The Story We Share
The stories we believe about ourselves and our world shape our past, present, and future. At its heart, the key story of Christianity is something called the gospel, or “good news.” The Bible, which we trust as reliable and inspired by God, tells this story in all its messy, crazy, but ultimately very beautiful detail. As Christians, this is not only the story we believe we all share, but also have been called by Jesus to share.
Faith In The Past
We have faith in the historicity of “creation,” “fall,” and “incarnation.” 1) God, in perfect relationship as three relational beings in perfect harmony as one divine essence, made the universe to reflect God’s creative beauty and humanity as overflow of God’s relational love. 2) However, humanity chose to instead trust themselves as their own gods and break relationship with God, ruining just about everything. 3) Yet the Triune God didn’t abandon us, and instead came to earth as a human named Jesus to live like us and for us. We rejected this too, killing him in the name of religion and a political agenda. But God didn’t stay dead, overcoming death in a resurrected body and returning to Heaven in victory.
Hope For The Future
God first came to Earth in weakness, humility, and mercy to die for us. God will come again in power, glory, and justice so we can live forever. This means we have hope that neither despair, injustice, or death have the last word — Christ does. Christ will come again to wipe every tear from our eyes, defeat all evil powers and systems in the world, and resurrect our bodies to live with God in a fully renewed and healed earth. In light of this approaching reality, as followers of Jesus we try to live bravely and boldly knowing that our self-serving acts will waste away, but that the good we participate in will be refined by power of God to last forever.
Love From Heaven
The first humans’ choice to distrust God estranged humanity from God. The life, death, and resurrection of God in the man Jesus was proof that God would not only suffer with us, but also for us. The love that came down from Heaven loved us even unto death on a cross. Yet it was on this cross in a great exchange that God endured all the effects of our estrangement on our behalf, and opened the way for reconciliation with Godself. Now forgiven and brought back into relationship with the creator of the universe, God’s Holy Spirit works to heal our spirits and our minds as we fall deeper in love.
Love For The World
Since God has done more than we could ever hope for in reconciling us back to the Godself, we cannot be content to live like we are our own gods anymore. As God heals our spirits and minds, we are called to partner with God in healing our culture and creation. We become ambassadors of God’s reconciliation, working towards societal flourishing and justice, as well as being environmental stewards. We share the good news that in Christ, God is reconciling all things to the Godself — and we get to be the good news in showing the world what life can look like when we thoughtfully embrace the way of Jesus.