Statement of Faith

Triune God
That there is one God, infinitely great and good, the creator and sustainer of all things visible and invisible, the one true source of light and life, who has life in himself and lives eternally in glorious light and sovereign love in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14) – co-equal in nature, majesty, and glory.

Holy Scripture
That God has spoken and continues to speak in and through Scripture, the only infallible, inerrant, and sufficiently clear rule and authority for Christian faith, thought, and life.

Human Beings
That God communicates his goodness to all creatures, but in particular to human beings, whom he has made in his own image, both male and female (Gen. 1:26-27), and accordingly that all men, women, and children have been graciously bestowed with inherent dignity and creaturely vocation.

Sexuality
We believe God created humanity, male and female, reflecting the image and likeness of God. Each person’s biological sex has been sovereignly appointed by God and is an irreversible aspect of his or her nature. We hold to the historic orthodox Christian understanding of marriage, and we believe that the behavioral expression of human sexuality is intended only to take place within the covenant of marriage between a man and woman.(Gen. 1:27,31)

Fallenness
That the original goodness of creation and the human creature has been corrupted by sin, namely, the self-defeating choice of the first human beings to deny the Creator and the created order by going their own way, breaking God’s law for life (Rom. 3:23).

Jesus Christ
That Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God become human for us and our salvation (John 3:17), the only Mediator between God and man, born of the virgin Mary, one person with two natures, truly God and truly man.

The Atoning Work of Christ
That God who is rich in mercy towards the undeserving has made gracious provision for human wrongdoing, corruption, and guilt, provisionally and typologically through Israel’s Temple and sin offerings, then definitively and gloriously in the gift of Jesus’ once-for-all sufficient and perfect sacrificial death on the cross (Rom. 6:10) in the temple of his human flesh.

The Gospel
That the gospel is the good news that the triune God has poured out his grace in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that through his work we might have peace with God (Rom. 5:1).

The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
That the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, the unseen yet active personal presence of God in the world, who unites believers to Christ, regenerating and making them new creatures (Tit. 3:5) with hearts oriented to the light and life of the kingdom of God and to peace and justice on earth.

The Church
That the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church is God’s new society, the first fruit of the new creation, the whole company of the redeemed through the ages, of which Christ is Lord and head. The truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is the church’s firm foundation (Matt. 16:16-18).

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
That these two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which some among us call “sacraments,” are bound to the Word by the Spirit as visible words proclaiming the promise of the gospel, and thus become places where recipients encounter the Word again.

Holy Living
That through participating in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as well as prayer, the ministry of the Word, and other forms of corporate worship, we grow into our new reality as God’s people, a holy nation (1 Pet. 2:9, 10), called to put on Christ through his indwelling Spirit.

Last Things
That in God’s own time and way, the bodily risen and ascended Christ will visibly return to consummate God’s purpose for the whole cosmos through his victory over death and the devil (1 Cor. 15:26). He will judge the world, consigning any who persist in unbelief to an everlasting fate apart from him, where his life and light are no more. Yet he will prepare his people as a bride for the marriage supper of the Lamb, giving rest to restless hearts and life to glorified bodies as they exult in joyful fellowship with their Lord and delight in the new heaven and the new earth. There they shall reign with him and see him face to face, forever rapt in wonder, love, and praise.