Our Statement of Faith

SCRIPTURE

We believe that the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, is the entirely true and authoritative written Word of God. We believe all Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit and breathed out by God to reveal God’s heart and character and to direct and form God’s people in Christ-likeness. We believe that the Bible tells a unified story of redemption that ultimately culminates in Jesus Christ, the Living Word. While reason, experience, and tradition together with the Bible serve to inform our understanding of truth and life, the Scriptures are the primary and final authority in our rule of faith and practice. (Psalm 19; John 20:31; Luke 24:27; Acts 20:32; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20–21).

THE TRIUNE GOD

We believe in one God eternally existing in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each Person is fully God, equal in divinity, power, and glory. The true and living Triune God is the Creator, Sustainer, and Lord of all things, and is infinite in power, glory, wisdom, love, holiness, and grace. (Genesis 1:1; Deuteronomy 6:4; Psalm 145; Matthew 28:19; John 3:16, 10:30; Romans 11:36; Ephesians 4:4–6; 1 Timothy 1:17; 1 Peter 1:2–3).

GOD, THE FATHER

We believe in God, the Father almighty, the maker of heaven and earth. We believe that he has created all things out of nothing and sustains all things for his glory and for our good. We believe that he has revealed himself to us through his world, and ultimately through his Word. We believe that he has directed history and has authored salvation according to his perfect knowledge and sure plan of redemption, which has culminated in his gracious giving of his Son, Jesus Christ, for our reconciliation and adoption into the family of God. (Matthew 6:9, 23:9, Luke 10:21–22; John 3:16, 5:19–23; Romans 1:7; 1 Peter 1:3; Revelation 1:6).

JESUS CHRIST

We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the incarnate Son of God, who is fully God and fully human. He came into the world as the perfect self-revelation of God and the radiance of God’s glory. Jesus Christ, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is the Creator of all things, and Jesus is the Savior and King promised and revealed according to the Scriptures. We believe he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, that he lived a true, righteous, and sinless life, preached the gospel of the kingdom and performed miracles of the kingdom, died a sacrificial and substitutionary death, rose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will return one day in glory to make all things new. (Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 53; Mark 16:19; John 1:1–18; Acts 1:11; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4; Philippians 2:1–11; Colossians 1:15–23; Hebrews 1:1–3, 7:26).

THE HOLY SPIRIT

We believe in the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. We believe in the sanctifying and life-giving work of the Holy Spirit which begins at the regenerative moment of the new birth. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins, comforts us in the gospel, compels us to hope in and glorify Jesus, and continually empowers believers to pursue a life of Christ-like holiness. The evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit is a person’s obedient response to the Word of God, a Christ-like life of holiness, and a bearing of the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit. We believe in the Spirit’s work of unifying and gifting the church to accomplish Christ’s purposes in the world. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are operative in the Church today in order for the Church to experience and display the fullness of God and are imparted by the Holy Spirit as God sees fit. (John 14:25–27, 16:4–15; Acts 1:8; Romans 8:9–17; 1 Corinthians 12:4–7, 13:13; Galatians 5:22–23; Titus 3:5). 

CREATION AND HUMANITY

We believe that God has created all things for His glory and that all people are created in the image of God with great dignity, glory, and purpose, and were created initially (prior to the fall) to be innocent and morally free with the responsibility to choose between good and evil. And we believe that God, as the grand artist of all things, has created a beautiful mosaic of diverse people and cultures that together reveal God’s abundant glory and creativity. We believe God’s people are called to care for creation and pursue the multicultural diversity, beauty, righteousness, and peace of God’s coming Kingdom. (Genesis 1:26; Psalm 8; Ephesians 2:11–22; Revelation 7:9).

THE FALL & SIN OF HUMANITY

We believe that through disobedience and a rejection of God’s  authority, humanity fell from a state of righteousness and holiness into sin and depravity, unable in our own strength to obtain a right relationship with God or live the abundant and eternal life that God had intended for us. We believe that every person shares in the fallenness of humanity—that every person has turned from God in sin and now faces the lostness, grief, and death of broken relationships with God, others, and the world. We believe that sin, brokenness, and the fall play out on personal, interpersonal, social, and even cosmic levels. Accordingly, we also believe in the reality and personality of Satan—that he originally tempted humanity to sin, that he seeks to deceive and destroy us, that he was defeated by Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, and that Christ has given authority over the works of Satan to His body, the Church. We ultimately believe that we need salvation through Jesus Christ because all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God, and that only by God’s grace through faith can we be saved. (Genesis 3; Psalm 51; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:1–10).

THE GOSPEL

We believe that God from eternity past has determined to graciously offer redemption to his broken and sinful humanity through Christ, which he has promised and made known through his Word and covenant in both the Old and New Testaments. God’s plan of redemption has ultimately come to its fullness in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe in the gospel, or the good news that God has come to establish his kingdom through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, the redemption of our lives, the reconciliation of all believers into the family of God, and the renewal of all things. In response to the gospel, we confess that Jesus is our savior, the one perfect mediator between God and humanity, and the Lord over all things in heaven and on earth, and under the earth. And in response to the gospel, we seek by the Spirit to trust, obey, and follow Christ together as our true king and our greatest treasure. (Isaiah 53; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 1:7, 2:1–10; Philippians 3:9).

REPENTANCE

We believe that repentance is the result of the convicting work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of non-believers and believers. The conviction of the Holy Spirit, which often accompanies the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, will result in the revelation of one’s sinfulness, which should lead to a humble sorrow over sin and a desire for God’s grace. The Spirit compels us—in our sorrow over our sin—to turn away from our sin and selfishness and to turn to God to receive his gracious gifts of forgiveness, redemption, and faith for a changed life. (Proverbs 28:13; Matthew 3:8; Mark 1:15; John 3:16; Acts 2:37–38; Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:8–13).

JUSTIFICATION

We believe that Christ has died in our place so that we might not only be forgiven of our sins but also be clothed in the very righteousness of Christ before God. We believe that repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ result in justification whereby the believer, through faith in the person and atoning work of Jesus Christ, is accounted as righteous and made free from the guilt and the penalty of their sins. (Romans 3:28, 4:3–5, 5:1, 11:6; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8; Philippians 3:9).

REGENERATION

We believe that through faith in Jesus Christ, one is born again and is a new creation. As we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit with a new heart, a new life, and a new spiritual nature capable of faith, hope, love, and obedience to Christ, the old life is past and the new life is begun. (John 3:3–9; 2 Corinthians 5:17–21; Ephesians 2:4–7; Titus 3:4–7; 1 Peter 1:3).

SANCTIFICATION

We believe that by grace every believer may be sanctified by the Holy Spirit, subsequent to regeneration, through faith in the atoning blood of Christ, whereby in that moment they are cleansed of inward sin and empowered for service to God and others. The resulting relationship of righteousness and purity is attested to by the Holy Spirit and maintained by faith and obedience, which enables the believer to love God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind. This work causes believers not to be conformed to this world, while also preparing them for greater growth in grace. Sanctification is both a permanent act whereby, according to one’s union with Christ, God declares a regenerate believer holy and set apart. And sanctification is a process whereby a believer by the power of the Spirit progressively is conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ, the true and perfect God-man. Through the Word, sacraments, worship, fellowship, prayer, and service, God the Holy Spirit continually sanctifies believers, helping them increasingly be marked by the fruit of the Spirit. (John 17:17, 19; Romans 12:1-2; 15:16; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 6:11; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 1:4; Philippians 1:9-11, 2:12-13, 3:12-16; Hebrews 2:11, 6:1, 7:1, 10:10, 12:10, 13:12; 1 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 1:5-8).

GLORIFICATION

We believe in the future glorification of all believers. This glorification is granted through Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and return to restore all things. Our future glorification entails complete renewal and wholeness in mind, body, soul, and spirit. The restoration of our humanity in Christ begins at conversion and is fully completed when believers are fully glorified, or transformed into the likeness of the risen Christ, at the end of the age. Through justification, the penalty of sin is defeated; through sanctification, the power of sin is being defeated; and through glorification, the presence of sin will be fully defeated when Christ’s kingdom comes and all believers are raised to walk in glorious new life. (John 17:22; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 3:20-21; Colossians 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 Peter 5:1; 1 John 3:2).

THE CHURCH

We believe that God, through the gospel of Jesus and the work of the Spirit, is reconciling to himself the church, which is the body of Christ and the multiethnic family of God. We believe the universal church is expressed throughout history and across the world in local congregations who are called within their various traditions to preach the gospel according to the Scriptures, rightly administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, make disciples of Jesus Christ, seek the growth of their members toward Christ-likeness, and live on mission for the glory of God and the gospel renewal of our neighbors and communities. In worship, the Church comes together to meet the holy God and to respond in obedience and love. In witness, the Church makes known the good news of Christ throughout the local community and to the ends of the earth, calling the lost to repentance and faith. In discipleship, believers are brought into the body and equipped for service to Christ. In fellowship, redeemed people experience their union with Christ and one another. In service, the Church corporately cares for the needs of its own and others. (Acts 2:42–47; 12:12; Galatians 3:26-28; Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 10:23–25).

BAPTISM

We believe that water baptism is a sacrament, which means it is a means and sign of God’s grace, commanded by our Lord Jesus. Baptism is administered to those who have been redeemed and now walk in the new covenant of grace. It is a declaration and indication of faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and not the condition to salvation. It is also a public sign of joining and belonging to the church. (Matthew 28:18–20; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3–5; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 3:21).

THE LORD’S SUPPER

We believe that the Lord’s Supper is a sacrament, a means and sign of divine grace, commanded by our Lord Jesus. To those who rightly, worthily, and with faith receive it, the bread and the cup is a partaking of the body and blood of Christ. Though Christ is truly present in the Lord’s Supper, no change is affected in the elements, which are never to be considered objects of worship. This sacrament unites believers with Christ and one another as the Body of Christ. The Lord’s Supper looks back in remembrance of the death and resurrection of Christ and looks forward in anticipation of the future return of Christ. (Mark 14:22–25; John 6:53–59; Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 10:16, 11:23–26).

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

We believe the gospel transforms lives and calls believers into a life of following Jesus together—a life focused on loving God ultimately, loving people sacrificially, and making disciples of Jesus. Reflecting the heart of Christ, Christians are called to pursue mercy and justice for the poor, marginalized, and oppressed. And as Christians abide in Christ, the True Vine, their lives should increasingly bear the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We believe that faith without works is dead; faith results in an accompanying and corresponding action and pursuit of holiness. Right practice is as important as right belief. (Micah 6:8; Psalm 72, 103, Matthew 22:37–40, 28:18–20; John 15:1–8; Galatians 5:22–23; James 2:14–26).

THE RETURN OF CHRIST

We believe in Jesus Christ’s life, death, bodily resurrection, ascension into Heaven, and imminent return. He will return in power and glory to judge all people and renew all things. As his return may occur at any moment, the believer’s response is joyous expectation, watchfulness, and diligence. We anticipate his return at which time there will be the reconciliation of a new heaven and a new earth, a bodily resurrection of those who are lost to eternal death and those who are saved to eternal life, and the final victory of God wherein every enemy of Christ will be subdued and the glorious reign of God will be established. We believe Christ will return to make all things right and all things new. (Matthew 19:28–30; John 5:28–29; 1 Corinthians 15: 12–28; Revelation 21:1–4).