I believe in God who is the creator of heaven and earth. God crafted us in God’s image to glorify and enjoy God forever. I belong to God and will never lose God’s love even when my choice is to turn away and reject God. I am sinner. I defame what God has declared good, but I believe God is full of grace and mercy. When I think about God’s almighty nature, I am so overwhelmed by God’s power, that I get only a glimpse and long for more. I can barely grasp the power of a God who saved me from death for abundant life. I believe in God who is beyond my understanding, and who has been intimately revealed and made known to me in Jesus Christ.
I believe in Jesus Christ. For our sake, God became flesh and encountered all of the human experience. Jesus lived a life without sin so that our God would be made known. Jesus offers us this perfection in a way that we are made whole. Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice was to atone for the sins of humankind because we are unable to achieve this perfection. For our salvation, Jesus died on the cross, and his sacrifice bridged the gap between us and God. Christ descended into hell to demonstrate that there isn’t any place, thing or action that God will not do for our sake; Christ resurrected after three days to demonstrate God’s power over sin and death; and he ascended into heaven to demonstrate that Jesus Christ reigns victorious as our Lord and Savior. In scripture, we learn that Jesus is the only way to be in union with God. In Christ, we are promised eternal life. We proclaim Christ’s name until he comes again ushering in a new age in God’s eternal kingdom.
I believe in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us strength to repent from our sins and equips us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit supports us in overcoming our sinful nature and sets us afire to proclaim the good news of the Gospel and Christ’s saving grace. In our weakness, the Holy Spirit intercedes to help us overcome adversity. We come to learn the truth of God’s message in the scriptures through the Holy Spirit who aided in their development.
I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. The Holy Spirit calls people into community to worship God. The Church actively seeks to be a voice for justice, to love the act of loving the poor and oppressed, and to do all things humbly in the name of Jesus Christ. The Church is not an institution or a building on Main street, but rather the collective body of Christ coming together to give glory to God through worship, prayer, and service to others. We are called to live in response to God’s grace and to celebrate the promise of eternal life.
In worship, we are united together as one body of Christ to sing praise, pray for others and offer thanksgiving, publicly commit our lives to following Christ, experience the living Word through the reading of scripture and its exposition through sermon, and partake in the Sacraments. The Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist serve as a visible sign of the God’s presence and action in the world. Baptism demonstrates the death of our separation from God and the birth of our new life in Christ and incorporates us into the body of Christ. Eucharist reminds us of the Covenant of Grace we received, and we nourished and sustained to live our lives in service to Christ in the world. At the table, we are reconciled with God and others, renewed in the presence of Christ, and sustained by the Holy Spirit to live a life that reflects God’s great and wondrous work.
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