Believing that we have been called of God to gather this community of grace, we are members of this body of Christ by the bond of covenant, our solemn commitment to God and to one another.
We walk together by faith in God, Creator of the universe and Lord of all people. The source of our faith flows from the recorded experience of God in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, the evidence of God in nature, and the presence of God in human life. Having experienced the wonder of Christian love, our faith in God proceeds from the confession of early Christians, "God is love."(1 John 4:8) We believe that God was in Christ reconciling the world (2 Cor. 5:19), yet we set no limit on the reach of God’s love or the activity of God beyond the experience and faith of Christians. We are striving to live out the calling of Christ, "‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’" (Matthew 22:37-38)
We are an imperfect people in an imperfect world. We have come together, not in absolute knowledge or possession of truth, but as pilgrims assisting one another in the journey toward the promise of God. "We see in a mirror, dimly," and "know only in part" (1 Cor. 13: 12). Because we have not yet arrived, we are a work in progress. We live toward the promise of God: "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."(Jeremiah 31:33)
