What We Believe

So, you ask, “Ok, if I show up at one of your services, am I going to be faced with some wacky beliefs or are you guys legit?"


Well, to dispel any fears that you may show up on “Elephant Sacrifice Sunday”, here’s a short summary of the things we think are essential. (Note: This is a work in progress, and we don't profess to have God totally figured out!)

• The Bible: We really, really like the Bible! It’s God’s love letter to human beings. The Bible is God's words as given through normal folks. God reveals His nature, His love, and His way of bringing us new life. The Bible is also what we use to decide what we should believe and how we should behave. You’ll often hear us say things like “What does the Bible say about that?” and/or “How does the Bible back that up?” In fact, the rest of this page is really just stuff we got from the Bible.

• God: OK, basically, we see that the Bible shows us that God’s very being, while being one, is three. (Confused yet?) God is the Father. God is the Son (Jesus Christ). God is the Holy Spirit. All three are God, and God is all three. God is the creator of all things. God is the head of all things. God judges all things. God reveals all things. God is love. God is full of grace and mercy. He’s super smart (omniscient), super strong (omnipotent), and super everywhere (omnipresent).

• The Heavenly Father: God, the perfect parent. He totally loves His children and wants the best for them. The Father is that parent. He's Father of all creation. He’s willing to sacrifice anything for us...even his own Son. (See below.) He loves to gives us good things but also wants us to grow up properly. http://fathersloveletter.com

• Jesus: God with skin on. God then comes to earth in the form of Jesus. He’s a completely normal human being, but he’s also God and the Son of God at the same time. He then takes the punishment on himself (after not doing anything sinful... ever) that belongs to us so that we could have a restored relationship with Him. By doing this, he defeats the power of sin and death forever and allows for all creation to be made new. He then offers to give us the right to take advantage of what he did for us, with no strings attached. In other words, there is nothing you can do to make God accept you, except to accept what He did for you! It’s our faith in what He has done that allows us to miss the penalty of sin (death) and experience the new life in Christ right now! Oh, and by the way, Jesus will be coming back some day. (We have no idea when though. Sorry.)

• The Holy Spirit: God in us! He was present from the very beginning of time. The day you become a Christ follower (a.k.a. Christian, child of God, born again, regenerated, saved, disciple of Jesus, believer... you get the picture), God comes to live inside of us via the Holy Spirit. His job is simple... make us holy (clean, different, “set apart”). He lives in us and helps us to become more like Jesus. He also helps us develop skills and gifts that we can use to serve God in ministry. (Ministry is just a fancy word for “doing stuff that God likes that helps other people”.) The Spirit works actively to bring all things together for the good of those who love God. He works in the world, in the lives of communities, and in the lives of individuals to bring about the things God wants.

• Sin: Yes, the three letter four letter word. Nevertheless, we all know that sin is real and that we all do it! Mankind is infected with it (as is obvious by watching the news), and is kinda hopeless to do anything about it. Had God not provided a solution to this problem (see the Jesus paragraph), we’d be, well, toast.

• Satan: He’s real. He wants to steal, kill and destroy. However, his bark is worse than his bite...thanks to the fact that he’s a defeated foe. He’s not happy about that. Still, we need to be wary of his tactics but definitely not scared of him.

• Church: It turns out that the place God wants us to learn about him and become like him... is the church! The church is just a local bunch of Christ followers who come together to serve one another, love one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, sharpen one another, and care for one another! Without getting together in an assembly like this, the Christ follower will lose touch with God. It’s weird... but that’s what happens. It’s kinda like when you take one log out of a fire and set it off by itself... it just goes out. God created us to be in constant contact with other disciples of Jesus. It’s what keeps us sane, healthy, happy, and humble.