My Statement of Faith

Credo

1. The Holy Scriptures

I believe that the Scriptures are the primary and final rule for life. They are the inspiration of God given through human authors. They are his self-revelation. They are inerrant in their original manuscripts. The Bible contains the Old and New Testaments, consisting of sixty-six books.

2. The Nature of Our Triune God

I believe that our one God eternally exists as three persons: Father, Son & Spirit. These three persons are co-equal, ever-giving, ever-self-sacrificing, perfect love. Yet, there exists a hierarchy within the triune relationship, as the Son submits to the Father and the Father will one day put all things under the authority of the Son.

3. The Father

I believe the eternal first person of the Trinity has chosen to reveal himself as our Father. He is not only our Creator to whom we are accountable for our lives, he is our Father who gives us his life in Jesus Christ. He is our tent, while we journey through this vile world he loves so much. He is our destined home, when at the end of time we become his tabernacle.

4. Jesus Christ

I believe Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. He was conceived in the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. He is both fully God and fully Man. He came to reconcile humanity to God and to teach us the ways of God. He brought about this reconciliation through his perfect and sinless blood in his execution on the cross, which paid the sin debt humanity owed to God. In Jesus the God’s wrath is fully satisfied. He defeated death, when he was resurrected in spirit and body. He ascended into heaven and now serves as our high priest and advocate before the Father. He will one day return in final victory and judgment, ushering in the full restoration of the whole of creation. He is both our savior and lord.

5. The Holy Spirit

I believe the Holy Spirit is the eternal third person of the Trinity. He fully indwells the Church and the believer. He works to transform the believer from a sinner into the righteousness of God. He works to empower the believer for godly living, ministry in the Church, and ministry in the world. He works to bring about maturity and unity in the Church. He is ever with us to give us the fellowship of God. He is at work in the world, promoting the righteous image of God, restraining Satan and evil, and convicting people of sin and of their need for God.

6. The Church

I believe the Church is the temple of God, where the Holy Spirit lives. In the Church people experience the forgiveness of sin, reconciliation to God, and transformation into the image and righteousness of God. In the Church people experience healing and wholeness from the brokenness of the world. In the Church people are reconciled to one another. Worshipping God as he intends is his ultimate purpose for us all. It is in the Church, where we are transformed and are enabled to worship God as he intends. The Church is God’s mission of redemption and justice to the world. The Church is the world-wide group of followers of Jesus Christ.

7. Salvation

I believe the whole of the cosmos (all of creation) was the creation of God. All of the cosmos was good. In particular humanity was created separately from the rest of the creation to bear the image of God. Through the disobedience of our first father, Adam, sin entered the creation and has seriously wrecked everything. Humanity fell from grace and fellowship with God.

Without the initiative and work of God humanity is hopelessly lost and cannot even choose to return to God. However, God the Holy Spirit, is at work in the world, restoring a semblance of God’s righteous image and restraining Satan and ultimate evil.

God has sought to reveal himself to humanity through his word and through his Son, Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus Christ that the sin debt of humanity is paid. It is God’s desire to draw all of humanity back to himself in reconciliation and redemption. This occurs through the blood payment of Jesus and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

When anyone calls on the name of Jesus for the first time, they are declared righteous on behalf of the blood payment of Jesus for their sin. This is initial salvation. From that moment of conversion the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the Church remakes the believer into the full righteous image of God, bringing complete healing and wholeness. This takes place over the lifespan of the believer and is known as the process of salvation.

One day Jesus will return in final victory and judgment to fully restore the whole of the creation back into what God originally intended. He will reign forever over his creation and in the midst of his people. This is the final victory of salvation. These three parts of salvation are inextricably bound together and are together known as “full salvation.”

8. The Life of the Believer

I believe the ultimate purpose of the believer is to properly worship God. The full and proper worship of God is a whole of adoration of him and complete obedience to his will and way; all in the salvific context of knowing him through deep, intimate experiencing of him. This full and proper worship of God happens through the various meeting times and experiential happenings of the congregation and in my individual life, where I am enabled by the Holy Spirit to attach the deepest recesses of my heart to the struggles and joys in the heart of God.

The believer is called by God to minister to fellow believers, helping them to better worship God and deepen their faith. The believer is also called by God to minister to people in the world, promoting his glory and justice, and bringing unbelievers into salvation.

The believer is called to be in the world but not be of the world. As the believer is progressing in salvation, the believer should look more like Jesus and less like the world … internally. Thus, the believer must be careful about the worldly influences where he lives, works, and plays. Yet, the believer must not shrink from engaging with the world.

9. The Sacraments

I believe that the Holy Spirit is physically active in our lives, as we live in the Church. There are activities we regularly practice, in which the Holy Spirit uses as powerful tools to especially minister the process of salvation to us. These are known as sacraments. Sacraments are not optional for the believer. God’s grace is free to us, but we must access those engines of his grace. Among these are regular Scripture study, prayer, active ministry to other people, and trials & tribulations. These are to be accessed both individually and corporately.

There are two special Sacraments which were instituted by Jesus for the common and consistent practice of the Church.

One of these is water baptism, which signifies death to sin & the old way of life and rising to enter the newness of life in Jesus Christ to be lived in the Church in the world. This event is to be engaged by new believers, following conversion to the new life of actively following Jesus Christ. Though this is a one-time event, it is relived everyday as the believer seeks to live as worship unto Jesus in the Church in the world.

Another of these special institutions is Holy Communion (aka. the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper). In this practice believers eat wafers and drink wine (or some proper substitute). In so doing believers celebrate the kingdom of God. In celebrating the kingdom of God, believers remember the death and resurrection of Jesus, their former state of sin & isolation from God, their salvation, their unity in the Church, and the promised return of Jesus Christ.

Holy Communion actually works in conjunction with Baptism, helping to secure the unity of the community of faith to daily live out the baptized life. While these two are powerful tools for internal anchors of the soul, we believe the Holy Spirit uses these opportunities to exact powerful ministries of grace in the faithful seeker-practitioners.

10. Christian Opposition

I believe that a powerful being, named Satan, stands in firm, physical and unceasing opposition to God and his Church. Satan commands a mighty kingdom, consisting of powerful soldiers, known as demons.

The world is that domain of Satan. It is the environment where we all were indoctrinated to a certain extent in sinful and harmful patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting. These harmful patterns, dispositions, and actions are all sin. Even once in the Church, believers have dire need of the Holy Spirit to work the world out of them and give them victory over sin.

Opposition is the opportunity to shine brightly for God, particularly when opposition involves other people.

11. The End

I believe that Jesus will one day return in final and full victory over Satan and his domain. His will bring about full restoration of the creation. He will also bring final judgment. All people will be resurrected. His people will rise to be judged for how they lived their lives in service to and worship of God and service to the “least of these.” These people will enter into his eternal glory. Those who are not his people will stand in condemnation for rejecting him. Those people will enter into eternal punishment.

12. Faith

I believe that belief is not synonymous with faith. Faith is belief driven to action for a purpose. Therefore, having correct “beliefs” but little or no good works renders faith dead. Likewise, exercising good works, even powerful good works, while possessing little belief, incorrect doctrine or vile creeds, also renders faith dead.