At First Love Outreach Fellowship, we believe in Jesus. We believe that His death and resurrection paid our death penalty and through simple, belief upon Him, in our heart, He gave us of His new life that we might live victoriously over sin. We believe His promises and that He is beyond able to supernaturally change our hearts and transform our minds into the “mind of Christ”. You can learn more about our Core Values, Vision Statement and Vision Statement by visiting this page.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life; this is the Gospel – literally, The Good News! God has worked His supernatural life-changing work of freedom in us and we are committed to helping others find the same glorious freedom. Freedom from the sin in our old heart inherited from Adam, and freedom from the lies of man’s religion that leave us in a place of thinking that we having to earn our deliverance.
Hello, I’m Banner Kidd, pastor of First Love Outreach Fellowship.com. Legalists of all stripes feel they’ve found the secret knowledge and spend their time judging others who don’t “do it like we do,” or “look like we do.” This is divisive, arrogant, and not from The Spirit who is God. I know this first hand, far too well. Simply put, we believe that the Holy Spirit, who is God, Yahovah, our heavenly Father, and His Son, Yahoshua (Jesus) will manifest Himself to His blood bought, born again children, adopted into His Royal Family, and He is our True Teacher. God will reveal to each of just how He wants us to live this life of faith, according to His Written Word and the power of His Spirit. Anything else is above our pay-grade.
Myself along with others in our little group have been in legalistic representations of Christianity, where men lord their position and supposed great learning over the people. Personally, I spent nearly two decades in a cult of the Hebrew Roots Movement and understand the inherent danger that it presents, in moving away from the grace of God and into the legalism of works of the law that pulls us away from the amazing grace of our loving God. The grace of God that is accessed from faith in Christ alone bears fruit unto the Father. The fruit is according to Galatians Chapter Five.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Gal 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
I have only singled out the Hebrew Roots, Torah Observant cults because I spent far too many years in it. But I’ve walked this walk for nearly thirty-eight years as of now, and I find legalism inherent in any man centered religious practices.
An ever present tenet of many religious expressions is conceit that provokes others, and promotes envy from one group to another and one denomination to another. It files in the face of the unity of the Spirit that God is building into His Church, and building His Body upon. Ephesians 4:1-16 makes it clear that the Spirit of God will not bear the fruit of disunity. Paul’s words written to the Ephesian church lies alongside Galatians 5:6, telling us that we are not to be conceited in our minds, provoking our brothers and sisters, and there is no room for jealousy and the covetousness it brings. We desire that we live in harmony, peace, and the strength as the vessel of Christ, His body, each connected to our Head, Jesus Christ. Disharmony is present when we take, what we perceive as “authority” to tell others how to live by faith, instead of allowing the Spirit, who is God, who dwells in us, to work in us to walk pleasingly before Him, but faith in Him.
First Love Outreach Fellowship is a church born out of a deep desire to share the pure gospel, and the great love and grace of the God who is Love, in the person of Jesus Christ. We want to help you. I’ve been hurt by man’s religion in the church I have been a part of since 1987. My family and many I know have been hurt. The legalism and manipulation that bred envy, conceit, and a constant provoking had an deleterious effect on us and countless others as the group we were a part of for twenty-seven years spiraled into a Hebrew Roots cult. But Jesus is faithful and He brought me and my family out of that dark pit. Jesus wants to bind our wounds and bring healing and restoration and we want to be used in that process.
Jesus is not religion! He is God and God is Love. And He wants to give you an abundant life; a changed life and a confident expectation of the good to come, and the good that is now. Life is hard. We live in a world under the curse. But God is greater. He will walk with us, guide us, and lead us through this world and, one day, into His everlasting presence. He is faithful and trustworthy at all times and He loves us!
Come join us and let’s live this new life in Christ together, enjoying His presence and one another.
-Banner Kidd, Pastor
First Love Outreach Fellowship