OUR VALUES

Links to our Sermons on our Core Values

Our Foundational Beliefs:

GOD’S PLAN

• We believe God created the cosmos to be good, beautiful, and full of purpose. In the midst of this world, God made a man and a woman—Adam and Eve—to be His unique representatives on the earth, bearing His name and extending His reign while living in dynamic relationship with him. 

  • Genesis 1-2; see also Psalm 8:1-9

• However, Adam and Eve chose to sin when they heeded the voice of evil and betrayed God, hurling all humanity and the good world in which they lived into devastating cycles of shame, guilt, and fear—culminating in death. 

  • Genesis 3; see also Romans 8:18-25

• But God chose not to abandon his rebellious creation. Instead, He graciously called another couple, Abraham and Sarah, to lead a faithful family and promised that through them all the nations of the earth would be blessed. 

  • Genesis 12, 15, 18; see also Romans 4:1-25, Galatians 3:1-29, and Hebrews 11:8-22

• Throughout history, God has continued to work toward redemption through His people in spite of their habitual inability to live according to His ways.

  • Exodus 32-34, the books of Judges, Amos, Hosea; John 8:31-59, and Romans 3

JESUS

• We believe that in the fullness of time, God sent Jesus Christ, His eternal Word and true Son, into the world as a man to announce and embody the presence of God’s restorative reign—His Kingdom breaking into brokenness. Furthermore, He invited a new group of followers (called “disciples”) to imitate His way of life and learn to love both God and neighbor. 

  • For a glimpse into the calling and heart of the disciples’ lives, see Luke 5-1

• This same Jesus was crucified like a common criminal, surrendering His sinless life as a ransom for many and drawing all evil onto Himself in His death. 

  • Isaiah 52-53, Matthew 20:26-28, John 11:45-53, 2 Corinthians 5, 1 Timothy 2:5-6, Hebrews 9-10, 1 Peter 2-3.)

• On the third day, however, God raised Jesus back to life as the victor over evil and the physical first fruit of God’s future for His cosmos.

  • For the stories of the resurrection and insight into its meaning, see especially Matthew 28, Luke 24, John 20-21, and 1 Corinthians 15.

  • For more about Jesus’ victory over evil, see Psalm 110, Matthew 12:22-29, Ephesians 6, Colossians 2:13-15, Hebrews 2:14-18, 1 John 3:4-10

• We believe Jesus is now at his Father’s right hand, reigning from heaven as the true King. He is inviting all people everywhere to trust Him for forgiveness and freedom from shame, guilt, and fear because He is our unique source of life both now and forever. In addition, He has given His Spirit to supply direction and power so that we might live fully in the special identity and destiny He has prepared for each of us.

  • John 13-17, Acts 1-3, Romans 8, and Ephesians 2-3

GOD’S KINGDOM

• Today, we live as a community of God’s people on mission together, seeking to love God and follow Jesus by making disciples in the neighborhoods, nations, and next generation around us. By relying upon the unfailing, active grace of God’s Spirit and upon His entirely trustworthy Scripture, we embrace the often challenging but always hopeful adventure of sacrificial love, selfless generosity, and healing kindness to which God calls us. 

  • Matthew 28 contains Jesus’ definitive commission to make disciples

  • Acts shows a generation of the early church’s efforts to obey the commission

  • Passages affirming the trustworthiness of Scripture include Matthew 5:17, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, and Hebrews 4:12.

  • Likely the clearest description of a life of love, generosity, and kindness can be found in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7

• The Kingdom is full of joy, so we like to laugh.

  • Deuteronomy 14:26, Isaiah 55:12, Romans 14:17, Philippians 4:4-9, Revelation 5:1-14)

• We believe Jesus will return and remake the world, judging and removing every last trace of evil in order to complete the new creation that God began on the first Easter.

  • For glimpses into God’s good future for the cosmos, see Isaiah 60-66, 1 Corinthians 15, and Revelation 21-22

CREEDS WE BELIEVE:

Giving Liturgy

Each Sunday, we recite this Giving Liturgy as a congregation to remind us that the gifts we receive are given to us by God, and we strive to steward those gifts well through tithing and aid. Our vision is to continually grow in generosity and graciousness.

Questions you may be wondering:

What is our view of the Bible?

We believe the Bible is God’s entirely trustworthy, inspired, and authoritative Word to his people, and we take seriously its numerous commands to read, memorize, discuss, teach, and obey it. Doing so means engaging the text prayerfully and carefully. We believe that God’s inspiration worked through human authors whose character and historical context profoundly shaped the Scriptures we read today. Therefore, we labor to connect the living Word of the ancient text to the dynamic circumstances of our daily lives. Ultimately, this means following all of Scripture’s prose and poetry as it flows like rainfall toward a single, infinitely deep well of living water: Jesus Christ.

What is our position on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit?

We believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as outlined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12, have not ceased and are to be used with joy, wisdom and discernment in the life of the local church. We believe the gifts are given by God to strengthen His church and build up all believers. 

How do we live out God’s heart for justice among peoples of diverse ethnicities, generations, and cultures?

We see our world’s profound need for healing among diverse peoples, and we are committed to  labor in the present toward God’s promised future: a redeemed community bound together by  the love of Christ and representing every nation, ethnicity, race and language (Rev. 7:9). 

As a Family of Churches, we recognize we cannot accomplish Jesus’ command to “make  disciples of all nations” without engaging multi-ethnic discipleship and real cross-cultural  friendship. These relationships are built upon our recognition of universal human dignity (Gen.  1:26-28) and repentance from our universal rejection of God’s design that results in  dehumanization, structures of inequality, and even enslavement of others (Is. 53:6, Rom. 3:23).  While this may seem an improbable task, the Apostle Paul tells us that the reconciling work of  Jesus Christ tears down hostility and opens the way “to create in himself one new humanity”  (Eph. 2:14-15, NIV). Therefore, within our church communities, we refuse to tolerate any kind of  racial or ethnic discrimination, bias, or prejudice. Beyond the church, we are compelled by the  love of Christ to fight injustice wherever we find it as we serve and speak out on behalf of the  poor, oppressed, vulnerable, and forgotten (Luke 4:18-19, Prov. 31:8-9, Is. 58:1-12). 

Finally, we will persevere in this work no matter the difficulty because we are confident that in  the not-too-distant future Jesus will return to judge justly, wipe away every tear, and make all  things new (Rev. 21:1-5).

What is our view of Marriage & Sexuality?

Across our churches, we affirm the Biblical design of marriage from the beginning as being a covenant between one man and one woman, and that sexual intimacy is reserved for the marriage relationship. At the same time, we face very real and very complex ministry contexts in which we are learning how best to share the Good News of Jesus with every person - regardless of sexual orientation. All people live in our beautiful but broken world, and all people long to discover love and relationship, and wholeness. We unapologetically believe that Jesus is the way (and the truth, and the life) toward that wholeness, and so our primary focus is meeting Christ so that He may speak into, and heal, the wounds that are common to all human experience.

What is our view of Women in Ministry?

We believe that spiritual gifts are not gender-specific and that the Holy Spirit releases gifts of leadership to both men and women. Our challenge, then, is to disciple and empower both men and women in their areas of gifting within a local context to maximize the impact for the Kingdom of God. Practically, this means we value the God-given capacity of women to lead without limitation.