Who We Are
As Presbyterians, we believe that a church structured with checks and balances (committees!) is the best way to ensure that no person or group of persons will be tempted to assume the role of Head of the Church that rightly belongs to Christ. We are governed by a Session of elected elders and pastors, who seek God's desire for our church-in-the-world.
As Christians, we affirm with all churches (Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, Coptic and Protestant):
- That God was somehow in Jesus Christ, reconciling the world to God's own self;
- And, that God is somehow One God while being manifest as, or experienced as, or presented Father, Son and Spirit. As Protestants, we emphasize (along with Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists and Congregationalists):
- That we are justified by grace through faith (i.e. we don't earn God's love, God just gives it!)
- That the Bible is our authority in the areas of faith and practice;
- And, that all Christians are equal before God, no one is intrinsically "better" than someone else (aka, the priesthood of all believers.) As Christians of the Reformed Theological Tradition we tend to emphasize (along with other churches, to be sure):
- That God alone is God, and Sovereign ("I'm God and you're not!");
- That we who have experienced transformation in Christ are called and expected by God to serve others;
- That our (covenant) life with others always includes a Third Party God is present in all our relationships;
- That our lives are a gift from God to be invested in significant and lasting ways;
- And that our most nagging Sin is our desire to treat something or someone as if they were God (idolatry), knowing full well (see #6) that God alone is God.
In our preaching, teaching and equipping we try to focus upon the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We do not believe someone has to be "pro" this or "anti" that in order to be a part of this community. We trust God to help you grow over time into the person God desires you to be. As a confessional church, we are guided in our understanding of the Christian faith by some of the great Confessional Statements of the past 2000 years, including the Apostles' Creed. The most recently adopted confession is "A Brief Statement of Faith".
In life and death we belong to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve.
We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God. Jesus proclaimed the reign of God: preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives, teaching by word and deed and blessing the children, healing the sick and binding up the brokenhearted, eating with outcasts, forgiving sinners, and calling all to repent and believe the gospel. Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition, Jesus was crucified, suffering the depths of human pain and giving his life for the sins of the world.
God raised Jesus from the dead, vindicating his sinless life, breaking the power of sin and evil,delivering us from death to life eternal. We trust in God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father. In sovereign love God created the world good and makes everyone equally in God's image, male and female, of every race and people, to live as one community. But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator. Ignoring God's commandments, we violate the image of God in others and ourselves, accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor and nature, and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.
We deserve God's condemnation. Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation. In everlasting love, the God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant people to bless all families of the earth. Hearing their cry, God delivered the children of Israel from the house of bondage.
Loving us still, God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant. Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child, like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is faithful still.
We trust in God the Holy Spirit, everywhere the giver and renewer of life. The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor, and binds us together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the church. The same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture, engages us through the Word proclaimed, claims us in the waters of baptism, feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation, and calls women and men to all ministries of the church.
In a broken and fearful world, the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in church and culture, to hear voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.
In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit, we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks and to live holy and joyful lives, even as we watch for God's new heaven and new earth, praying, Come, Lord Jesus!
With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
If you'd like to explore more intentionally what faith in Christ might mean for you, or if you'd like to find out what membership at RBCPC means, please register for one of our quarterly Crossroads classes.
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