Statement of Faith

What we have written below may sound a little different than a typical statement of faith. You might be hoping for something clearer and more direct. Feel free to contact us for specific questions. It is our joy to assist you.

What is written below does not contain all we have come to know. It isn’t a neat and tidy list of commonly accepted phrases. We hope you will find it biblical and true to your experience - and perhaps even helpful. We also hope it ignites a curiosity and wonder within you.

Because God is worth pursuing.

Every life has purpose and meaning.

Everything we experience is a revelation or “revealing” of God.

God is glorious like the sun. His attributes and characteristics shine the light of his presence upon everything. In all that we see, think and feel - God is there. God is not someone or something that we have to find. You are seeing and experiencing God right now. In order to bring God into focus we need to remove what hides the light of his presence from our eyes. We need to “tune-in” to the God who is already there.

How do we do this? Truth opens our eyes to reality.

Life is not just a matter of survival. It isn’t a competition or some moral test. Life reveals God. In our life experience we can either look for God or seek instead to get as much out of the experience for ourselves as we can. Knowing God and experiencing union and fellowship with him is far and above any other “good” thing. What keeps us from this blissful union are the things that distort God or detract from him.

God the Father created and sustains the world through the Word of Christ. The universe was quite literally spoken into existence. There is only one God - and the fullness of him dwelled within his son, our Lord Jesus the Christ. Jesus is God revealed in human form.

Jesus took on flesh so that he might perfectly walk according to righteousness. This means he followed all the rules for us to fulfill what we could not accomplish on our own. Jesus literally lived the life we could not live on our behalf. His life counts for those who follow him. He is our new representative. He had to do this because our original representative, Adam, did not walk according to righteousness. When Adam disobeyed God humanity and all creation descended into darkness.

God allows sin so that his glory might be fully known. How could we know mercy if we never required mercy? How might we know of God’s grace if we were always deserving of his love? How might we know of his forgiveness if we never sinned? When Adam sinned we all became part of a cursed family. Sin is a curse and so there is illness, disease and difficulties.

All attempts made by man to redeem himself and end the curse have failed. In spite of our best efforts mankind still suffers from the thorns and thistles, the pains and trials, the heartaches, diseases and ultimately death.

Jesus not only perfectly lived the life that Adam and all mankind could not live, but he also died the death we deserve.

Jesus, a man who himself was not sinful, willingly took the curse of sin upon himself and offered himself as a sacrifice to the Father. This was always God’s plan from eternity past. Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, took away the sin of his followers by taking the full punishment for sin upon himself. He was the only worthy sacrifice. Sin was therefore cancelled, its debt satisfied. God’s perfect justice was fulfilled along with the requirements of the law and the testimony of the prophets. Jesus, being himself perfect, could not continue to face condemnation. He never turned away from the Father. He willingly endured the cross for the joy set before him.

Who can judge God? For what crime? Jesus acted out of pure love to take on the curse of sin for us. This is the way God decreed redemption was to happen - who are we to say it should have happened differently? Jesus became a sin sacrifice but never sinned himself. Only he could do this as only he was sinless. In this way he also became a new representative for us - as not only does his perfect life count for us - but now his death and his atonement for sin count for us also.

This means those whom Christ represents are blameless and righteous before God. This is what it means to be “in Christ.” Not only this, but being in Christ means we leave Adam’s family and become sons and daughters of God, coheirs with Christ.

How do we join the family of God and become those “in Christ”?

By faith. God calls us to him as we believe the good news about Jesus. If anyone wants to be a disciple of Jesus he tells us to deny ourselves, pick up our cross daily and follow him. This means we are to stop searching for our own life and instead begin following the God who gives us true life. We go from emptiness to fullness of life.

The greatest joy is found within the love of God. Here we come to know lasting peace.

Following Jesus is pursuing the Father because if we have seen Jesus then we have seen the Father. To know Christ is to know God.

We believe God calls people out of the world to follow him. These are the church, the very bride of Christ. The church glorifies God. As we follow Jesus we become more like him. Our journey is one of unity with God. As we pursue God we shed off the worldly, fleshly exterior so that the image of God within us shines forth as a reflection of the light of Christ. We then bear fruit and radiate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Not only do we live lives that demonstrate these fruits but we experience them in our being. This experience is the love of God filling our heart and minds in Christ Jesus. We live because God breathed life into us. We can know of God because his image is within each of us. Every life is precious.

God’s redemptive plan is what we call the Gospel or the good news of Jesus. Those who desire to know God and to be near him see their need to be cleansed from sin and the world. We also see our inability to accomplish our own redemption no matter how much we try. Even if we had multiple lives or a purgatory to suffer in how could we come to be perfect so that we might dwell with the perfect One? We cannot ascend without the help of one who descended and ascended again. Jesus is the only one to descend to earth, take on flesh, represent man, live for us on our behalf and die the death we deserve. He took on our sin and our punishment. Having completed his work he ascended back to the Father where he rules heaven and earth. He will return one final time to judge the world and restore all things.

To be “in Christ” we must be born again into the family of God. This happens when we place our faith in Jesus. He requires nothing but that we turn from seeking our own lives and follow him. We must trust in Jesus to be saved from the judgement coming to the world for disobedience. Christ is the door, the way to eternal life. We have life in him. There is no other name under heaven by which any can be saved.

God is mysterious and seems hidden, yet all of life is a revelation of God. If any seek him they will find him. We only need to open our heart’s eyes to see God has been here the whole time.

We have come to believe these things through the historic and supernaturally preserved testimony found within the pages of the Bible. Without the help of the Holy Spirit we are all destined to turn the words of life into legalistic rules or a set of fundamental life principles. Knowing God is much more alive and supernatural than religion often demonstrates. Life in God is an amazing experience.

We invite you to come and learn. See what the Bible means when it says to “walk by the Spirit.” We invite you to speak with us about God so we might help you on your journey to knowing. We walk this path together. This church is not the authority. All authority is Christ’s and we are his possession. To be possessed by Christ is to be loved by him and to love him. To be one with him is to experience perfect unity and peace.

Come, taste and see that the Lord is good.