An Ancient Faith For Today’s People

Question 1: What do you believe about God?

There is one eternal God, Creator and Lord of the universe who, in the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, governs all things according to God’s will and is accomplishing God’s purpose in the world and in the church.

Question 2: What is the Bible?

The Holy Scripture, in its entirety, is inspired by God’s Spirit through human authors and constitutes the revelation of God’s truth to humanity. It is wholly true and trustworthy in all that it affirms. Whatever the Bible, rightly interpreted, is found to teach, we are bound to believe and obey. It is our supreme authority in every matter of belief and conduct.

Question 3: Are human beings unique?

All human beings are created in God’s own likeness and, therefore, have inherent value and equality before God. Human sin and guilt since the fall have rendered us subject to God’s wrath and condemnation and have resulted in our alienation from God’s life, suppression of God’s truth, and hostility to God’s law. God’s love desires all to come to repentance and to be reconciled.

Question 4: Who is Jesus?

Jesus alone is fully God and fully human, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the mediator between God and humanity, and he grants salvation to all who are allegiant to him.

Salvation from the guilt, penalty, and all other consequences of sin has been achieved solely through the work of Jesus Christ – his perfect obedience, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, and exaltation as Lord. There is salvation through no other person, creed, process or power. Each sinner is justified before God and reconciled to God only by divine grace appropriated by faith alone.

Question 5: Who is the Holy Spirit?

We believe the Holy Spirit guides and instructs us in life. He fills all true believers at the moment of salvation. He lives in individuals, guides in the understanding of God’s Word, and empowers God’s church for life in this world. He empowers every believer with spiritual gifts so that every believer has a mission and purpose in His kingdom and in this world. All of the gifts of the Holy Spirit on display in the church of the New Testament are available today, are vital for the mission of the church, and are to be earnestly desired and practiced.

Question 6: What is the church?

There is one holy, catholic, and apostolic church, which is the Body of Christ, and to which all true believers belong. The church’s calling is to worship God forever and to serve God’s mission of reconciliation.

Question 7: Why should I go to church?

We believe in the priority of fellowshipping in the local church with other believers.  The Church is not a physical building in which we gather but is the body of believers that live, work, and serve together for the advancement of God’s Purposes. This includes worship, celebration of the ordinances and sacraments, study of scripture, sacrificial living, gospel proclamation, and pursuing biblical justice. Believers need each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Question 8: What do you believe about justice?

We affirm that all people are created in the image of God and have eternal worth. The truth of the image of God in all people has often been deeply distorted by divisions between people along ethnic, racial, gender, socio-economic, and cultural lines. We reject any teaching or practice that upholds these distortions and perpetuates a doctrine of superiority within the body of Christ. We lament the ways scripture has been illegitimately used to cause harm and strive by the power of the Holy Spirit to pursue reconciliation with all people.

Question 9: What do you believe about human identity and sexuality?

We affirm the wisdom and beauty of God’s design in the creation narrative for our identity, relationships, and sexuality. We pursue with joy the pattern God has formed and repent of the ways we have often failed to live in accord with these teachings. We deeply lament how people made in the image of God have encountered isolation, fear, and dehumanizing rhetoric from the Church. We commit ourselves to creating communities full of grace that serve the good of our neighbors, city, and world.

Question 10: What is humanity’s ultimate purpose in this life?

As the Father sent the Son into the world, so the Lord Jesus Christ sends his church to participate in God’s mission by words and works. The church is called: to make Christ known; to proclaim God’s truth and the gospel of God’s grace; to make disciples among all nations; to exhibit God’s character through compassionate care for the needy; to demonstrate the reality of God’s kingdom through creative and sacrificial living, the community of love, the quest for righteousness, justice and peace, and the care of God’s creation.