Jesus is the head of our church, and His Word is the standard for how we live — as individuals and as God’s family — for the glory of God. Below are brief statements for each of the essential Christian beliefs that we hold as a church and that are foundational to following Jesus in loving, faith-filled obedience.
We partake of the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. If you are a baptized believer, we welcome you to His table.
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At the center of our life together as a church are our practices regarding the Scriptures. We offer mid-week bible studies to dive into Scriptures, we exegetically follow through books of the Bible, and our pastor is deeply committed to Christ-centered, expository preaching.
By this term we simply mean the apostolic and classically protestant practice of preaching sermons which are based on a careful explanation and application of consecutive texts of biblical books, with a special emphasis on declaring how the Scriptures reveal the glory of Jesus Christ on every page.
We emphasize this form of preaching because we believe the Scriptures, as the Word of God, are a true means of grace for God’s people, and as such, the preacher must submit himself to the text, not the other way around.
Our form of government is presbyterian in nature; or, in other words, our church is governed by elders.
Presbyterian comes from the Greek word meaning, simply, “elder.” Paul emphasized a plurality of elders in the early church (Titus 1:5; Acts 20:17).
An elder is a biblically qualified man who has been nominated, trained, examined, and ordained to oversee the affairs of the church. The Bible gives explicit qualifications for such men (1 Tim. 3:1-7).
Triune: The Christian understanding of God as three persons united in one essence.
God the Father is the creator of all things, visible and invisible, sustaining and providentially ruling over creation in an active relationship of love. Through God the Son, whom we know as Jesus Christ, God redeems a people for himself and restores his creation. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, God is present to us, making us more into the image of Jesus Christ. All of this is done “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:6).
Reformed Christians have a high view of God’s sovereignty, a belief that “nothing happens in this world without God’s orderly arrangement” . But we don’t believe God uses that power carelessly. Instead, we emphasize God’s loving providence, which explains that God makes all things work together for our good (Romans 8:28).
God’s sovereignty is exercised as God sustains “heaven and earth and all creatures” and in the particular way that God “gathers, protects, and cares for the church through Word and Spirit. This, God has done since the beginning of the world and will do to the end”
We believe that “God created heaven and earth and all other creatures from nothing” and gave “all creatures being, form, and appearance”. The book of Genesis affirms the original goodness of God’s creation; after each piece of creation, the narrative notes that “God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1).
In the creation narrative, God creates humans on the sixth and final day of bringing things into being. Although we are part of creation, we are unique in that God formed humans in His image. No other creature bears the image of God. Humans were also given a specific role, to tend and keep the rest of creation.
God’s intention for creation was that everything live together in harmony. God longs for humans to “truly know God their creator, love him with all their heart, and live with him in eternal happiness for his praise and glory”
Total depravity: the belief that, because of the fall, human nature is deeply corrupted by sin.
Original sin: belief that since the fall of humanity into sin, all humans have inherited a sinful nature.
Human beings started out with the ability to follow God’s will perfectly. God sculpted us in his own image, as mirrors of God’s goodness, justice, and holiness.
But we chose to turn away from God. Our disobedience “so poisoned our nature” that all of us are wired from birth to be sinners. And the sin of humans caused all of creation to be “subjected to futility” and put “in bondage to decay” (Romans 8:20, 21). All of the perfection of God’s original creation has been undone as a result of humanity’s rebellion against God.
We’re broken, and it’s impossible for us to fix ourselves. No matter how hard we try to do the right thing, “sin constantly boils forth as though from a contaminated spring”. Without God’s grace, we “are neither willing nor able to return to God”.
God’s justice demands that our sin be punished. But only someone who is both “a true and righteous human,” and “also true God” could ever pay the price for the sins of humanity.
Atonement: reconciliation with God, from whom sin divides us.
Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, came to earth to reconcile us with God. Jesus became human and lived a life without sin. Then he sacrificed his life in our name.
By suffering death on the cross, Jesus took the punishment our sins deserved.
His death “is the only and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins; it is of infinite value and worth, more than sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world”.
Three days after Jesus died, he rose from the dead. Through his resurrection, Jesus conquered death so that anyone who believes in him can join him in everlasting life.
Justification: to be made right in the eyes of God.
Even in our best moments, our actions are stained with sin. Yet out of sheer grace, God gives us the righteousness of Christ. Christ wipes our record clean. It’s as if we have never sinned.
In other words, we are justified by faith, not by anything we’ve done. Our righteousness is in Jesus. We couldn’t live a perfect life ourselves, so he lived a perfect life for us. Faith is the “instrument by which we embrace Christ.” It “keeps us in communion with him and with all his benefits”.
Unconditional election: belief that God has chosen people to save in advance and prepares their hearts to receive the
gift of salvation; God offers this gift to people not based on their merit but as an act of undeserved grace.
We’re so trapped in sin that we cannot find our way back to God on our own. As Christ says, “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me” (John 6:44).
God gives us the faith to accept salvation as an act of undeserved grace. We receive this gift without any consideration of the things we’ve done. Our merits and strength have nothing to do with it.
You cannot lose the gift of salvation
Faith in Christ isn’t a gift God will take away from you. God preserves the seed of our faith in times of doubt. And no matter how badly we sin, salvation in Jesus covers us.
“God’s plan cannot be changed; God’s promise cannot fail; the calling according to God’s purpose cannot be revoked”. If God has chosen to give you the gift of salvation through Christ, you cannot lose your salvation. Even though you might stumble in your faith and make mistakes, the Holy Spirit’s seal on your heart can’t be invalidated or wiped out.
Sanctification: belief that those who are justified by faith in Jesus are continually being made more holy through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Christ’s blood doesn’t just redeem us for what we’ve done in the past. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, true faith in Jesus reshapes our hearts to better match the heart of Jesus. This continual process of being made more holy is called sanctification.
It is impossible for holy faith to be unfruitful. After all, we aren’t talking about an empty faith. We’re talking about what Scripture calls “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). This faith moves people to do by themselves the works that God has commanded in the Word.
Becoming more like Jesus doesn’t mean we can be our own salvation. We still sin. And even a tiny speck of human selfishness, corruption, jealousy, or pride would disqualify a work from being worthy of salvation in God’s eyes.