We believe that scripture is the supreme authority for all our beliefs. It is supported through the long authority and interpreation of the church through the teaching of the apostles. It is further confirmed through reason, and vivified by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
We believe in a Triune God. One God in three persons - God the Father, God the Son, & God the Holy Spirit. We uphold the apostolic teaching of the Nicene Creed, confessing Christ was eternally begotten of the Father, true God from true God, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father & the Son, true light from true light.
We believe that God came to humanity in the flesh, the man, Christ Jesus. He was born of a virgin and was both distinctly man and God, one person, two natures. He taught a radical new teaching of love God with all your being and love your neighbor as yourself. The coming of Christ was the final covenant made between God and creation, removing the barrier of sin that had stood between God and creation with the death of Christ upon the cross, where he became the ultimate sacrifice of attonment for the collective sin of humanity, living and dead. His conquest of death and the promise of the empty tomb offers every person the opportunity to stand in the presence of God and taste eternal life by placing his or her faith in Jesus and his gospel.
We believe that God's grace is a free gift, unmerited nor earned by any act of our will. It proceeds from God and invites us into a spiritual relationship with God. We are justified through the waters of baptism, where grace regenerates our sinful nature and we are clothed in the rightousness of Christ. We further grow in rightousness throughout our lives, as we participate in this sanctfiying grace and the sacrament of Holy Communion.
We confess that by our very nature that humanity is born with the taint of original sin, which may only be regenerated by the grace of God through Holy Baptism and our contiual participation in this grace through Holy Communion and acts of charity and mercy. We believe that our sins are forgiven through the work of the Holy Spirit that inspires us to place our faith in Jesus, helping us to grow in rightousness. Our sin is pardoned through our confession and absolution recieved during the general confession and absolution within the sacrament of Holy Communion. We further hold that humanity may reject grace, for we serve a God who loves us so much, He will not force us to remain in His presence.
We hold that there are two sacraments: Baptism & Holy Communion. Sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and invisible transformations. Baptism regenerates our sinful, human nature out of depravity into a state of justification before God. It destroys the original sin of humanity and transforms our very being from sinful to rightous. Baptism is given through God's free gift of grace, and among adults is a response to grace from hearing the Word. We believe that this grace is sufficient and baptism is only imparted once and freely given to infants. Baptism is essential to new life in Christ, but we hold that all innocents remain under the power of Christ's attonement.
Holy Communion is the real presence of Christ within the elements of bread and wine, which allows us to grow in rightousness, recieving pardon and absolution from sin. It is the mysterious act of participating in the death and resurection of Christ that we join the celebration of the Lord's Supper as the church visible with the church invisible. We believe in serving an open table, where all are welcome to enjoy the benefits of partaking in Communion.
We are a missionally driven congreation, believing that Weselyan practical theology is the most authentic expression of the gospel. Through our love of Christ we are called to go into the community, using our resources for acts of charity and mercy. We further believe we do not exist in isolation and consider connextionalism with the Missouri Conference and other Christians throughout the world a vital component of our ministry. We seek in all things to make disiples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. For further information on the history of our confession and beliefs see: https://www.ctcumc.org/files/fileshare/2016-book-of-discipline.pdf