Who we are

We are a people formed decisively by the past

From before the creation of the world, God the Father chose us and loved us in his Son. Jesus is the eternal Son of God, who steps into history and shares in our humanity. Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit while his mother, Mary, was still a virgin. As the Son of God, Jesus came to make God known. As the Servant of God, Jesus came to undo the corruption of humanity and the divine curse on creation caused by the first man, Adam. He came to liberate us from our devastating self-love and to rescue us from the consequences of our ongoing willful refusal to love God and others. Jesus fulfilled the promises made by God to Israel and realized all that Israel was called, but failed, to be. He gave us a glimpse of the world to come, calling the people of God to follow him and to demonstrate the goodness of his rule by their shared lives.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus lived the life Adam and the rest of humanity could not live. And through the Holy Spirit, Jesus died the death that Adam and the rest of humanity deserve to die. On the cross he endured and exhausted God’s righteous anger against our rebellion, paying its penalty in full. Jesus rose physically from the dead, proving the effectiveness of his death. His resurrection is the promise and beginning of God’s new world.

Jesus then returns to his Father in heaven, from where he now rules over all creation. He sent his Spirit to apply all that he achieved on the cross. The Spirit now equips us as God’s people to live for Christ and speak of him, so that others might submit to his gracious reign. In this way, Jesus sovereignly gathers his church as he rescues those the Father has given him.

We are a people living joyfully in the present

God has given his Spirit and word to his people to equip us to serve him in the world and to bring us to his future.

God the Holy Spirit is the giver of life, the one who convicts of sin and the creator of saving faith. He is the one who opens our eyes to see the beauty of Christ so that through the Spirit we willingly embrace God’s grace. He is the one who gives us new hearts to turn to Christ and trust him. The Spirit sets us apart for Christ and makes us more like him through the word of God.

The Holy Spirit is the author and interpreter of the Bible, which is God’s word to his world concerning his Son, Jesus Christ. While the Bible reflects the characters and circumstances of the people who wrote it, the Holy Spirit so superintended the writing process that the words written by human authors were the exact words God intended for them to write. So the Bible is a completely true and reliably witness to God and his plan of redemption. Because it is the word of God, the Bible is the final authority in matters of
conduct, questions of life, and issues of truth.

Under the word of God, we live together in union with Christ as his church. God is presently littering the world with local expressions of this church. As the church, we celebrate our cultural diversity while enjoying our unity in Christ. Gospel-believing churches act as outposts of God’s Kingdom and as a means of grace to a needy and dying world. God has given us the task of making the good news of Jesus known to those without God and without hope in the world. Our community life ought to give others a foretaste of what God has in store for his world. So, by word and life, we model and offer reconciliation to those alienated from God by their willful rejection of him. We call people to turn from despising God and urge them to trust in Christ. Without Christ, people face only the judgment of being forever cut off from God and all that is good. It is by grace that we live in the present as forgiven sinners and eagerly look forward to a future in the presence of our Jesus, our Savior.

As those welcomed, forgiven and accepted, we become a community of those who welcome, forgive and accept. We respond to the gospel in baptism, expressing that we have become part of the people of God. The Lord’s Supper is the meal we regularly share together to celebrate the work of Christ and express that we have been joined together in the family of God. Our shared life proclaims the Lord’s death until he returns to make good the invitation to his eternal banquet.

We are a people longing eagerly for the future

We are waiting for the arrival of a new heaven and earth, which God will bring about through his transforming power. A day is coming when Christ will come again to establish his reign of justice and freedom. He will create the home we were made for—from which sin, Satan, and death will be banished forever.

In renewed bodies in a renewed creation, we will live as God’s people in unbroken relationship with God and with each other. At the center of everything will be the one God, eternally self-existing as God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the presence of our creator and redeemer, we will find life as it is meant to be—full and satisfying—as we live out the purpose for which we have been made: knowing God and enjoying him forever.