Belief
We are not out to convince you that all this necessarilly “makes sense.” It is however the only thing that we believe can make sense of everything else.
We are not out to convince you that following Jesus is easy, but we would like to suggest it makes life less impossible.
Jesus
We believe in Jesus Christ
We believe he is God in human flesh born of Mary,
We believe he lived among us
preaching the good news to the poor
he died on a Roman Cross
and rose again from the grave
to free us from the power of evil and death
As we seek through grace to be more like Jesus
and grow in his likeness
we also look confidently for the day
when he will return in glory as Judge and Savior of all.
The Father
By knowing and believing in Jesus
we understand that His Father,
the creator of all that is,
who called Abraham and Sarah
who freed the children of Israel from slavery
who spoke through the prophets of justice and mercy
who loves humankind with an everlasting love
who raised Jesus from the dead
is our Father too
The Holy Spirit
Jesus promised to us who believe in him
that his spirit
the Holy Spirit be would with us always
to lead us in the path of perfect freedom
The Trinity
We believe these three persons
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
are all one God
living eternally in mutual love
The Church
We believe there is one church
of which Christ is the head and founder
and all who are baptized
in the name of the Trinity
are Christ’s body on earth
called to spread abroad the love of God for the world
The Gift that Jesus gives
We believe that Jesus came into the world to heal a broken humanity
from the bondage to death, evil and sin
we believe that salvation is a gift freely offered
which can not be earned or repayed
The Holy Scriptures
We believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God
showing us God’s holy love and guiding us in the paths of peace
We believe that God loves and lives in all of us God is present in pain and joy, in beautiful moments and boring moments. We believe that God can be found among us, in community, in everyday interactions with one another, no matter how mundane.
We believe that God is found in vulnerability and incompleteness. Vulnerability and incompleteness open us to each other. Whether we are perfect or whether we make mistakes – this tells us nothing about our real value. Our real value is in God, as God’s children and God’s friends.
We believe that the message of the cross can reach us, even in emptiness and pain. Just as death did not separate Jesus from God or from his friends, nothing will separate us from the Life of God who created us.
We believe that where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.
Having the mind of Christ is not about trying to arrange our thoughts so that they agree with cookie-cutter ideals religious, political or otherwise. Trying to be our own thought police – or the thought police of others – is a waste of time. God reveals himself to us in ways that we can not always anticipate or understand. Our task is to watch, to pay attention, to be faithful to the truth, even when the truth is dim and fuzzy and we have no idea what we see.
We believe that life in God is found in celebration, in feasting, in music and beauty. We strive to seek and celebrate things that are beautiful. We believe that worship is a celebration of ongoing Resurrection, Resurrection breaking into the lives of all of us – a true occasion for thanksgiving.