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What makes us different from most other churches?
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We believe in a message of the adoption of humanity by God through by Jesus Christ. That means that you, regardless of your spiritual condition or current state of affairs is welcomed by God into community with Him. God did not send his Son to condemn us, but to save us through Him. The only thing that is holding you back is whether you believe this to be true.(John 3:16-20; Luke 15; Romans 8:1; Ephesians 1:3-14) |
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The work God had intended and purposed before the Creation existed was completed in the crucifixion. Adoption is only possible because of the work of God, not through our prayers of salvation, baptisms or any other human action or ritual. Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.” (Ephesians 1:3-14; Colossians 1:12-23) |
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We believe Christ’s resurrection is part of a message of hope to humanity that not even death can separate us from God’s work of love. Death is just a portal between our mortal existence and our eternity. (Romans 8:38-39) |
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We believe in the central importance of transformation of the individual. We are meant to be transformed and to help transform the world through our lives. (Romans 12; Matthew 25:14-46) |
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This transformation means the surrender of our innately selfish mindset, one that is in complete contrast to the perfect love of God. (1 John 3:1-11) This means in all facets of life, we should strive to reflect God’s perfect love. See the article, “Love and Credit Cards” for more clarification. |
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We are to accept all people from all ways of life into the fellowship of the Spirit expecting God to work on that person in His love from the inside out. In the Bible’s book of the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 10 is a first century description of what this means. Peter, the disciple of Christ and himself a Jew, has to put aside all preconceived notions about with whom God would work. He entered the house and ate with Gentiles, a big no-no for Jews, even today, because of Kosher laws. Peter’s response must be our own: God shows no partiality. You do not need to be like any preconceived idea of a Christian to be a disciple of Jesus. You need only follow in trust, faith, “pistis.” God accepts you as you are, but loves you too much to leave you that way.
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We are not to condone, but are to condemn acts of personal or outward destruction by any individual, group or government. This is not a political stance, this is a reflection of Jesus. We can condone neither abortion nor war, neither homosexual nor heterosexual promiscuity, neither destruction of our environment nor destruction of the personal property of the ones who might damage the environment, neither racism of any kind nor gossip against our own kind. Each is destructive and each must be weighed against the full belief and knowledge of what it means to love and be loved by God through Jesus Christ. (Acts 17:24-28) |
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We don’t want to own church buildings. Buildings can cause people to put their focus on stuff while taking it off serving people. Money needs to be spent serving people, not on making us comfortable. They can cause people to worship the stuff instead of Jesus. In a very wise parable in Luke 12, Jesus warns about our greediness, our willingness to worship the stuff we have. He tells the story of a farmer who had an over abundant crop. He was generously blessed. But instead of sharing the abundance of his blessing, he tried to horde the blessing to himself. He worshipped the stuff God gave him. Buildings aren’t wrong, but they can cause us to put our faith and focus in the wrong place. |
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