About Us
Elohim Bible Church
Vision
To Be The Voice of Christ
Mission
To equip believers to lead with faith and purpose, impacting lives, careers and communities for God’s Kingdom.
Statement of Faith
Meet Our Senior Pastors
Senior Pastors
Jerry and Thoko Vilakazi
Our senior pastors, Jerry and Thoko, founded the church in their family lounge in Sandhurst, Sandton, in June 2017. Jerry is the visionary founder of this Spirit-led, empowering, Bible-based Church, a community dedicated to preaching salvation by grace and equipping believers to serve effectively in the marketplace. With his experience of decades in business and marketplace engagement, Pastor Jerry has a deep passion for empowering individuals to live out their faith in every aspect of their lives, especially in the marketplace, and playing their part as Kingdom builders.
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Before establishing the church, he acquired extensive business experience in South Africa and travelled globally, giving him a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities believers face in the workplace. Pastor Jerry continues to serve on the boards of several listed and private companies. He actively mentors business leaders and entrepreneurs, encouraging them to integrate their faith with their professional lives. His messages often focus on practical steps for spiritual growth and encourage believers to embrace their God-given purpose in life and specifically in the marketplace.
Our pastor’s preaching is characterized by a dynamic and engaging style that emphasizes the grace of God, personal transformation, and practical application of biblical principles. As a result, our Church can connect scripture with real-world issues, inspiring members to live out their faith boldly.
Pastor Thoko is a devout Christian who accepted the Lord while at university and also responded to the call of God to serve the body of Christ. As a pastor and passionate teacher of the word, she is a fervent prayer with a word for women from all walks of life.
Her insights into mental wellness and emotional health have equipped her to support believers in balancing their spiritual and professional lives, focusing on teaching young girls to seek a godly balanced life, including healthy bodies through physical exercise. Her teaching emphasizes the importance of grace, guarding our hearts, identity in Christ, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
She has served in various boards as a director.
Our Core Values
1
We believe in the authority and power of Scripture. It is the foundation of our teaching and the anchor for our lives.
2
We see our church as a family, offering every generation a place of belonging, encouragement, and growth.
3
We are called to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and bring hope to our community and beyond.
4
Through the Holy Spirit, we seek to empower each believer to live out their calling and purpose.
5
Emphasizing that salvation and empowerment come through grace, not works.
6
We believe in equipping believers to utilize their gifts and talents in the marketplace and the community.
7
Encouraging active participation in local and global missions.
8
We encourage spiritual, emotional, and professional development.
Our Statement of Faith
The following beliefs and values describe who we are as a church and the convictions that guide our church. They communicate who God has called us to be and direct where we are going:
- We believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, in their original writing, as fully inspired of God and accept them as the supreme and final authority for faith and life.
- We believe in one God, eternally existing in three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten of the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary and is true God and true man.
- We believe that God created man in His image, that man sinned and thereby incurred the penalty of sin, which is death physically and spiritually, and that all human beings inherit a sinful nature which issues (in the case of those who reach moral responsibility) in actual transgression involving personal guilt.
- We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, a substitutionary sacrifice according to the Scriptures, and that all who believe in Him are justified on the grounds of His shed blood.
- We believe in the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus, His ascension into Heaven, and His present life as our High Priest and Advocate.
- We believe in the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
- We believe that all who repent of their sin and receive the Lord Jesus Christ by faith are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God.
- We believe that the church’s responsibility is to make disciples of all nations and make sure that disciples are assimilated into the local church.
- We believe in the resurrection of both the just and the unjust, the eternal blessedness of the redeemed, and the eternal banishment of those who have rejected the offer of salvation.
- We believe in the baptism in the Holy Spirit, empowering and equipping believers for service, with the accompanying supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit; and in fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
- We believe in the divinely ordained ministries of the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, and Teacher.
- We believe with regards to submission to authority in the principle of being in authority because you are under authority. As such, it is understood that membership shall be subject to submission to authority in matters of church governance, doctrine, and personal behaviour.
- We believe that the one true Church is the whole company of those who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ and regenerated by the Holy Spirit; that the local church on earth should take its character from this concept of the Church spiritual and, therefore, that the new birth and personal confession of Christ are essentials of church membership.
- We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ appointed two ordinances – Baptism in water and the Lord’s Supper to be observed as acts of obedience and as perpetual witnesses to the cardinal facts of the Christian faith, that Baptism is the immersion of the believer in water as a confession of identification with Christ in burial and resurrection and that the Lord’s Supper is the partaking of the emblems symbolic of the Saviour’s broken body and shed blood, in remembrance of His sacrificial death, until He comes.
- We believe that divine healing was provided for in the Old and New Testament and is an integral part of the Gospel.
- We believe the Bible teaches that no man can see the Lord without holiness. We believe in the doctrine of sanctification as a definite yet progressive work of grace, commencing at the time of the new birth and continuing until the consummation of salvation.
- We believe the Leadership of the local church has the authority from the scriptures to withdraw the membership of any member for serious, unrepentant misconduct or similar cause.
