What We Believe

We believe in one God in three Persons. Traditionally, these Persons are named Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but They have been known by a number of other names that describe their roles as well.

As the Father/Creator, we believe that God created the universe and all that is.

As the Son/Redeemer, we believe that God actively came into the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who was the Christ. Jesus journeyed with us as one of us, lived as one of us, and died on the cross that we might know the fullness of God’s love for each of us.

As the Holy Spirit/Companion, we believe that God still participates in the world, drawing us on toward a community where everyone can enjoy full membership, regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic class, mental or physical ability, or any other distinction.

We believe that God made the world and called it good. The world was beautifully and wonderfully made, a complex interweaving of living and material things. Through our personal choices, we turned from God and what God desired the world to be.

And yet, God has not abandoned us. In fact, God chases after each one of us and desires to know us fully, just as we might fully know God. God actively seeks to redeem the world from death and injustice.

We believe that evil is the absence of God, not a polar opposite to God. As a result, evil cannot, and will not, triumph in the end, but will be conquered by God.

God wants each of us to know God more fully. Through the course of history, through prophets, apostles, and most intimately through Jesus Christ, God has continually revealed Their plan to us through prophetic visions and poetic narratives.

We acknowledge the 66 books of the Protestant bible, divided into two Testaments, as authoritative in revealing God’s actions to us. These divinely inspired books are just as relevant today as when they were written. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, they give us wisdom to handle today’s issues.

We believe the church is not a building, but worldwide fellowship of people seeking to follow the Way of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Just like any family, we have occasional disagreements, but we are united in our desire to bear witness to God’s grace and be the hands and feet of Christ in the world.

We believe that through the Spirit, God equips each one of us for a particular ministry in the church and in the world. Some of us are called to ordered ministry, some of us to lay ministry, but all ministries are equal in importance.

We believe in two sacraments, which serve as visible signs of God’s invisible grace.

In the sacrament of baptism, we admit new members of any age to the church. We celebrate this sacrament in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit through sprinkling with water, symbolling Jesus’ own baptism in the river Jordan.

In the sacrament of communion, we are reminded of Jesus’ last supper with His followers and His enduring presence with us. We celebrate this sacrament with wafers and grape juice, symbolizing the bread and wine that Jesus shared with His friends.

We believe the core of the church’s message is hope: God is with us in the high points and low points of our lives. The church exists to bear witness to that hope, to God’s inevitable victory over evil and darkness, and that the world will be set right. While we acknowledge that there is much work to do, we engage with the faith that none of it is in vain.