I believe in the Triune God. Traditionally, this is a reference to the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. However,
these are metaphors; it is the only way we can try to comprehend an infinite
God using finite language. The Scripture
is full of rich metaphors that describe the different ways we experience the
God who encounters us. God is a father,
a mother, the Creator, the Sovereign.
Jesus is our Savior, our Lord, our brother, our high priest. The Holy Spirit is our guide, our companion,
an advocate, the one who empowers us.
The wonder of the Christian Faith is that we are not left to our own
devices to find God. God has taken the
initiative to come to us, and will be with us always.
I believe that we live enmeshed in
broken relationships: with God, with
others, within ourselves, and with our world itself. The result is fear, alienation, war, abuse of
each other and of our planet, and despair.
The Good News of the Gospel is that through the life, death, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ, we are given the gift of new and abundant life, both here and
hereafter. As we pattern our lives after
that of Jesus, we see that reconciliation is possible, peace and justice are
our calling, love is shared, and hope is attainable.
I believe that the Bible is the inspired
Book without equal for us, the sourcebook of our faith and our life. A gift that our Reformed tradition offers the
larger Church is not so much what we believe about the Bible, but how we
understand inspiration. We believe that
God was active in inspiring the authors of the biblical books. God inspired rabbis and bishops gathered together
in the early centuries of the Common Era as they determined, respectively, the
canonical books of the Hebrew and Greek scriptures. The Spirit inspires translators who wrestle
with meanings of ancient words and the selection of texts from which to draw
those words. The Spirit continues to
inspire us as we study and discuss, drawing on our best scholarship and our
most faithful spiritual practices in discerning what God is saying to us
through the scriptures today. I believe
that inspiration is an ongoing, dynamic action of God in the Church and in our
lives.
I believe that the Church is the
body of Christ in our world today; we carry Jesus with us wherever we go,
whatever we do, and however we interact with others. We are called to follow and serve him within
particular communities of faith. True to
our heritage, Presbyterians believe that the Church should be about the tasks of
making the proclamation and hearing of the Word of God primary in our worship,
celebrating the Sacraments as Christ’s claiming and nurturing gifts of grace to
us, and living out the belief that good order better serves our communal life
and witness than does chaos.
I believe that God is especially present
with us when we celebrate the Sacraments of Baptism and Communion. These sacred acts are, as Augustine described
and the Reformers affirmed, “outward, visible signs of inward, invisible
grace.” Through our celebrations of the
Sacraments our worship is enriched, our faith is encouraged, our service is
empowered, and God is glorified.
I believe in what the Book of Order calls “the great ends of
the Church” – the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind;
the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the
maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of the truth; the promotion of
social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. As we focus our energies and resources in how
best to live these out in our rapidly changing world, I believe we will be
faithful disciples and servants of Jesus Christ our Risen Lord.
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