What We Believe
We wholeheartedly agree with the Westminster Catechism that our “chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."
Our background is a mix of evangelical, mainline denomination, charismatic, and nondenominational church experiences. Over our lifetimes, we’ve participated in a wide-range of Christian traditions… from high church services with hymns and liturgy to charismatic healing meetings to singing It Only Takes a Spark around a campfire. We’re passionate about bridging the old with the new, and gleaning wisdom from our historic church mothers and fathers. And we’re excited to see what adventures the Holy Spirit has in store for us today!
In brief, we believe God is triune, one eternally existing Being in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Yes, it’s a great mystery!) We believe God desires to know us, communicate with us, and bring us into His family. As such, God testifies about Himself through creation, the physical universe including human beings, and through the revelations of scripture, Jesus Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
- The physical universe: This glorious and gorgeous creation is God’s natural revelation to us and everything in it points to God. God’s creation reveals his creativity, playfulness, and humor – just look at the sea otter! Behold the wonder of this magnificent world, observe it in detail and marvel at the Creator, marvel at the feast for our senses He gifted us.
- Human beings: Humans, male and female, are created in God’s image, and are therefore His greatest creation. No other creature has this distinction. No other creature was made to be friends with God. As God’s image bearers, we have relational, rational, moral, creative, and spiritual capacities as well as inherent dignity and worth. Even our capacity to laugh points back to a truth about God.
But then the first humans, Adam and Eve, made a fatal mistake. The consequences of which we all inherited. They listened to the voice of the enemy that whispered, “Did God really say that?” “Does God really have your best interests in mind?” They chose to follow their own desires and disobey God, the One who loved them into being and knew what was best for them. In their disobedience they declared themselves to be autonomous rulers of their lives. And in doing so, they ushered corruption, disorder, and death (both spiritual and physical) into God’s perfect creation. Their disobedience led to a rupture in our relationship with God and a distortion of God’s image within us.
And there’s nothing we humans can do about it. We are incapable of saving ourselves. Thankfully, God did not leave us alone. God made a way for us to be reconciled with Him. God moved toward us; God gives of Himself to repair the relationship.
- Jesus Christ: Jesus, as the greatest revelation of God, reveals to us the invisible God. To know Jesus is to know God’s desire for us and His love for us. To know Jesus is to know how grieved God is at the wreckage sin causes in our lives. To know Jesus is to know God.
In living the perfect human life, Jesus becomes in death the “lamb upon the cross that takes away the sins of the world.” Jesus willingly died in our place for our disobedience and took our punishment upon Himself. Jesus conquered sin, death, and satan through his bodily resurrection so that we might live with God now and forever. Through His life, death and resurrection, Jesus reconciles us to a holy, perfect God. Jesus says in John 14:6: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” We are made righteous and reconciled to God by faith alone in Christ alone.
- Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin and reveals our need for a Savior; makes us spiritually alive (regeneration) and forms us into the people God always intended us to be before sin entered the world (sanctification). God’s plans and purposes for our individual lives are revealed through the Holy Spirit who then encourages, empowers, and equips us (through gifts of the Holy Spirit) to live out that life. The Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to live a supernatural life!
- Scriptures: The scriptures, as found in the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, reveal God’s greatest story – the story of HIS faithfulness to humans despite their unfaithfulness to Him, His plan for our salvation and reconciliation. The scriptures tell us who Jesus is and the significance of His life, death, and resurrection. We believe the scriptures are authoritative for all believers in Jesus Christ. They are the unchangeable standard against which we measure everything else including ourselves and the church. God’s word is where we learn how to flourish in this life and for the life to come.
We believe the Nicene Creed succinctly sums up historic orthodox Christian belief about God:
The Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy universal and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Amen.