What We Believe About the Bible

The Bible is God’s inspired Word, in which He speaks to us and reveals Himself, His love and His desire for us.

What We Believe About God

  • We believe in the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  We acknowledge one God in these three persons.
  • We believe that God the Father created the universe.  More than that, He created us and continues to provide and protect His creation.
  • We believe that Jesus Christ is God’s only Son, true God and true Man.  Jesus lived a perfect life, took the punishment we deserved for our sin and died for us on the cross, rose again on Easter, and lives and rules in heaven.
  • We believe that the Holy Spirit changes lives, brings people to faith and keeps them in faith, and is alive and active through the Word and the Sacraments.

What We Believe About Us

We believe, as the Scripture says, that all of us are sinful people.  We cannot earn or achieve our forgiveness and salvation.  We are solely dependant on God for a saving relationship.  United Methodists believe we are born totally sinful, and yet, we are also born into God’s grace and love.  This is God’s prevenient grace, “the grace that comes before” – before we are aware of it.  God is always with us.  We may not know it, or we may reject or rebel against God.  But God continues to work in our lives to bring us into right relationship.  Therefore, God gave to us His Son, Jesus Christ, so we can be saved from sin and be put back in right relationship with God.  His death on the cross and His resurrection makes salvation possible.  In our baptism, and through our faith professions, we accept the fact that God has accepted us and forgiven us.  This is known as justification, or salvation by grace alone, and by faith alone.  This is also when sanctification and transformation begins…we are now marked as God’s children…and we are called to live like it.  God continues to work through Word and Sacrament helping us to be more like Jesus in our behaviors toward God and others, and overcome the entrenched patterns of sin.  Wesley referred to this as going on to holiness, or going on to perfection.

What We Believe About the Sacraments

We believe that God uses a “means of grace” or “a delivery system” to bring His kindness and love to us.  Besides the spoken and written Word of God, God comes to us in Baptism and Holy Communion.

We believe that through the waters of Baptism, God forgives our sin and adopts us as His own.  Through baptism, God gives the gift of new.  Baptism is something that God does – not something we do.  We practice both infant and adult baptism.  We also accept baptism performed in other Christian churches.  We do not re-baptize, as this calls into question the validity of God’s original gift at baptism.

We believe that in Holy Communion Jesus is present with His body and blood in the bread and wine.  In Holy Communion Jesus brings us forgiveness of sin and the promise of life and salvation.  We also practice “an open table” which means you need not be a member of our denomination or local church to participate in Holy Communion.  In communion we are reminded that “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again,” and in doing so has created a way for us, who are sinners, to be in covenant relationship with God, who is perfect.

What We Believe About the Church

We believe the church is not a building, but people joined together by God Around His Word and Sacraments.  We are passionate about the mission God has given us to bring His love and message to all people.  We are committed to share the message of Jesus Christ with those not yet connected to Him so that they will know Him.  We are dedicated in disciplining people so that they will know more about Jesus, serve Him effectively, and join us more fervently in that mission.