Who runs this?

We are Dave and Heather Helmuth, long-term missionaries to Costa Rica and leaders of Ad Lib Music and The LAUNCH 61. Dave has been a professional worship coach since 2002 and is great at helping leaders understand themselves and move forward when they get stuck.

Our family of eight is based at 5000 feet in the mountains of Costa Rica, only 30 minutes from the international airport and the capital of San Jose. Find your home away from home as you launch into the future, build a firm foundation, and have the time of your life!

What do we believe?

In general, we hold traditional, conservative views of Scripture's teachings. We endeavor to love the Lord our God with all our affection, ambition, attitude, and activity. He is the Center around which our lives revolve.

 

As a ministry that serves many evangelical churches, we aim to major on the majors, and minor on the minors. The majors? One God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Scriptures reveal Him to us. God created us, and we made choices that broke our relationship with Him. The good news is revealed in Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Salvation, the free gift of God, is provided by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, for the glory of God alone. The Holy Spirit also empowers us. We, as redeemed believers, will be with Him forever in heaven.

 

Explicitly,

1.    We believe in one God, eternally existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, distinguishable but inseparable. God is our highest love, and His fame is our singular pursuit.

2.    We believe in Jesus Christ as God who became flesh, born of a virgin. He lived a sinless life, was crucified for our sins, was resurrected from the dead, and ascended, sitting at the Father's right hand as the exalted Lord and head of the church.

3.    We believe in the deity and person of the Holy Spirit, his indwelling presence, regenerating work, empowering baptism, spiritual gifts, and equipping ministry in the church today.

4.    We believe that all Scripture is God's inspired, infallible, authoritative Word and is fully reliable and trustworthy. The perfect Word became flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus, and He is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and conduct.

5.    We believe God created the heavens, earth, and everything in them. We also believe that God created human beings in His divine image, with a unique dignity accorded to them out of all the works of creation. They were made for a relationship with God.

6.    We believe, beginning with Adam and Eve’s sinful rebellion, that sin entered the world through one man. Sin brought death and separation from intimacy with God.

7.    We believe that only through Jesus Christ does God offer salvation from sin and a new way of life.  When we repent and accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we receive God’s salvation and are born again by the Spirit of God. It is by faith, through God’s grace, that we are saved.

8.    The Church is a community of redeemed people worldwide under the Lordship of Jesus who meet regularly to be discipled, worship, share communion, fellowship, and carry out the great commission together. Jesus established the local church to function with ordained leaders and a form of governance that protects, guides, and releases people in their gifts to minister.

9.    We believe that believers' baptism with water is a pledge of their covenant with God. It identifies them with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. It is a sign of their cleansing and freedom from sin and their commitment to walk in the way of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

10. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is a way for the church to remember what Christ has done for us. His body was broken so we could be whole, and He shed His blood to establish a new covenant of forgiveness and reconciliation with God. We participate in the life and death of Jesus Christ until He comes.

11. We believe that God created humankind in His image, intentionally male and female, with each bringing unique qualities to sexuality and relationships. We believe that God wonderfully foreordained and immutably created each person as either male or female in conformity with their biological sex. These two distinct yet complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God.

12. We believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman and is a sacred covenant designed by God to be a lifelong relationship and commitment between a husband and a wife. Any sexual expression outside of this union falls short of God’s standards.

13. We believe that Jesus Christ calls us to discipleship, to take up our cross and follow him, which we see as following his commands and imitating Him, loving others as He loves us.

14. We believe that the healing of the body by God's power was provided for in the atonement and is available today in its varied aspects as practiced in the early church.

15. We place our hope in God and his reign. We recognize that the Kingdom of God is growing and expanding and that God’s ruler-ship is ever-increasing. The Kingdom grows primarily through God’s representatives on the earth, His church. We must occupy until He comes. Of the increase of His government, there shall be no end. The Kingdom of God started growing at Jesus' first coming and will continue to grow until it culminates in His final return, and His glory and knowledge fill the whole earth.  We believe that Jesus will return to the earth to resurrect the dead and bring the final judgment.

14. We believe that if you read through these statements looking for a certain word or phrase in order to approve of us, you might miss the forest for the trees.