The historic Christian faith, held with open hands.
We stand in the faith of the apostles, summarized in the Nicene Creed and shared by Christians across every century and continent. What follows is what we hold in common with the whole church, and how we hold it here.
What the whole church confesses.
Written in 325 and completed in 381, this creed has been confessed by Christians of every tradition ever since. We say it together when we gather. "Catholic" here means universal.
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
What that means for us.
The creed is the frame. These are the convictions we teach from, in plain language.
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God
There is one God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God made all things, holds all things together, and is good. The world exists to be loved and known by its Maker.
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Scripture
The Old and New Testaments are God's word written: inspired by the Spirit, trustworthy, and the final authority for what we believe and how we live. We read them the way the church always has, in their historical context and with Christ at the center.
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Jesus and the gospel
Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human. He lived the life we could not live, died for our sins, and rose bodily from the dead. In him God forgives, defeats death, and begins making all things new. We are saved by grace through faith, not by anything we achieve.
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The Holy Spirit
The Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity: not a force, but God himself, present with us now. He convicts, comforts, gifts, and forms ordinary people into the likeness of Christ, most often through ordinary means: scripture, prayer, the table, and one another. He is the reason for our name.
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Human beings
Every person is made in God's image and is an integrated whole: body, mind, and spirit. We are also broken, individually and together, and cannot heal ourselves. Grace restores what sin has damaged, and God uses every good tool, including what we've learned about the mind, to do it.
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The church
The church is the people of God across every century and continent, and this local church is one family within it. We gather for worship, the word, and the table, and we scatter to serve our neighbors. Belonging here means being known and showing up for one another.
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Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Jesus gave his people two visible signs of his grace. We baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as the mark of entry into Christ and his church. We come to the Lord's Table together as the place where he feeds and renews his people.
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Hope
Christ will return. The dead will be raised, everything wrong will be put right, and God will dwell with his people in a renewed creation. Until then the church lives as a preview of that future: forgiven, generous, and present in the world.
Convictions, without the combat.
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Historic first
Where the whole church has spoken together, in the creeds, we don't improvise. We'd rather stand in a two-thousand-year conversation than start a new one.
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Generous where Christians differ
In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity. You'll find people here from many church backgrounds, and that's on purpose.
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Honest about what's in process
We're a new community. On some secondary questions we are still discerning together, slowly and prayerfully, rather than posting a paragraph we haven't yet lived into. If you have a specific question, ask Rick. He'll give you a straight answer over coffee.