A church that does not teach the whole counsel of God ends up teaching something else. Here are the thirty-three doctrines we stake our life together on — and why each one matters.
The point of sound doctrine is not information — it is formation. The work of the cross in a believer’s life is sanctification, and sanctification is what slowly produces spiritual maturity in Christ (Colossians 1:28). These thirty-three doctrines are the road map for that work.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers.” — 2 Timothy 4:3
The word doctrine simply means teaching. “Sound” doctrine means teaching that is healthy — teaching that lines up with Scripture and produces the kind of lives Scripture describes. Bad doctrine makes sick Christians. Sound doctrine heals.
Paul’s last letter to Timothy is the strongest word on this. “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2–3). The apostle was not worried about the church losing its music or its programs. He was worried about the church losing its grip on the truth.
At Grace Fellowship Church we have tried, as best we know how, to hold that grip. The thirty-three doctrines below come directly out of the Sound Doctrine Series preached by Pastor Miki Hardy between March 2024 and July 2025. They are not random topics. They are the foundation Scripture itself lays out, and they are the spine of what we preach, pray, sing, and live in Sarasota.
You do not have to understand all thirty-three before you come on a Sunday. But if you are the kind of person who wants to see, before you visit, what a church actually believes — this page is for you.
“That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). Doctrine is the anchor that keeps the believer from drifting when pressure, trend, or suffering comes.
The deeper the believer understands who God is and what He has done in Christ, the deeper the worship. Shallow doctrine produces shallow worship. Sound doctrine produces joy.
How we treat our spouse, how we handle suffering, how we give our money, how we forgive an enemy — all of it flows out of what we actually believe about God. Doctrine is lived before it is written.
Without sound teaching on sin, Christ, the cross, and grace, the gospel itself gets lost. “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6).
Below is the whole field of teaching — grouped the way the New Testament itself groups it. Each link opens a long-form page on that doctrine: what Scripture says, what it means at Grace Sarasota, and how it shapes daily life.
The starting doctrines every Christian must understand before going further.
Who Jesus is, and what He accomplished.
What God does to save the sinner, and the life that follows.
How Christ gathers and orders His people.
The arc of redemption, from God’s eternal purpose to the Christian’s hope.
The unseen realm, and the believer’s authority in Christ.
From March 2024 through July 2025, Pastor Miki Hardy preached a thirty-three-part series covering the full field of Christian doctrine. The series is the backbone of this page — and of the way we teach at Grace.
Pastor Miki is the founder of Church Team Ministries International (CTMI), the apostolic family to which Grace Fellowship Church belongs. CTMI churches across Africa, Europe, the Indian Ocean, and the United States share this same body of teaching. When you read these doctrines, you are reading what is preached from pulpits on four continents every week.
— Sundays at 10:00 AM · 4350 17th Street, Sarasota, FL.
Doctrine is never just read. It is preached, lived, and tested in the life of a local church. We would love for you to walk this road with us.