Statement of Beliefs
I believe in God Almighty, expressed as three distinct persons but of one being: Abba my creator, Jesus my savior, and Holy Spirit my guide.
I believe that God created us to be in communion with God just as God is in harmony with Godself. Three and yet One. We were created in God’s image, and we have different tongues, hues, and thoughts. We see and experience the world in ways that no single human could ever understand or withstand.
I believe that Abba authored creation through the Word and has revealed Godself to us in scripture. Scripture is a love letter that opens doors, sets tables, and welcomes the community. Through the Bible, God speaks to us with stories of sinners, teaching us that God is bigger than our failings and is calling us to life. Though created to be in communion with God and one another, we cannot choose goodness on our own. We are conditioned toward self-satisfaction and self-destruction.
Throughout history, God has called us, but our sin has distracted us. As we learned from the prophets, God made covenants with God’s people promising them a place at the table. Still, people consistently walk away from that welcome. Both the proud elder and younger prodigal siblings of this world do not realize that God is waiting on the front porch.
As our prophet, priest, and teacher, Jesus instructed us to gather and love God and neighbor. Relying on the Holy Spirit, we learn from and emulate the teachings of Christ. We mark our entrance into the community of believers with baptism and receive God’s grace every time we break bread. Our calling is to remember that the Holy Spirit, though separate from us, resides in all those we interact with and, just as important, to remember that the Holy Spirit also dwells in us.
One need not look further than the Last Supper to understand the promise of a new heaven and a new earth. Jesus sat down with the disciples and made it known that one of them would betray him. He then took bread, blessed it, and poured the wine welcoming Judas the betrayer, Peter the denier, Thomas the doubter, and the remaining not-so-innocent disciples. They are all forgiven before committing their sins and are explicitly promised a place at God’s table. If Jesus did not deny even Judas from that table, who would we exclude from this table?
I believe that God is calling all people to a transformed life in Jesus Christ by accepting God’s grace and the Spirit’s work. Upon his death, Jesus went to the land of the dead, and then he rose again. Indeed, there is no place in existence that God has not touched, so there is no place without God. Our task is to co-restore the kin-dom of God, a world where our past lives do not give us prestige or privilege above others.
I believe in God Almighty: Abba, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, who created us and all that we know, giving us the charge to care for all that we witness, who accompanies us as we stumble, and who raises us, tilting our heads towards a new and more hopeful life today.