God
God is one, the Creator of all that exists, and the source of life. The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes scripture in its assertion that God is: ‘a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.’ God is understood by Christians to be triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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General Revelation
Spirituality finds its sources, though partial and affected by sin, in reason and intuition, in a sense or feeling of existential dependence upon God. God is generally revealed in His works of creation.
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Special Revelation
Special revelation provides humanity with what general revelation cannot. With that understanding, the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments relate an overarching story of creation, redemption, and consummation. Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of that story.
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Covenant
In scripture, God establishes a covenant of grace with humanity’s first parents following their fall into sin as a promise to redeem them and their posterity from sin and its consequent misery. The Old and New Testaments relate the unfolding of that singular covenant of grace.
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Theological Anthropology
Jesus taught that the radical aim of human life is love for God and neighbor. Sin is rooted in selfishness that distorts love for God and neighbor. Christian faith teaches that human beings, unable to save themselves, require redemption from a source outside themselves.
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Jesus Christ
The New Testament presents Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, as a human life in which Deity and humanity intersect in a unique way. I encounter Jesus in the gospels as the great exemplar of God’s grace and love. The New Testament teaches that though crucified, Jesus was raised from death to life and reigns with God.
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Salvation
Salvation is a gift of God’s free grace, rather than something earned or merited by the work or effort of human beings.
Trust in God’s free grace encountered in Jesus Christ issues out in obedience to the law of God and good works of mercy and compassion.
No one redeemed by Christ can be finally lost.
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Church
The church was established by Christ and is composed of believers and their children. The visible church is a mixed assembly of true and false professors, gathered around word and sacrament. The invisible church is constituted by all who truly belong to God in Christ and is known by God alone. The church of Jesus Christ never ceases to exist between the first and second coming of Christ.
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The Proclamation of the Word
Preaching aims at interpreting the scriptures as the preacher shares the promises of grace, and listens for the voice of the Spirit speaking through the scriptures, with and for a community in a particular time and place.
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The Sacraments
Scripture and the reformed confessions affirm two sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The sacraments, when connected to the proclamation of the scriptures, accompany that proclamation as visible words, as means of grace, and as signs and seals of the gospel.
Baptism is an unrepeatable act, by which the application of water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit becomes a sign for an individual of spiritual rebirth, inclusion in the church, seal of salvation, and identification with Christ.
The Lord’s Supper is a repeatable meal celebrating and enacting the values of Jesus. The ordinance of the supper looks back to the ministry of Jesus and His crucifixion, affirms the ongoing presence of Christ in His church, and anticipates His coming again in final consummation.
Not only adults but the children and infants of believers are the proper objects and recipients of the covenant promises and the sacramental signs.
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Eschatology
The coming again of Jesus is coterminous with the general resurrection, general judgment, and eternal state.
No one will be lost who can be saved. Nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus the Lord. Amen.