What We Believe

We Are a People Who Look to Scripture

1Peter 2:9-10

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
"Once you were not a people;
now you are the people of God.
Once you received none of God's mercy;
now you have received God's mercy."

Statement of Faith
The Scriptures
We are a "People of the Book". The Bible, as inspired scripture 'inbreathed' of God is our final authority. We reserve the right to private intrepretation recognizing that we are all 'fallen', fallible creatures needing the guidance, love, and discipline of Christian community; no one person having absolute authority to intrepret with complete infallibility for others. We do believe that in fellowship with one another the Holy Spirit opens our minds to a fuller understanding of scripture than we would receive alone without the inspiration of other believers.

Priesthood of Believers
We understand that we are in ministry together. All Christians are called to bear witness to Christ, to testify to the forgiveness we have found, to pray for one another and to give ourselves in loving service to our neighbors (in all the world). This is the call to ministry that comes to all Christians. Our time, talent and treasure belong first to the Lord and will be blessed as we serve in our various places of living.

Congregational Polity
We understand the church, Christ's body, to be a gathered community - a congregation of believers having a mutual ministry and a congregational-type goverment. Christ is the head of the Church. We do not have any human hierarchal structure of authority.

Service
As stated, we believe that we are all called to understand our lives in service to God as God's disciples in ministry wherever we find ourselves to be. We, being Christ's representatives, are ambassadors - letters of recommendation and so must strive to live in ways that set moral and ethical standards of integrity. We sing "We are God's people, the chosen of the Lord. Born of His Spirit, established by His Word; our cornerstone is Christ alone, and strong in Him we stand: O let us live transparently, and walk heart to heart and hand in hand. We are the Body of which the Lord is Head, called to obey Him now risen from the dead; He wills us be a family diverse yet truly one: O let us give our gifts to God, and so shall His work on earth be done."
The Godhead
We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, and having the same attributes and perfections (Deuteronomy 6:4; II Corinthians 13:14).
The Person and Work of Christ

We believe that what John basically meant when he begins his Gospel saying "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God", is best expressed in the words of William Barclay:
"What John basically means when he called Jesus the Word; is that in Jesus we see perfectly displayed in human form the mind of God. To put it at its very simplest, he meant that God is like Jesus. This means that, when we see Jesus feeding the hungry and healing the sick and being the friend of outcasts and sinners, when we see Jesus dying on the Cross, we can say: 'God is like that.' Now, if we go on to speak of the pre-existence of the Logos (the Word), one thing at least that we must mean is that God was always like that. The mind of God, the attitude of God towards humanity, was always from all eternity to all eternity that which we see in Jesus."

God as we know God in Christ:
Barclay's observation is that some speak about Jesus in a way that implies that Jesus did something to change God's attitude toward His creation; that in some way Jesus placated God's wrath and changed it into love; pacified God's anger and basically implying "that Jesus by his sufferings and his death bought off God." In other words, there are those who understand God and Jesus to be completely different. This theology suggests the possibility of two gods ... one using the other for His purposes - a power player and a victim. "Jesus is presented as forgiving love; God is presented as awful holiness; and Jesus is depicted as winning forgiveness for humanity from God." (Barclay)
Our congregation agrees with William Barclay when he states that "understanding the Logos (Word) as being before creation, from the beginning and before the beginning, the meaning is very simply that God was always like Jesus and always will be, and that Jesus did not come to change the attitude of God to humanity, but to show quite unmistakably what that attitude is and always was." Scripture tells us that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." 2Corinthians 5:19

God the Holy Spirit
As Jesus' earthly ministry was coming to a close he began to speak more and more about the Holy Spirit. He promised that he would send us another Counselor to be with us forever - the Spirit of Truth. He assures his followers that we will know the Holy Spirit for he will live with us and will be in us. The Holy Spirit is Christ's Spirit, sent in his name to empower us to be far more than we will ever be alone.
The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins, covers us with the wonder of God's love and grace, gives us the ability to change and opens our understanding to the will and purpose of God for us.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit comforts us in our grief, counsels us in our confusion, strengthens us in our weakness and leads us in the way of salvation. We understand that the Holy Spirit is able to be most powerful when God's people come together to worship, to pray, to support and help one another in our spiritual journeys. We believe that the Holy Spirit inspires us and helps us to identify our God-given abilities (gifts) and empowers us to use these abilities to the glory of God. We do not believe that speaking in tongues was ever the common or necessary sign of the filling of the Holy Spirit. We have all been given different gifts, each valued and important for the full ministry of Christ's church.

Humanity
We believe that humankind was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam and Eve's choice to disobey God, humanity was no longer allowed to live in a perfect world. While knowledge of good and evil was now the 'curse' of our free choice, God, Creator, Son and Holy Spirit, still loved His creation and had a plan from the very beginning to restore our brokenness in Jesus Christ. We believe that this brokenness is reflected in the stories that follow of blaming, excusing, power inequality, deceit and murder. We believe that in ourselves, much as we want to be good - much as we promise God that we will be obedient; we could not and cannot, in and of ourselves, live righteous and perfect lives. We believe that we need God's gift in of a Savior and that we are to all live with a powerful sense of our need for that amazing grace which is ours in Christ.

The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created humankind in His own image. God so loved (es) his creation that in the fullness of time Jesus (God in the flesh) came to give us life for all humanity. Therefore it is our absolute believe and practice to see all people as our brothers and sisters - our neighbors; every individual possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. (Psalm 8:4-9; Colossians 3:9-11).

The Way of Salvation
We believe that the clear message of salvation is “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). We believe that salvation is "by grace". We are all sinners and all fall short of being all that we need and ought to be. We believe that humanity is justified by faith alone and are accounted righteous before God only through the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12; I Peter 1:18-19)

We believe that all the redeemed, once saved are kept by God's power and are thus secure in Christ forever. We do understand that those who truly believe begin a new journey of transformation. We look to the letter of James for guidance in the matter of lifestyles that bring God glory and help us to be "Letters of Recommendation to others." We believe that eternal life is the promise of God to every believer - that when we leave this world there is another far more beautiful than we can ever imagine where we will receive new bodies and have the joy of Christ's light and Presence always. There, we pray, will be our loved ones also. (John 6:37-40, 10:27-30; Romans 8:1, 38-39; I Corinthians 1:4-8; I Peter 1:4-5; Jude 1, 2).

The Church
We believe that the Church is the body of Christ and the church's purpose is to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthe 28). We believe in 'Regenerate Church Membership' comprised of persons who have made a personal profession of faith and witnessed to this through either Believer's Baptism or Confirmation. In practice we have both autonomy and interdepency as a local church finding strength, growth, challenge and wider mission in the association of different churches gathering together for worship and mission.
Our congregational polity allows us to be free to determine and follow the will of God in matters such as admission and exclusion of members, our covenants and worship styles, the calling of a pastor, etc. At the same time we recognize our obligation to maintain a wider fellowship within which we give assistance, accept counsel, and work toward common ends. All members of the church should be involved in the total life of the believing community.
The New Testament doctrine of church calls upon the body to be a priesthood of believers covenanting with each other and with God to witness, to act, and to live out our faith together in a community of worship, nurture, fellowship, evangelism and service. It is through our concern, love, compassion, faith and inspiration that others will be guided to find strength and commit themselves to join us in Christ's church. We believe that the Holy Spirit is active in our personal lives and even more powerfully influential when we come together; one in heart, mind and desire to grow in our faith and our witness.

The Ordinances of the Church
We recognize the ordinances of baptism by immersion in water, or pouring of water; in a believer's sacred confirmation of his/her infant baptism and in the Lord's Supper as a time of confession, forgiveness, victory and the reconsecration of our lives to Christ's service. We dedicate or baptize infants and small children, according to the Christian tradition that is most meaningful for those bringing these little ones forward in the presence of the faith community.

The Return of Christ
We believe that one day Christ will return - the day and time not to be known. We believe that when this happens the old earth will pass away and the new Kingdom will come in all fullness. God will wipe every tear from our eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. We believe that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega - the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty He will give freely from the springs of the water of life." (Revelation 21, 22)
We do not know all that will be happening when Christ returns but we do know that we have nothing to fear when Christ is our Savior.