What We Believe

As a Christian church, we believe and confess all that God has revealed in His inspired and infallible Word, the Bible, which is our final authority in all matters of Christian faith, worship and living. Only the Scriptures perfectly reveal God's law and gospel. The law of God demands a perfect, personal righteousness and shows us our guilt and condemnation before God. And the gospel is the good news that God the Father has sent His eternal Son to take a human nature upon Himself in order to fulfill all righteousness for sinners. With this book, then, every claim to saving truth must perfectly comport. Nothing should be added to it or taken from it.

REFORMED CONFESSIONS ~ "...contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." Jude 3

Because we have this ultimate commitment to be faithful to the Word of God, we are also a confessional church. First, this means we confess the ecumenical creeds of the early church, which guard the undoubted biblical truths about the Triune God and the God-man Jesus Christ through four principle documents: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Chalcedonian Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.

More particularly, we are a confessionally Reformed church. The word "Reformed" comes from the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, when a host of Christians left the Roman church to recover biblical Christianity. The early Protestants used confessions to stand together upon the Word of God against all false teachings and man-made traditions. Our churches strive to do the same with these confessions of the Reformation in the Three Forms of Unity: the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort.

These reformation documents teach the infallibility and ultimate authority of the Bible, and summarize the Bible's teachings on God, creation, the law, sin, salvation, the church and the Christian life. But foremost among their contents is the Gospel -- that salvation from our sin and God's righteous condemnation of it is by His grace alone, through faith alone in the perfect righteousness of Christ alone, and all of this for the glory of God alone. (For a brief statement on Reformed confessions related to sola scriptura, read this two page article Reformed Confessions: Showing the Light of Scripture.)

WORD AND SACRAMENT ~ "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and... to the breaking of the bread" Acts 2:42

On the Lord's Day we joyfully gather as God's covenant people to receive the means of grace, those channels through which God freely grants to sinners both salvation and spiritual growth. The means of grace are the hallmarks of the church's ministry - the preaching of the Word because through it alone God promises to create faith (Rom 10:17) and to equip His people for every good work (2 Tim 3:17); and the Sacraments (Baptism and the Lord's Supper) because through these God promises to confirm us in our salvation through trust in Christ's work alone (Titus 3:5; Acts 22:16; 1 Cor 10:16).

Since God has made His covenant of grace in both Old and New Testaments with believers and their children (Gen 17:9; Deut 6:7; Luke 18:16; Acts 16:33; Eph 6:1), we administer baptism, the sign of the New Covenant, to unbaptized converts joining the church and to children of professing members (Col 2:11-12; Rom 4:11). The Lord's Supper is administered to the baptized who have made profession of faith and are members in good standing of a true church (1 Cor 11:20-34).

CHRIST-CENTERED PREACHING ~ "We preach Christ crucified... our wisdom, our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." 1 Corinthians 1:23, 30

The preaching in our church gives attention to the whole counsel of God but is always centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ, who has fulfilled the Old Testament hope (Luke 24:27) and is the substance of all the apostles' preaching (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). He is the bread of heaven and the only nourishment for our souls unto eternal life (John 6:50). Only preaching that regularly gives us Christ and His gospel will comfort and strengthen us in our life-long struggle against sin, the devil, and the world.

CELEBRATING THE LORD'S DAY ~ "Call the Sabbath a delight" Isaiah 58:13

The worship of God in Christ's church happens on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, not only because the resurrection and the coming of the Spirit happened on the first day, but also because it was the day on which the first Christians assembled (Luke 24:1; Acts 20:7). On this day we continue to assemble as the body of Christ, resting from our earthly labors in order to celebrate Christ's resurrection and to fellowship with our beloved brothers and sisters in the family of God. As strangers and pilgrims in this world, longing to reach our eternal city (Hebrews 11:16), we take advantage of the Lord's Day, treating it not as a burden but as a precious gift of God for our spiritual refreshment. On this day especially we begin already to enjoy the everlasting Sabbath rest which Christ has won and secured for us, and we also anticipate entering into that glorious rest fully when He shall return and bring an end to our labors (Hebrews 4:11).

SHARING OUR FAITH ~ "Always be ready to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you." 1 Peter 3:15

As those who are marked with the name of Christ, Christians are His witnesses in this world who should live for His glory in all we do. We therefore share the gospel with those outside the church through our lifestyle as well as our words, and pray with a genuine desire for the salvation of all sinners.

ACCOUNTABILITY ~ "In a multitude of counselors there is safety." Proverbs 11:14

Christians are not saved to live apart from the church by themselves but rather to be united to Christ as part of His body, the church, that they may together grow into Christ their head (Ephesians 4:4-13). Moreover, just as the apostolic churches submitted to one another, so also we belong to the larger body of congregations in the United Reformed Churches in North America (URC). We believe such accountability is mandated by Scripture because it is vital to the health and protection of God's flock, the elders of which are to give account for our souls (Hebrews 13:17), and the congregations of which provide aid as well as checks and balances for one another (Acts 15). Also, the creeds and confessions of our Reformed churches provide us with a basis to unite with the people of God across time and geographical boundaries.