WHO ARE WE?

I.            We Are a Christian People

As members of the Church Universal, we join with all true believers in proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and in embracing the historic Trinitarian creedal statements of Christian faith.  We value our Wesleyan-Holiness heritage and believe it to be a way of understanding the faith that is true to Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience.

 II.      We Are a Holiness People

God, who is holy, calls us to a life of holiness.  We believe that the Holy Spirit seeks to do in us a second work of grace, called by various terms including “entire sanctification” and “baptism with the Holy Spirit”—cleansing us from all sin; renewing us in the image of God; empowering us to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves; and producing in us the character of Christ.   Holiness in the life of believers is most clearly understood as Christ-likeness.

 III.     We Are a Missional People

We are a “sent people”, responding to the call of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to go into all the world, witnessing to the Lordship of Christ and participating with God in the building of the Church and the extension of His kingdom (2 Corinthians 6:1).  Our mission:

           A.  Begins in worship

           B.  Ministers to the world in evangelism and compassion

           C.  Encourages believers toward Christian maturity through discipleship

           D.  Prepares women and men for Christian service through Christian higher education

IV.     A Missional Church

  A.  Makes disciples of lost people

B.  Reaches across cultural barriers

C.  Commits to compassion evangelism

D.  Reproduces itself in new churches