What we believe

God

• We believe in one God, who created the world and all that is in it.
• We believe that God is sovereign; that is, God is the ruler of the universe.
• We believe that God is loving. We can experience God’s love and grace.

Jesus

• We believe that Jesus was human. He lived as a man and died when he was crucified.
• We believe that Jesus is divine. He is the Son of God.
• We believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and that the risen Christ lives today. (Christ and messiah mean the same thing—God’s anointed.)
• We believe that Jesus is our Savior. In Christ we receive abundant life and forgiveness of sins.
• We believe that Jesus is our Lord and that we are called to pattern our lives after his.

The Holy Spirit

• We believe that the Holy Spirit is God with us.
• We believe that the Holy Spirit comforts us when we are in need and convicts us when we stray from God.
• We believe that the Holy Spirit awakens us to God’s will and empowers us to live obediently.

The Church

• We believe that the church is the body of Christ, an extension of Christ’s life and ministry in the world today.
• We believe that the mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
• We believe that the church is “the communion of saints,” a community made up of all past, present, and future disciples of Christ.
• We believe that the church is called to worship God and to support those who participate in its life as they grow in faith.

Salvation

• We believe we are never accounted righteous before God through our works or merit, but that penitent sinners are justified or accounted righteous before God only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
• We believe regeneration is the renewal of man in righteousness through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature and experience newness of life. By this new birth the believer becomes reconciled to God and is enabled to serve him with the will and the affections.
• We believe, although we have experienced regeneration, it is possible to depart from grace and fall into sin; and we may even then, by the grace of God, be renewed in righteousness.

Heaven & Hell

• We believe all persons stand under the righteous judgment of Jesus Christ, both now and in the last day.
• We believe in the resurrection of the dead; the righteous to life eternal and the wicked to endless condemnation.