Our Beliefs
"Who do you say that I am?" - Jesus of Nazareth, to his disciples
The following is a sketch of our Christian beliefs. It certainly is not comprehensive, but it should allow you to understand where we're coming from.
Orthodox
We hold to the historic Christian faith. By "orthodox," we mean that we affirm the essential ideas of Christianity that have survived for two thousand years and have remained common across denominational and traditional boundaries. Together with our sister Christian churches around the world and throughout history, we confess the Apostles’ Creed as a concise expression of the core of our belief. We like to major in the majors and minor in the minors. We consider the Apostle’s Creed to contain “the majors.”
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I believe in GOD, THE FATHER ALMIGHTY,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
And in JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD:
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell.
the third day He arose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in THE HOLY SPIRIT;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting. |
 Reformed
We consider ourselves blessed to inherit the rich doctrine that has been passed to us through the “Reformed” tradition. This means that we are Protestant and embrace the Reformation ideas of Christ alone, faith alone, and Scripture alone. We adhere to the particular expression of Christianity that is found in the Westminster Confession of Faith.
Furthermore, we are Presbyterian. We believe God appoints elders to shepherd the church. We are a member of the Presbyterian Church in America, to which we hold ourselves accountable in matters of faith and practice.
Nevertheless, we mourn the divisions that persist within the worldwide church and pray as Jesus did for the time when a unified church will follow God as one.
Evangelical
We consider ourselves to be evangelical. This word can be understood (or misunderstood!) in different ways. We are not evangelical in a political sense, but in a more classic sense. We believe that the Bible is authoritative in all matters of life. And we believe that humanity may relate personally with God through Christ. This does not mean Christianity is a mere private religious preference, but that it is simply true - like gravity. As a result, we unapologetically proclaim to everyone the good news that Christ, our risen savior, is king.
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