What We Believe

We believe…

God, the architect and maker of everything, is three who’s and one what. He is the one sovereign God, but exists in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the Son, the man from heaven, who comes to reveal both the glories of heaven and the glories of earth. He entered into human flesh to reveal the character and purpose of God, and to show us what a real human being is. He is the one and only way to God and salvation is found in no other.

Because Jesus didn’t take advantage of anything unavailable to us, he lived the life of daily God-dependence, sacrifice, and self-giving that demonstrates in living color, wide-screen, and high definition not how a superman but a normal human being is intended to live.

The Holy Spirit is the divine wind that fills the sails of the church to drive all its individual members to their intended destination. He is the power that enlivens and interprets the things of Christ, and enables believers to live the Christian life by fulfilling the requirements and commands of God the Father. A Christian is neither more nor less than a person in whom the Spirit of Jesus Christ dwells.

The Bible is the written Word of God, the final arbiter of what is true and untrue about God, his Son, salvation, the history of his people, the future of creation, and is the definitive guide for life and practice of faith.

Salvation is wholly a free gift made possible by God’s grace alone, through Jesus Christ alone, and by faith alone. This means it can’t be earned by our efforts or accomplishments, made better, or found in any other source or work than what Jesus accomplished for us by his death and resurrection.

On Easter morning Jesus’ physical body arose from the grave, the same body but transformed, and exhibits the same kind of immortal body all believers will eventually share, living on a transformed, immortal earth forever.

The only sacraments that Jesus authorized are baptism and the Lord’s Supper, but neither has saving power. That alone is reserved for what Christ has already and fully accomplished for us.

The Christian life is to be a Spirit-empowered reenactment of the life of Christ, not in repeating his saving work, but in demonstrating to the world the life of God’s kingdom and in being poured out willingly for the sake of others.

The goal and purpose of history is to declare the glory of God to every creature, and the final chapter includes the return of Jesus when all evil and rebellion will be judged and destroyed, and when God restores all he made by establishing the New Heaven and the New Earth, where nothing but justice and goodness dwell.

Where two or three are gathered in my name…

The Church is not a building, but a people, bound together with one vision and one purpose. Therefore, it’s everywhere, all around us, every day, because believers are the church all day long wherever they are—online and off.

On Sundays, or whenever they meet, and for whatever purpose, they come together “in the name of Jesus”—for his and his Father’s will to be done. They are the living, physical demonstration of the kingdom of God on earth, whether in prayer and worship, or in fun and service.

For believers, a party or a feast is just as “spiritual” as a Bible study, a hymn or chorus sung, a prayer time, or a missions trip. The church is supposed not to quash the party but to bring the party to the world—to be the spicy, hot chili pepper applied to the blandness of life without God. They are the “body of Christ” because a believer by definition is neither more nor less than a person in whom the Spirit of Jesus dwells.

What the church does, whenever it gathers, is to do what pleases and glorifies its Lord, and regular worship simply sets the pace and the stage for all that follows during the week. Christian life and worship is never just a Sunday morning event, but a 24/7 event. If worship isn’t joyful and full of life, then what the church brings to the world that week won’t be joyful or lively either.

If worship ends when people exit through the church door, it has no real meaning or value. As Jesus was the “man for others,” so we’re to be his “people for others.” The church is the only society that exists for those who aren’t members of it. We live in the world to serve the world, and when the church really is the church living in this giving away role, the world will sit up and take notice. If it hasn’t, it’s because we haven’t fulfilled our job description.

The church of Jesus is entrusted with the only medicine that can cure the world’s ills, and the only power to transform decaying and corrupt societies. It works when, and only when, the medicine is applied full strength. Half-hearted, part-time, “sort of” Christianity isn’t Christianity at all, and it’s what the world has already witnessed too often and said, “No thanks!”

So the next time you’re in church or church online think about this: The Gospel of Jesus is so exceedingly, over-the-top powerful in its capacity to save and cure all that’s sick in this world, that we should be just waiting to use our highest creativity and intelligence in bringing our witness to it into every shop, office, nursery, boardroom, classroom, or chatroom.

Where we can’t speak the word directly, we demonstrate it in our actions, attitude, act of kindness or patience, or decision not to go along with the questionable. If we walk the walk consistently enough, then eventually someone will be so curious or impressed that they’ll ask about it. You won’t even have to force it.