What We Believe
We believe Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. He is our Lord, our Savior, the only way to the Father, and our High Priest, mediating and interceding with the Father on behalf of all those who have repented of their sin and put their trust in him, his life, work, death, and resurrection.
About the Cross: Sin separates all people from a righteous and holy God. Jesus’ death on the cross was an atoning sacrifice, making possible our forgiveness and reconciliation with God. To repent of sin and trust in Jesus are the only requirements for one to receive that forgiveness and reconciliation made possible by Jesus’ death and resurrection.
About Sin: Sin is simply when we fail to do what we know is right or when we do what we know is wrong. Sin occurs when we miss the mark of God’s righteousness, and it mars the God image in us, disconnecting us from relationship with God. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God, and are all sinners in need of a savior.
About Eternal Life: When a person repents of their sin and puts their trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, that person is forgiven of sin, through the work of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection, and receives the gift of eternal life (right relationship with God). The Holy Spirit takes up residence in that person, teaching and equipping them to be a disciple of Jesus, and marking that person as a child of God, belonging to God’s kingdom. We cannot earn salvation, but are saved by grace through faith. We believe you can know that you are saved, as scripture teaches that “if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that he raised from the dead, you WILL BE SAVED”. Eternal life does not mean just going to heaven with you die, but begins the moment you put your trust in Jesus, as God gives you life abundant and restores you to wholeness and right relationship with him.
About the Resurrection of Jesus: We believe in the resurrection of the body, that Jesus literally, actually, and physically rose from the dead after three days in the grave.
About the Holy Trinity: God is one God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
About the Bible: The Bible is God’s holy word, a sixty-six book love letter from God to us, written down by men over the course of 1,500+ years under the supernatural guidance and inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit. The Bible is inerrant and infallible, and contains all things necessary for salvation. All scripture is God breathed, and is useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. The Bible reveals God to us and his plan for us, and is the primary vehicle through which God speaks to us.
About the Second Coming: Jesus Christ will return again in glory, inaugurating the Kingdom of God in fullness.
About the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son, and was poured out on believers as promised at Pentecost, after Jesus rose and ascended to heaven. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and draws us to repentance, leading us to respond in faith to the good news of Jesus. The Holy Spirit guides, teaches, equips, comforts us, and is our source of power, the same power that rose Jesus from the grave. When someone repents of their sin and puts their trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells within them, and the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control begin to show up more and more in their everyday life and actions.
About Baptism: The baptism of believers signifies the repentance and forgiveness of sin, new birth, and the entry into Christian discipleship. Baptism is an outward testimony to what God is doing inwardly in someone’s life. We also believe in infant baptism, which signifies God already working on the child’s behalf and in their lives, and allows both the child’s parents and the church to both commit to coming alongside the child to support, encourage, and raise them in the faith. We baptize through sprinkling, pouring, and by immersion.
About Holy Communion: Holy Communion (or the Lord’s Supper) is a faithful remembrance of the suffering and death of Christ and a celebration of God’s love within the Church. We do this when gathered as God’s people, as Jesus directed his disciples to do, establishing the sacrament at the last supper. The broken bread symbolizes Christ’s body and the grape juice his blood, as broken and poured out for us on the cross. Those who eat the bread and drink of the cup partake of the body and blood of Christ in a symbolic and spiritual manner until he comes again in glory.
About People: Every person was made in the image of God and Christ died for all people. Because both of these things are true, every human being has inherent worth and value. God created people out of an abundance of love. We were made to know God and to make him known.
About Grace: Grace is the unmerited and undeserved favor of God, poured out on us and on all of creation. Wherever God is present, grace is there also. God’s grace goes before us, comes along side us, transforms us more and more into the image of Christ, and sustains us as we follow him.
About Community: We were created to be in community. Even God, in the way he reveals himself to us, in his nature, embodies community: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Though we can believe in God on our own, we need each other in order to live like Jesus, as Scripture implores “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” as we gather and live in Christian community.
About Mission: Mission is not just a trip you take, but is a lifestyle lived, and the purpose of every believer and the Church as a whole, as Jesus directed us in the Great Commission to “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”.
About Church: Church is not a building you visit once a week for worship, but a people, all those who have repented of their sin and put their trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. As believers, Church is not where we go, but who we are.
About Spiritual Gifts: Spiritual Gifts are given to each believer by the Holy Spirit and are a result of God’s grace at work within us. More than just our talents and abilities, they are supernatural ways in which we are uniquely equipped to build and strengthen our faith community while meeting the needs of a broken world around us. Every believer receives different spiritual gifting as God sees fit, with no one spiritual gift being held by all, or being more important than any other.
