What we Believe

What do we believe?

We believe many things. The sky is blue. Grass is green. The sun comes up in the east and sets in the west. We believe that people are valuable. That it is important to play well with others. That together we can do more than we can apart. That all people should be well (although there is broad variety of understanding on how to best accomplish that).

At the core of our beliefs as a church, we believe that we are saved by grace through faith. This statement is basically a concise way of summarizing our understanding of the relationship between God and people. It comes from the Bible, and it looks like this.

In the beginning, God created all things good.

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good… (Genesis 1:3-4)

Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so…And God saw that it was good.  (Genesis 1:11-12)

God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.  (Genesis 1:25)

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them…God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. (Genesis 1:27 & 31)

But people were not willing to cooperate with God’s plan.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. (Genesis 2:15-17)

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.  (Genesis 3:6)

Not only did the first people of creation disobey God, but since then, all others have followed in their footsteps, as it says in Romans,

“…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”  (Romans 3:23)

Still, God loved people so much that God was not willing to let us be destroyed by our own stubbornness.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  (John 3:16)

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.  What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.  The Father and I are one.”  (John 10:27-30)

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 6:23)

Those who believe that God made us and loves us seek to live as part of God’s community on earth

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.  (Romans 6:3-4)

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.  (Hebrews 10:24-25)