Beliefs

It all begins with the God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – who reveals Himself in the Bible. We are a community of faith, a community of believers: we believe God when He tells us His Word is true without error and fully trustworthy; we believe that everything He says is profitable for instructing us, reproving and correcting us, and training us in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). Our life together revolves unapologetically around His Word. It is our final authority for belief and practice. It’s the light under which we live.

Our response to the God who reveals Himself in the Bible is worship. Worshiping Him is the center of our lives; it’s the source from which everything else flows. We enjoy the best of the ancient traditions of Christian worship, learning from the reverence of our forefathers; and we do so vibrantly, with lively enthusiasm, for God is the God of the living, not the dead. We look forward to hearing His Word read and preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, and we rejoice in the climax of worship at His Table every week. For us, there is no worship that does not end in eucharist, in a joyful fellowship of thanksgiving.

The heart of the Bible is the story of God’s grace to the world in Jesus Christ. As believers, we love this story. We love God’s grace and want to be a grace-filled church. We want God’s grace in Jesus Christ to shape the way we read the Bible; after all, Jesus did say the whole Bible is about Him (Luke 24:25–27, 44–47)! We want God’s grace in Jesus to shape the way we live: it’s no small thing to have been saved from sin and death through the death and resurrection of God’s Son, to have been made children of God and citizens of His kingdom – and we want to act like the people God has told us we are, not only in our relationship with Him, but also in our relationships with each other and with the world.

Out of worship flows our life in community. We are under no delusions about how hard it is to share life together as God’s people in the 21st century, but we are determined to pursue full obedience to Christ’s command, “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:13). Because we worship together at the feet of one Lord in the bonds of one Spirit, one faith, and one baptism, we can eat and drink, work and play, weep and laugh, struggle and study in the presence of God and each other; and in this way we hope to reach unity in the faith and in knowing God’s Son – to reach maturity, the full stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:1ff).

Out of this life in community around God’s Word will flow, according to His promise, a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. We are a generational church: we worship together as families; we learn together as families; we take seriously the callings of father, mother, parent, child, and sibling. We aim at nothing less than the fulfillment of God’s promise that His Spirit which is upon us, and His words that He has put in our mouths, will be in the mouths of our offspring and their offspring after them, from now to eternity (Isaiah 59:21); and we embrace all of the duties this promise imposes on us.

It is our calling and privilege to take this life in community under God’s Word to the streets and neighborhoods of our world. It begins next door to every one of us. By the way we live in the world, by the way we act toward those we meet every day, we bear the light of Christ and lift Him up, with confidence that He will draw the poor and needy to Himself.