Confession of Faith
We don’t have a long list of doctrines that we insist everyone agree with. There are, however, a few core commitments and values that we share together, and they’re expressed below as our Confession of Faith.
As individuals and as a Christian community, we believe that God is, God always was, and God always will be. God is one. God is three. God is three-in-one. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of Life.
God is love. In love, God created all things, seen and unseen. God delights in creation, calling it very good. In love, God created humanity, male and female, in God’s likeness and image. God delights in humanity, calling us very good. In love, God created humanity for love; of God, each other, and creation.
God desires to be known – while infinitely mysterious – transcending the limitations of human understanding and language. God is absolute truth and ultimate reality, yet our knowledge is partial and our experience incomplete. We humans can know of God only what God reveals to us.
Jesus is God. He is the fullness of God’s Self-revealing love in human flesh. Jesus is Redeemer. His death is the fullness of God’s Self-giving love in atonement for sin.
Jesus is Lord. His resurrection is the fullness of God’s Self-reconciling love, the promise of human resurrection and eternal life.
The Holy Spirit is God. Who, in grace, seeks and searches and draws all people to God. Who, in love, surrounds and indwells and guides. Who, in power, frees and sanctifies and transforms. Who, in hope, comforts and reconciles and renews, and will resurrect, all those who offer themselves to God in love, by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Church is the body of Christ. A living mystery. An organic community. Embodying God’s love in the world. We are one, we are many. As many-in-one, we worship God with our whole lives, so that God’s Reign may come on earth as it is in heaven.
The Bible is a revelatory gift from God to the Church. The written word of the Living Word, interpreted through the guidance and illumination of the Holy Spirit in both the individual believer and the community of faith. Because we believe these things, we affirm that:
Human existence is not meaningless… but finds its ultimate meaning, as Jesus said, in loving God with our whole beings, and our neighbors as ourselves. Human longings can be fulfilled, and human brokenness can be healed, beyond human imagination, through personal relationship with Jesus our Lord, personal involvement in the community of Christ’s body, and personal engagement with the world God loves and longs to fully redeem.
Every human life is important to God… so every human life must be important to us. Creation is important to God so creation must be important to us. No human creed or doctrine can ever be the complete or final word about the eternal Word. Our Christian brothers and sisters have often understood God’s revelation, and the experience of God, differently than we do.
- We affirm that we remain one family, and we honor them in love, even when we disagree.
- We respect their understandings and convictions, even when we do not share them.
- We value humility.
- We value unity before unanimity or uniformity.
- We affirm here only those matters of faith we regard as essential to our God-given identity and mission as a Christian community of faith.
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:12-13