OUR BELIEFS
WORD & SACRAMENT
The primary focus of our worship is the public reading and exposition of God’s Word, and the administration of his sacraments. We trust the Holy Spirit to work through the ordinary means of grace to build up God’s people and transform them into the image of Christ. The sacraments of baptism and communion are administered as ordained by our Lord to increase our faith and confirm God’s covenant promises to us.
CHRIST-CENTERED
EXPOSITORY PREACHING
Our sermons are Christ-centered and expository, and special care is given to correctly distinguishing between law and gospel. The law shows us our sinfulness and our need of Christ. The gospel assures us of all that we have in Christ and calls us to faith in the promise. Then, out of gratitude and in response to God’s grace, we seek to live in a manner that pleases the Lord. The imperatives are rooted in the indicative of our union with Christ.
FORM, ORDER,
& REVERENCE IN WORSHIP
The Scriptures teach us that God seeks those who worship him in Spirit and in truth. Accordingly, we are called to worship God in an orderly manner, with reverence and awe. Our worship is in accordance with the regulative principle and patterned on the historic Reformed dialogical liturgy.
ACCOUNTABILITY
We belong to the United Reformed Churches because we believe that the biblical pattern for ministry demands checks and balances and a structure of accountability higher than ourselves. The ecumenical creeds of the church, the Reformed confessions and catechisms, and the historic Reformed liturgy link us to other believers not only in this time and place, but across time and geographical boundaries.
CHILDREN & FAMILY
Reformed covenant theology teaches us that from the very dawn of the gospel promise, God includes our children in the covenant of grace. This teaching provides us with a solid theological basis from which to build a theology of marriage and family. We believe that God has ordained covenant nurture of the family, in conjunction with the church, as the primary means of grace for raising our children in the faith. We encourage the inclusion of children of all ages in our worship services.
WITNESS
In addition to growing in our own understanding of the faith, the Scriptures exhort us to share it with those outside the church. We desire that our non-Christian friends, family members and neighbors would hear the message of Christ crucified with the prayerful and confident expectation that God will be pleased to call many to faith in Christ through the ministry of this church.