OUR FOUNDER
Reverend Christopher Banks was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He is married to his best friend Katy, and has a beautiful daughter that thinks she’s in charge.
Growing up in one of the roughest parts of Chicago, he quickly found the arts as a positive escape from the gangs and drugs. After giving his life to Jesus at 19 years of age, he wondered how he could bridge the freedom that the arts provided with his new found love for God. It was this desire that birthed his vision for the Fine Arts Mission Foundation.
Pastor Chris (as he is commonly called) has dedicated his life to bringing the gospel truth to youth through the Arts, Preaching, Worship, and Discipleship Groups of their peers.
WHO WE ARE
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The Fine Arts Mission Foundation strives to create a transformative arts community while providing a bridge between the youth and their local churches.
Our goal is to spread the gospel through the arts to youth across the country. We envision building facilities where the youth can come and learn about Christ through the arts, while at the same time having a policy that allows churches to come in and witness to the youth in an open and friendly environment. We wish to help bridge the ever-growing gap between the church and the community in this way.
It is our endeavor to provide ministry training opportunities in the arts, while at the same time discipling them into an ever-growing knowledge of Jesus Christ. We will operate mainly as an evangelistic ministry, by bringing the arts to our neighboring communities free of charge, in hopes of reaching them with the Gospel. We will partner with local churches as well, offering training to their students in the arts in hopes of strengthening their student ministries.
We strive to encourage and empower our youth through the arts. To allow them a place to express themselves, while at the same time giving them a way to worship God in an unconventional way. We work to allow youth to express their creativity and passions through new venues, while being in a completely safe and loving environment.
In conclusion, It is our goal to see our community transformed by the power of God, and we are using the arts to achieve this. We are bridging the gap between the church and the youth of our community, and are training our kids to be great in ministry.
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We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful mankind, regeneration of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling, the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe man was created good and upright; for God said, "Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness." However, man, by voluntary transgression, fell and thereby incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from God.
We believe sanctification is an act of separation from that which is evil, and of dedication unto God.
We believe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, or any other homosexual behavior is sin because: it is disobedient to scriptural teachings, contrary to God’s created order for the family and human relationships, and comes under divine judgment. However, reconciliation is possible (2 Corinthians 5:17–21).
We believe God defines marriage as the permanent, exclusive, comprehensive, and conjugal “one flesh” union of one man and one woman, intrinsically ordered to procreation and biological family, and in furtherance of the moral, spiritual, and public good of binding father, mother, and child. (Genesis 1:27–28; 2:18–24; Matthew 19:4–9; Mark 10:5–9; Ephesians 5:31–33).
We believe the one true God has revealed Himself as the eternally self-existent "I AM," the Creator of heaven and earth and the Redeemer of mankind. He has further revealed Himself as embodying the principles of relationship and association as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We Believe in the sanctity of all human life (Genesis 9:6; Matthew 6:26). We believe that the Scriptures clearly teach that human life begins at conception. God is the giver of life and exercises sovereign control over it by opening and closing wombs, infusing newly formed embryos with unique human spirits, superintending the development of these unborn children (fetuses) throughout pregnancy, and sustaining them over the course of their lives from conception until death. Children are gifts from the Lord, and all the days of their existence are ordained by the Lord. We acknowledge God’s sovereignty over life and death by seeking to preserve and extend life within the parameters of biblical medical ethics, while humbly accepting death when it becomes imminent due to irreversible defect, incurable disease, old age, or fatal injury. Death, in biblical terms, is the separation of man’s spirit from his body (Genesis 30:22; 1 Samuel 1:5-6, 19-20; Deuteronomy 32:39; Job 33:4; Psalm 127:3; 139:13-16; 104:29-30; Luke 1:15, 41, Matthew 27:50).We believe that man’s unlawful and premeditated killing of a human being is a violation of the sixth commandment, which says, “You shall not murder.” The biblical prohibitions of murder (commandments, case laws) forbid the taking of all innocent (non-criminal) human life. These prohibitions also include: abortion (unborn human babies); infanticide (human infants after birth); euthanasia (mercy-killing); assisted suicide (helping another to take his life); suicide (taking one’s own life); hastening a death to acquire organs (organ harvesting); those forms of birth control and reproductive technologies which involve the destruction of embryos; and any research or experimentation procedure which results in the death of embryos, fetuses, or newborn children (Exodus 20:13; Exodus 21:22-25; Leviticus 24:17).
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The statement of faith does not exhaust the extent of our beliefs. The Bible itself, as the inspired and inerrant Word of God that speaks with final authority concerning truth, morality, and the proper conduct of mankind, is the sole and final source of all that we believe. For purposes of the Fine Arts Mission Foundation’s faith, doctrine, practice, policy, and discipline, our governing Board is the Fine Arts Mission Foundation’s final interpretive authority on the Bible’s meaning and application.
