What is the gospel?

The gospel is the good news that God, in Christ, saves sinners. This news begins with God who created a good creation. He is holy, perfect, and altogether good. Sin is the rebellion to doubt and forsake God’s goodness expressed in transgressing His Holy Word. The consequences of sin are separation from God, corruption of nature, death, and eternal damnation. In Christ, God has created the world and holds it all together. And in Christ, God is remaking a new creation through his death, burial, and resurrection. God sent His Son to die for sinners so that they might be made right with him and enjoy eternal fellowship with Him. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ. Salvation is for all who would call upon the Name of the Lord and involves the forsaking of sin, the turning to Christ with eyes of faith, and the following of Christ in obedience to His Word.

What does it mean to be a Christian?

A Christian is united to Christ by faith and saved out of the domain of darkness and transferred into the marvelous light of the kingdom of God. A Christian is made right with God through the accomplishment and application of the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. A Christian has turned from sin in repentance and turned to Christ in faith and given new life, forgiveness of sin, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. A Christian has God as his Father, the Son as his Brother, and the Spirit as his Comforter. This is what it means to be a Christian in the truest and deepest sense. At the same time, there are other senses in which someone may be referred to or consider themselves “a Christian.” For example, a person could be a member of a Christian nation, institution, or family and be called “a Christian” because of these natural connections and yet not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7:21–23). That is why, ultimately, it is the first sense that truly matters.

How do you know if you are a Christian?

You know you are a Christian because of the assurance that God, in Christ, saves sinners and the Holy Spirit has awakened you to this glorious good news for you (1 John 3:24; 4:13; 5:6). You know that you have eternal life because (1 John 5:13): you love God (1 John 3:16; 4:7–12, 16–21; 5:1–2), you believe and confess that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God (1 John 3:22–25; 3:23; 4:2–3, 14–16; 5:10–12), you walk in his ways and keep his commandments (1 John 1:7; 2:3–6, 17, 29; 3:23–24; 5:1–5), you know the truth (1 John 3:19), you recognize and confess your sins (1 John 1:8–9), you do not make a practice of sinning (1 John 3:6–10), you love others (1 John 2:10; 3:11–18; 4:20–21), you do not love the world (1 John 2:15–17), and he abides in you and you abide in him (1 John 2:6, 10, 14, 17, 24, 27, 28; 3:6, 9, 15, 24; 4:12–16; 5:20).

What kind of Christians are you?

The best way to get to know us is to spend time with us. Worship with us, eat with us, and hear our stories. Our lives are the testimony that the truth of God has taken root among us.

We confess and believe together with our fathers in the faith and our brothers throughout the world with whom we share “one Lord, one faith, and one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5). We pray, like our Lord in John 17, that we would be sanctified in the truth which is His word, and that as we would believe this word of truth we may all be perfectly one as the Father and Jesus are and ever have been. Because of this, we are not keen on adopting and promoting labels that divide us from other Christians. At the same time, we also recognize the value of clarity being descriptive can provide. We hold to the distinctive truths of the Protestant Reformed confessions, knowing that many faithful Christians have differed with portions of these confessions. We uphold these confessions as faithful summaries of Scripture, not as a means of dividing with Christians who differ, but rather to make a faithful and charitable testimony of what we believe Scripture to teach. Learn more about our doctrinal commitments here.

If we were to use labels, probably the best way to describe us is that we are conservative, evangelical, and reformed.

What does it mean to be Conservative?

We are conservative in that we hold to the inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of Scripture. We affirm all the miracles and “weird things” in the Bible like angles/demons, giants, Egyptian plagues, Jonah, and the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We hold to traditional sexual ethics, practice historical-grammatical-redemptive exegesis, take early dates and stated authors for biblical writings, and respect historical tradition. In other words, we want to “conserve” or “guard” truth. As Paul put it to Timothy, “I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you (1 Timothy 1:12–14).

What does it mean to be Evangelical?

As Michael Reeves puts it in Gospel People: A Call to Evangelical Integrity, “Evangelicalism is defined by the evangel (euangelion being the Greek word for “good news”). Evangelicals are ‘gospel people,’ or people of the evangel . . . It is a commitment to the good news of Jesus Christ found in Scripture” (14–15). Historically, the concept of evangelical was a recognition that there were ‘gospel people’ across various Christian institutions and denominations. For us, it is a way to acknowledge that the most important aspect of someone’s identity is their relationship with Christ by faith.

What does it mean to be Reformed?

We heartily affirm “Salvation belongs to the Lord” (Psalm 3:8; Jonah 2:9). J. I. Packer explained it this way, “God saves sinners. God—the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of Father and Son by renewing. Saves—does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies. Sinners—men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless, powerless, blind, unable to lift a finger to do God’s will or better their spiritual lot. God saves sinners—and the force of this confession may not be weakened by disrupting the unity of the work of the Trinity, or by dividing the achievement of salvation between God and man and making the decisive part man’s own, or by soft-pedaling the sinner’s inability as to allow him to share the praise of his salvation with his Savior” (“Preface” of Death of Death by John Owens). Therefore, with hearts full of gladness and gratitude to our Lord, we joyfully affirm that sinners are made right with God by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone as proclaimed in the Scriptures alone. The Cambridge Declaration provides a great summary and application of this “reformed” truth.

What is your position on Baptism and the Lord’s Supper?

Our fellowship is made up of households with varying convictions on the timing and mode of baptism, as well as the timing of the Lord’s Supper for children. We have credobaptist, paedobaptist, credocommunion, and paedocommunion families. We have determined to not make this a matter of division. We recognize this is an endeavor fraught with pitfalls and frustrations as it requires leaders and members to maintain a hierarchy of loves and loyalties exercised with spiritual discernment and care. Nevertheless, we believe this is a worthy aim as we pursue unity together and learn to love one another. In this spirit, we have adopted this Baptismal Cooperation Agreement.

What kind of church are you? Are you part of a denomination?

We recognize we have been “called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours” (1 Corinthians 1:2). And as our Congregational Statement of Faith says, “Those who are chosen by God the Father and redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and sanctified by the Holy Spirit are members of the universal Church, the body of which Christ is the head. This Church finds visible expression in local churches, each of whom should manifest union with Christ in preserving purity of life and doctrine, avoiding schism and false teaching.” This means we understand Christian unity to be the unity of gospel truth rather than the administrative unity of institutional identity. Opportunities to affiliate with other churches or groups of churches will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the elders. Further, we recognize and sustain the obligations of mutual counsel and cooperation between faithful Christian churches. And we joyfully cooperate with and support churches and ministries of common faith and practice.

What is the greatest need of the church in America today?

The church in America needs to have a greater vision of the glory of God, greater affection for the loveliness of Christ, and greater holiness empowered by the Spirit. The American church is especially plagued by consumerism and entertainment. Sadly, many churches have adopted strategies driven by pragmatism instead of being guided by God’s Word. The American church has too often accommodated the impulses of American culture to seek comfort, security, and approval. This has resulted in devastating doctrinal compromise and the lack of distinctive holiness.

What is a biblical worldview?

A Biblical worldview is God’s view of the world as revealed in Scripture. As our minds are renewed we grow in being holy as God is holy—thinking like God thinks, loving like God loves, and doing like God does. A Biblical worldview begins with the Triune God. It is he who made us. This Creator–creation distinction undergirds reality. A biblical worldview unfolds along the lines of Creation–Fall–Redemption–New Creation. This narrative framework provides our understanding of the goodness of created things, their contingency upon God, and their design for God. The Fall teaches us that sin has separated creation from God, distorting God’s design in an attempt to destroy God’s purposes. Through the word of promise and fulfillment, God redeems a people for himself and reconciles all things to himself through the cross of Jesus Christ. The final consummation of the New Creation awaits as we look forward, in great hope, to the eternal kingdom of Christ where the dead are raised, heaven descends to earth, and we live with him forever and ever.