WHAT WE BELIEVE
We are centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the gloriously great Good News of what God has graciously and mercifully done in the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, securing redemption and deliverance, forgiveness of sins and perfect righteousness for all who trust in Jesus Christ by faith alone.
Each of us have different interests, opinions, and viewpoints. We embrace exploration, dialogue, and questioning. But we hold without wavering to a core of three areas: What the Bible is, Who Jesus is, and How we are saved. These areas comprise the core of the church, and is the unity that connects us, even as we diversely explore other areas of truth and life.
BIBLE
We believe that the Bible is the authority for life, is inspired by God, and is the foundation of the church. The Bible, including the Old and New Testaments, is God-given revelation produced through God-given authors, and through this Word we find the truth of the Word, Jesus Christ, our Savior.
The Bible is how we know about Jesus. Without a high view of the Bible, our community would degrade to being led by force of personality or man-made argument. Instead we gather to understand the truth revealed in Scripture, and are willing to change our own views and opinions as we more clearly grasp truths laid out in the Word of God.
JESUS
We believe that the Bible is about Jesus. The person and work of Jesus is critical to us. We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, is the revelation of God, our redeemer and deliverer. He lived a perfect life, suffered and died on the cross, was raised from the dead, and lives right now in relationship with us.
Jesus is the gospel, he has saved us, it is finished, he is our message. Our community emphatically agrees on the rock we stand on. That rock is Christ. Much of our worship and study is aimed at increasing our awareness and understanding of our amazing savior.
SAVED
We believe that we are saved by faith alone, by grace alone, through Christ alone. We are not saved by our good works but by trust in the one whose works are truly good. We are united to Christ by the Spirit. This understanding of salvation is the emphasis of the Bible and is foundational to our local body.
Without this unity on how we are saved, we would quickly lose the very thing that makes us a community. We would compete and tear each other down as we compared each other's works and efforts in self-salvation. By grounding ourselves on the truth as laid out in the Bible, we have real assurance, hope, and love.
THAT'S IT.
These three areas are our core. They form one larger whole, as Bibliology, Christology, and Soteriology are significantly intertwined: we believe that the message of the Bible is Jesus, and that Jesus is the author and finisher of our salvation. Though this is our emphasis, we believe other things too. Feel free to click on the Statement of Faith below to read more doctrine.