Our Beliefs
From the time of the Apostles to today, Christians have laid out doctrine (beliefs) in brief, definitive statements. As those who know God, we believe it necessary to set forth in a concise fashion the essential truths of our church as guided by Scripture. Our Statement of Faith summarizes essential Christian beliefs, shows unity in Christ, and guards the church from error.
All who join Christ Way Bible Church are required to affirm the Statement of Faith. Our Statement of Faith firmly roots our church in historic evangelical Christianity, professing believer’s baptism, and congregational polity. Once we as members agree to the Statement of Faith, we are responsible for believing and living in accordance with it.
Statement of Faith
Pastor Ken Ritchie & Family
Ken and Monica Ritchie met in 1993 while students at East High in Waterloo.
After high school, Ken went to Hawkeye Community College to study professional photography and worked at the Waterloo Courier while in college. Ken and Monica married in 1997, and in 1998 the Ritchie’s moved away to find work.
Ken joined the Army after college to pay off school and after his enlistment, worked as a newspaper photographer in Indiana and Ohio for many years. Monica worked for several years in visual merchandising and sign making before staying home to raise and homeschool their children - Dominic, Miles and Rosalie.
In 2006, Ken felt the call into pastoral ministry. He attended Crossroads Bible College in Indianapolis, Ind. While in school, Ken led a street ministry program in Madison, Ind., preached in a prison ministry at the state juvenile detention center and eventually took the call as as a bi-vocational pastor, serving at Kent (Ind.) Baptist Church - all while still working full time as a photojournalist. In 2014, Ken began pastoring full time at Warsaw (Kentucky) Baptist Church where he served for eight years.
The Ritchie’s moved back to Waterloo in late 2022 in order to be closer to Monica’s family. Ken now works as an elder/pastor at Cedar Heights Baptist Church, in Cedar Falls, IA. In August of 2025, he was called to be CHBC’s Church Planting Pastoral Resident.
Monica homeschooled their three children until 2024. Dominic, now lives and works in Ackley, IA. Miles and Rosalie attend Valley Lutheran Schools in Cedar Falls.
Monica teaches high school classes at The Olive Grove Academy.
In his role at CHBC, Ken was tasked to pray; to learn from planters and pastors in Iowa and across the country; and to identify a town or city in which to start a new Gospel work. Now that he, in consultation with the elders of CHBC have discerned a call to Waterloo, IA, Ken is planning, recruiting, training, fundraising, evangelizing and making disciples ahead of a planned opening of Christ Way Bible Church in the city.


Church Covenant
Having received Jesus Christ as our Savior, and having followed Him in believer’s baptism, we are joyfully entering into a covenant between one another, as the Body of Christ.
We covenant, by God’s grace and the aid of the Holy Spirit, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is our sincere desire to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We intend to meet for corporate worship, observe God’s holy ordinances, adhere to the doctrines of the Bible, and practice loving church discipline. We will give cheerfully to the church for the glory of God, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the Gospel throughout all the world.
We covenant to bring our children up through the consistent and diligent discipline and instruction of The Lord through the Word of God. We will seek to live holy lives according to the Scriptures so that God might receive all the glory, and his Kingdom might spread throughout all the world.
We covenant to pray for one another and serve one another in love. We will exhibit the Fruit of the Spirit toward one another, reflecting love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in both speech and action. When we are sinned against, we will be slow to take offense and always ready to reconcile without delay.
Moreover, we covenant that if we leave this congregation we will, as soon as possible, unite with some other congregation that preaches the Word of God.

