We believe God inspired the authors of Scripture by his Spirit to speak to all generations of believers, including us today and, thus, it is without error. God calls us to immerse ourselves in this authoritative narrative communally and, individually, to faithfully interpret and live out that story today under the leadership of his Spirit.
In the beginning God created all things good. He was and always will be in a communal relationship with himself – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created us to be relational as well and marked us with an identity as his image bearers. God created humans in his image to live in fellowship with him, one another, our inner self, and creation.
The enemy tempted the first humans, Adam and Eve, and as they chose to disobey God, darkness and evil entered the story through human sin and are now a part of the world. This devastating event resulted in our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation being fractured and in desperate need of redeeming.
We believe God did not abandon his dream for his creation; rather he promised to restore this broken world. That restoration began in his Son, Jesus the Messiah, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, mysteriously God having become flesh.
Jesus came to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted and set captives free, proclaiming a new arrival of the Kingdom of God, and setting in motion the restoring of our fractured world.
He and his message were rejected by many. Yet his path of suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection has brought hope to all creation. Jesus is our only hope for bringing peace and reconciliation between God and humans. Through Jesus we have been forgiven and brought into right relationship with God. God is now reconciling us to each other, ourselves, and creation.
The Spirit of God affirms as children of God all those who trust Jesus. The Spirit empowers us with gifts, convicts, guides, comforts, counsels, and leads us into truth through a life of devotion and growth in the way of Jesus.
The church is rooted and grounded in Christ, practicing spiritual disciplines and celebrating baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The church is a global and local expression of living out the way of Jesus through a missional initiative of love, peace, sacrifice, and healing as we embody the resurrected Christ, who lives in and through us, to a broken and hurting world.
We believe the day is coming when Jesus will return to judge the world, bringing an end to injustice and restoring all things to God’s original intent. God will reclaim and renew this world and rule forever. The earth’s groaning will cease and God will dwell with us here in a restored creation.
This is what we long for. This is what we hope for. And we are wholly committed to living out that future reality now.
|
