Submitting ourselves to the claims of Jesus Christ, together we
seek to honor Him, embody His presence and proclaim His gospel with
authenticity, humility, and love.
Our
Mission Explained
Submitting Ourselves
means we are followers first. Our identity and purpose is
determined by the one who calls us to follow him.
The Claims of Jesus Christ means that we value Jesus'
statements about himself more than our own statements about him. We are
convinced the claims of Scripture are true and that they transform our
lives.
And Proclaim His Gospel means we actively communicate what
we believe;
that the message of
God's love and grace revealed in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection
is the means by which we are saved from sin.
With Authenticity, Humility, and Love means that we
acknowledge our own brokenness and need for God, yet we remain
unequivocally devoted to the cause of Christ and our delivery of his
gospel message.

Beliefs
▪
A Brief Statement
of Faith
▪
In life and death we belong
to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of
God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune
God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve.
We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God. Jesus
proclaimed the reign of God: preaching good news to the poor and
release to the captives, teaching by word and deed and blessing the
children, healing the sick, and binding up the brokenhearted, eating with
outcasts, forgiving sinners, and calling all to repent and believe the
gospel. Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition, Jesus was
crucified, suffering the depths of human pain and giving his life for the
sins of the world. God raised Jesus from the dead, vindicating his
sinless life, breaking the power of sin and evil, delivering us from death
to life eternal.
We trust in God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father. In
sovereign love God created the world good and makes everyone
equally in God's image male and female, of every race and people,
to live as one community. But we rebel against God; we hide from
our Creator. Ignoring God's commandments, we violate the image of
God in others and ourselves, accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor
and nature, and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care. We
deserve God's condemnation. Yet God acts with justice and
mercy to redeem creation. In everlasting love, the God of Abraham
and Sarah chose a covenant people to bless all families of the earth.
Hearing their cry, God delivered the children of Israel from the
house of bondage. Loving us still, God makes us heirs with Christ
of the covenant. Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child,
like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is
faithful still.
We trust in God the Holy Sprit, everywhere the giver and
renewer of life. The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us
free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor, and binds us
together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the church. The
same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles rules our faith and
life in Christ through Scripture, engages us through the Word proclaimed,
claims us in the waters of baptism, feeds us with the bread of life and
the cup of salvation, and calls women and men to all ministries of the
church. In a broken and fearful world the Spirit gives us courage to pray
without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and
Savior, to unmask idolatries in church and culture, to hear the voices of
peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and
peace.
In gratitude to God,
empowered by the Spirit, we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks and
to live holy and joyful lives, even as we watch for God's new heaven and
new earth, praying, Come, Lord Jesus! With believers in every
time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Amen.