 4:1-6, Ephesians 5:25-32

  • Ordinances

    The church should observe the ordinances taught by Jesus which are: 1. water baptism of believers, which is an outward symbolism of an inward change and 2. bread and cup communion, proclaiming the sacrifice and victory of Jesus until He returns. 
We would be considered non-sacramental.


    Matthew 28:19, John 13:1-17, 1 Corinthians 11:20-22, Jude 12, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

  • Future Life

    The dead will have a conscious existence in eternity and their bodies will be resurrected. Unbelievers, already under condemnation, will be sentenced to suffer eternal separation from God in hell. Believers, already granted eternal life, will be judged and rewarded according to their works and will experience a glorified, eternal existence in the presence of the Lord in heaven. 
 God’s kingdom has come in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it continues to come in the ministry of the Spirit through the Church, and that it will be consummated in the glorious, visible and triumphant appearing of Christ – His return to the earth as King. 



    After Christ returns to reign, He will bring about the final defeat of Satan and all of his minions and works, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment and the eternal blessing of the righteous and eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. 
 Finally, God will be all in all and His kingdom, His rule and reign, will be fulfilled in the new heavens and the new earth, recreated by His mighty power, in which righteousness dwells and in which He will forever be worshipped.



    Philippians 1:21-24, Luke 16:19-31, Matthew 25:46, 1 Corinthians 15:12-58, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, Revelation 3:10, Revelation 19:11-20:6