Beliefs
Here are a few of our Tenants of Faith
The Trinity – God is one being in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These members of the Trinity are (inexplicably) both independent and indivisible from one another, working in unison for the good of humanity (Rom 8:28).
God the Father – Being the first member of the Trinity, the Father is the source of all creation (Gen. 1:1; John 1:1-2), and he sustains creation through His gracious providence. Also, the revelation of Christ reveals that God unconditionally loves us, and desires to have a relationship with His children (Rom 5).
God the Son – Being the second member of the Trinity, Jesus of Nazareth is the incarnation of God the Son (John 1). Being both fully divine and fully human, Jesus apocalyptically embedded Himself into humanity by being born of a virgin, dying on a cross, and being resurrected (Phil 2:5-11); together, His life, death, and resurrection ushered in the Kingdom of God on Earth, and made salvation for humanity possible (Mark 1:14-15). Currently, he is enthroned in Heaven, and will later fully establish a new kingdom here on Earth.
God the Holy Spirit – Being the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit works actively in the world (Eph 1:11-14); the Holy Spirit indwells believers individually and corporately in the Church; and the Holy Spirit develops within the Christian a pure heart, which results in Christ-like character (sanctification) expressed in private and public conduct and action (John 16:5-11).
Scripture – We affirm that the 66 books forming the Protestant Bible (both OT and NT) is the uniquely inspired Word of God (2 Tim. 3:14-17; 2 Peter 1:16-21). This canon of Scripture forms the bedrock of our ecclesial communities, and it is the authoritative revelation from God by which we know God’s will. Our job as Christians is to dwell in these scriptures, allowing them to form our Christian vocabulary by which we frame our worldview.
Church – The Church is the body of Christ on earth (Eph 1:22-23), the community of believers throughout the world. Moreover, the Church is the primary medium through which Christ affects change in this fallen world (2 Cor 5:20); we are Christ’s hands and feet! Flowing from this revelation, then, each Christian is called to be a serving minister of the Church (1 Peter 2:9-10) because there are no superfluous members of the Church (1 Cor 12).
Humanity – Human beings were created by God (in the image of God) to walk in fellowship with Him (Gen 2-3). However, humanity screwed up this relationship by sinning, which effectively severed our authentic fellowship with God (Rom. 3:23). Through God’s grace, though, humanity is offered a new opportunity to fellowship with God by means of Christ’s sacrificial love (Rom 5:1-11; Gal 1:4).
Salvation – Salvation comes by God alone, through Jesus Christ alone. One accepts Christ as Savior and Lord through a conversion process that includes grace, repentance, confession, baptism, and even more grace (Acts 2:38, 8:12, 10:47-48; Rom 5:12-21, 10:9).
Baptism – Christian baptism transfers a person from the enslaving domain of sin into the liberating domain of Christ (Rom 6:1-14). In other words, baptism is not merely a symbol or an act of obedience, but it actually does something. With baptism comes a new frame of mind (1 Cor 2:15-16) and an allotment of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) that helps the individual maintain a holy life, despite living in the present corrupt world. Additionally, baptism inaugurates the individual into the Christian community, and seems to be the normative manner through which salvific grace is mediated (again, Acts 2:38).
Lord’s Supper -The Lord’s Supper is the celebration of the New Covenant, in which the Christian community remembers Christ and celebrates the covenantal relationship they have with Him and with each other (1 Cor 11:23-26).