What We Believe
GENERAL SUMMARY
None of us is perfect – “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23, NIV)
God loves us and wants to be in close fellowship with us, but our sin separates us from Him. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, NIV)
Jesus is the only way to connect with God. His death on the cross and resurrection provides the way to God for us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NIV)
If we choose to believe and seek God, His gifts of grace help bridge the separation and bring us to Him. “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith – and it is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not of works, so no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV)
We believe that men and women are equal before God and that God is free to `call either to any ministry or leadership position He chooses. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28, NIV)
HOW IT EFFECTS US
We are followers of Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Messiah/Christ, and our Savior from the consequences we deserve for living without God in charge of our lives. For doctrine, we believe the Apostles Creed (below) as it talks about One God in Three Persons—another case where human language gets all tangled up when it tries to clinically capture the Divine.
The witness without peer to God/Jesus/Holy Spirit is the Bible in its 66 books, when the Holy Spirit helps us get its meaning. The Holy Spirit speaks through Scripture, worship, the holy acts of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism, through memory, emotions, intuitions, Christian fellowship, “chance” happenings/words, and dreams. These messages from God are to be tested—compared with God’s character shown in the Bible, confirmed by other faithful witnesses, and confirmed by repeated positive messages from God.
Our faith is given trustworthiness when our relationships—with God and with each other—are healthy. Conversely, damaged relationships reveal hypocrisy—saying we believe one thing, but doing something different.
Our church has established another beachhead for Jesus’ work through his followers. This we have called, “Act One”. Now beginning “Act Two” together, the Lord is leading us to a new vision, and values and missions.
The Apostles' Creed
I believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand
of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come
to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic* Church;
the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Amen.
(*This word originally meant, “universal”.)
Presbyterian Church USA Statement of Faith