About The Church at Severn Run

Thank you for taking the time to find out more about The Church at Severn Run and our community. The Church at Severn Run was established in Severn, Maryland in 1952. We hope that after you look through our website and attend a worship celebration, you will consider becoming a more active part of our growing community of faith.

Led by our Lead Pastor, Dr. Drew Shofner, The Church at Severn Run offers many ministries for people of all ages and walks of life who are looking to strengthen their relationship with Christ.

Mission Statement

We seek to be a church living one purpose through four passions. Our purpose is to build a church of passionate disciples who follow Jesus as Lord on a Mission for new life. A disciple is living this life through four passions:

• Worship - celebrate God as the center of life
  
• Share - help others find and follow Jesus
  
• Connect - do life together in love from God's Word
  
• Serve - humbly meet the needs of others for Jesus
  

How We Started

Severn Baptist Church began as a mission of Glen Burnie Baptist Church in 1952 when Charlotte and Logan Meade saw the need for a baptist church in the Severn area. The mission began meeting in the Meade home in April 1952. In 1955, property was secured and a building erected on the corner of the Maryland Avenue and Telegraph Road. In March 1959, the mission was constituted as a church with 156 charter members.

The Donald Ave/Telegraph Rd location was secured in 1960, with construction beginning in 1961 on the church building and the parsonage. The youth/adult educational building was built in 1966-67 and the children's building was constructed in 1984, along with the remodeling of the older facilities. Severn purchased the Severn Run Farm on Telegraph Rd in 2002 and relocated to this new facility in July 2006. With the relocation to it's new facility on the Severn Run; Severn Baptist Church changed it's name to The Church at Severn Run in 2006.

Severn has been involved in sponsoring several missions: Jessup Baptist Mission(1963), Elvaton Baptist Mission(1973), Emmanuel Baptist Chapel-Gambrills(1979), Crossroads-Odenton(1997) and Journey Fellowship-Crofton(2003).

The Church at Severn Run is a cooperating church of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware, and the Arundel Baptist Association. We are also a Willow Creek Association Church.

What We Believe

People have been arguing the finer points of Christian theology for two-thousand years, and time and again missing Jesus, the very face of God (Heb. 1:3). (Picture one of the many confrontations between Jesus and the especially religious people like the Pharisees. The Pharisees (us) are arguing for God with God about God while completely missing God.) Maybe in arguing theology we avoid being confronted with the living God, holy and majestic, loving and demanding. This isn't to say that theology, our thinking about God, our mental ordering of biblical teachings, isn't important. Ideas are vital, and Truth is critical. But it is to say that it's tragically easy to miss the point of the Bible. The story of the Bible is that the loving God who created us invites us to be forgiven and love Him back with all we are by living life through total confidence in Jesus Christ His son.

At the Church at Severn Run, we hope to keep the main thing, the main thing. We seek to be a church living one purpose through four passions. Our purpose is to build a church of passionate disciples who follow Jesus as Lord on a Mission for life. The essential call of a disciple is distilled in two wonderfully disruptive words: “Follow me” (Matt. 4:19). These two words, taken seriously, forever alter life for the better. Our purpose then is to be true disciples. But what is a disciple?

A disciple is someone who lives life in Christ through four passions:

1) Worship: acknowledging and enjoying God as the center of life. Our gathering weekly for worship launches us into a week of worship involving all of life.

2) Share: helping others find and follow Jesus (Matt. 28:17-20). Disciples live attractively and contagiously, unafraid to invite and unembarrassed to tell the story of Jesus. Everyone is going to spend eternity someplace. We believe Jesus is the only way to spend eternity with God.

3) Connect: doing life together means living connected in authentic community. Journey Groups are our primary connecting environment.

4) Serve: serving others in humility for Jesus' sake. Every believer is uniquely gifted to advance the Kingdom of God (Eph. 4:11-13). No disciple can ever be fulfilled until they're fulfilling their purpose in ministry.

For our life together as believers, Augustine well reflects the heart of a God who both reveals Himself with clarity and wraps Himself in mystery: “In essentials, unity. In non-essential, liberty. In all things, charity.” This is the beginning point of our theology. To say we believe in the Bible, of course, is not enough. Many take the Bible as a starting point to some pretty strange destinations. The best way to discover someone's beliefs is to watch their life. Still, convenience demands a written summary to help others know the church we are. A solid theological place to begin is the ancient historical anchor known as The Apostle's Creed:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy universal church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

The Nicene Creed provides another excellent summation of biblical theology:

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.

Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic universal and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

In more recent history, the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message provides a good general, historical statement of our beliefs (with multiple Scriptural referents) as part of the Southern Baptist family. We are theologically conservative and methodologically creative. The message never changes, but the methods always will! We never want to confuse the unchanging Christ with either the religious culture of the church or the secular culture of an ever-changing world. The Church at Severn Run seeks to be a highly effective Great Commission church having a generational impact on our culture. We get to do this!

God is the Creator and Ruler of the universe. He has eternally existed as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are co-equal and are one God. Genesis 1:1,26-27; Psalm 90:2; Corinthians 13:14; 1 Peter 1:2.

Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son Of God. Though fully God, He seeks to bring glory to the Father through the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus entered the human race through a virgin birth. He lived a sinless human life and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all people by dying on a cross. He rose from the dead after three days to demonstrate His power over sin and death. He ascended to Heaven's glory and will return again to earth to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Isaiah 9:6; Matthew 1:22-23; John 1:1-5, 16-17; 14:10-30; Acts 1:9-11; Romans 1:3-4; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 1 Timothy 6:14-16; Titus 2:13: Hebrews 4:14-15.

The Holy Spirit is equal with the Father and the Son as God. He is present in the world to make us aware of our need for Jesus Christ. He also lives within every Christian from the moment of salvation. He provides the Christian with power for living, understanding of spiritual truth, and guidance for doing what is right. The Christian seeks to live under His control daily. John 14:16-17; 16:7-13; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 2:12; 3:16: 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:25; Ephesians 1:13; 5:18.

Salvation is the free gift from God to each one of us. We can never make up for our sin by self-improvement or good works. Only by trusting in Jesus Christ as God's offer of forgiveness can one be saved from sin's penalty. Eternal life begins the moment one receives Jesus Christ into their life by faith. John 1:12; 3:16-17; 14:6; Romans 5:1; 6:23; Galatians 3:26; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5.

Humanity - Human beings are made in the spiritual image of God, to be like Him in character and joined to Him in relationship. We are the supreme object of God's attention in creation. Although we have tremendous potential for good and bear the image of God, we are infected with a terminal spiritual disease called sin. Sin is rebellion, self-will, independence, and disobedience toward God. Sin separates us from God our creator and from the purpose of our being. Genesis 1:27; Psalm 8:3-6; Isaiah 53:6a; 59:1-2: Romans 3:23.

Eternal Life - We are spiritual beings created to exist forever. We will either exist eternally separated from God by sin, or in union with God through forgiveness and salvation. To be eternally separated from God is to experience a place of great suffering called hell which expresses the utter absence of God; no hope, light, love, comfort, or peace. To be eternally in union with God through Christ is to experience unending life in heaven, a place in which the full joy, perfection, and creativity of God is forever expressed. Heaven and hell are real places of eternal existence. John 3:16: Romans 6:23; 1 John 2:25; 5:11-13: Revelation 20:15; 21:1-8.

The Bible is God's holy word to all people. It was written by human authors under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is the supreme source of truth for Christian beliefs and living. Because it is inspired by God, there are no mistakes in the content of its message. It is completely trustworthy. The Bible is given as a guide to the heart of God and to enable us to live successfully by accurately interpreting reality in a fallen, pain-ridden world. Psalm 12:6: 119:105, 160; Proverbs 30:5; 2 Timothy 1:13; 3:16:2 Peter 1:20-21