What We Believe

Whether we realize it or not, every single one of us wakes up, each and every single morning, and steps into a particular story. That story includes your own assumptions about who you are, what your purpose is, what the world is like, and where everything is headed. 

Christians believe that the gospel is not simply one story among others that people can choose to live within if it happens to work for them. We believe the gospel is the one true story that answers the most fundamental questions we face each day. 

And what kind of story is it? It is a story at the center of which is a God who is good beyond our imagination, a God who pursues people who are far away from him. This God has sought us out, though we've run far from him, and he has done this through the person and work of Jesus. This is the gospel: that Jesus lived a perfect life, that he died to bring us back to his Father, and that he rose again from the dead so that the end of our story is hope. And by placing our trust in Jesus, we begin to live in the one true story and come alive through the power and kindness of its Author. 

God's mercy is his not giving us what we deserve. Because our hearts turn away from him, we deserve the natural and just result: permanent alienation and separation from him. But God has not left us to the end we deserve. He has pursued us with undeserved kindness and compassion. And the end we deserve, he took upon himself through Jesus' death on the Cross. Looking at our distress, brought on by our own rebellion, God did the opposite of what the world does and what we so often do. He did not hold our sins against us. He showed us mercy. 

And that means our life as Jesus' people should be characterized by the same kind of mercy. Because he has shown us mercy, we must show mercy to one another. As Jesus perfectly proclaimed and embodied God's mercy to the world, so we are to proclaim and embody his mercy to the world. 

The identity of the church doesn't start with us. Our identity is rooted in God, himself. And so, describing "who we are" as a church always begins with who God is, what he has done, and what he is doing in the world today. And God is truly at work in the world, bringing people into his kingdom. Therefore, our identity as a church is not so much about us, but instead about God. It's about his rule over this world as its merciful king.

So, who are we? We are a witness to a reality that exists apart from anything we do. God is king, and his kingdom has come through the person and work of Jesus. As his people, his church, we are simply called to point to that reality. And that makes a world of difference to how we view ourselves as a church. We are not a community of people exhausting ourselves to "make something happen." We are people who are learning to place our trust in who God is and what he has accomplished. We are learning to receive his merciful rule over us and over everything, and then we respond by pointing back to him through our words, our work, our lives, and our love.