We believe in God the Father,
who created the heavens and the earth,
making all human beings as divine image bearers.
We violated the image of God in others and ourselves,
and abandoned our role in the creation.
In response, God chose Israel as a blessing and light to all peoples,
in order to renew the creation.
We believe in God the Son, Jesus the Messiah, born of the Virgin Mary.
He was fully human and fully God.
Baptized in water and anointed with the Holy Spirit,
he proclaimed the reign of God:
preaching the good news to the poor and brokenhearted,
announcing forgiveness by calling all to repent and believe the good news,
and commissioning his followers to make disciples,
baptizing them into the communion of the Father, Son, and Spirit and
teaching them to embrace this new way of life.
Jesus was crucified, giving his life for the sin of the world.
God raised Jesus from the dead,
breaking the power of sin and evil,
delivering us from death to eternal life, and
inaugurating new creation.
God enthroned Jesus as the Lord of creation.
We believe in God the Holy Spirit, the giver and renewer of life,
whom the Father, through the Son, poured out upon us,
enabling us to love God and neighbor, and
binding us together with all believers in the church, the Body of Christ, and
together we give thanks at the the table of the Lord.
The Spirit spoke through the prophets and apostles,
and inspired Scripture to equip us for every good work.
The Spirit empowers us to witness to Christ as Lord and Savior, and
to work for justice and peace as we seek to live holy and joyful lives.
We believe in the resurrection of the dead,
wait for God’s new heaven and new earth,
and pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
*as printed in Searching for the Pattern: My Journey in Interpreting the Bible by John Mark Hicks
rusty tugman 