The Gospel is the “good news of Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2, 15:1-7).
God has announced this message to the nations of the world through the ministries of Christ and his 1st Century Apostles (Ephesians 2:19-21). And, now through the written word, the Bible, he continues to announce this good news to the nations through pastors, teachers, and faithful witnesses (Ephesians 4: 7-12). The 10 commandments teach us that we have broken God’s Law and are under his wrath and curse (Romans 1:18 – 3:20). But the good news of the Gospel is that through Jesus Christ’s life, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession on our behalf, we are delivered from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10), justified, adopted, sanctified, and glorified (Romans 8:29-30). In our sin we were enemies of God, yet through Jesus Christ, his Son, we are reconciled to him, adopted into his family, and granted eternal security. Now, we are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20-21) and have a guaranteed home in the new heavens and the new earth (2 Peter 3:13).
The church is a people who God has called his own and who he has given to each other for love and community.
The Bible describes the church as people who belong to God and to each other, gathered together by belief in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord and, by their mutual reconciliation to God through the Gospel. The church is not simply a building or meeting place, nor is it merely a place of religious observation, but a living and growing community of men, women and children whose identity is shaped by love through our belonging to God and to each other.
Our reconciliation to God through the Gospel compels us to live transformed lives.
The truth of the Gospel re-creates us into a people whose lives are transformed by a commitment and passion for God and his glory. God has uniquely called and equipped his church to display and demonstrate the power of the Gospel to transform individuals and communities. Just as the Gospel is the “good news of the Kingdom of God”, the church is a foretaste of the Kingdom of God on earth, struggling, learning and growing together in an understanding of what it means to follow Christ with the whole of our lives.
We are a Presbyterian and Reformed congregation and hold firmly to the system of beliefs and doctrine found in the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Catechisms.
