FAQs

We believe the Bible is true, and we look to scripture to understand ourselves, our creator, and the challenges we face in the world today.  The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and said “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  

We believe that the Bible was written for us and all people, but it was not written to us. The Bible was written to specific people in a specific time and place. That means that understanding the Bible sometimes requires understanding different people and places, and various historical circumstances. Interpretation of scripture does not mean twisting the Bible to mean what we want it to mean. Interpretation of scripture means understanding what it meant to the original hearers and readers, and how it applies to our lives and circumstances today.

We believe in one God who exists in three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In this Trinity God reigns and rules over His creation as Lord and King.

We believe that Jesus Christ, the eternal son of God, was incarnate on earth as fully God and fully man. He died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, arose bodily from the dead, and ascended into heaven where, at the right hand of God, He is now our High Priest and Advocate.

We believe that the Holy Spirit dwells within each believer, enabling the Christian to walk in obedience to the Word of God. The Holy Spirit also empowers us to become more like our Lord Jesus and equips us with spiritual gifts for ministry.

The Gospel is the good news that through Christ, the power of God's kingdom has entered history to renew the whole world. The Gospel is something much bigger than personal salvation, it is about cosmic salvation. All creation has been affected by the brokenness we call sin. Likewise, all creation will be renewed by God’s kingdom.

The Kingdom of God is the reign and rule of God. Wherever God’s perfect will is done, The Kingdom of God is present. The kingdom of God is not something we have to wait for.  Jesus taught His followers to pray “…Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God wants His rule and reign to advance on the earth right now. Jesus announced the inauguration of the kingdom of God when He began His ministry here on earth. The coming of the kingdom of God means the restoration of all things. In other words, Jesus didn’t just come to save souls; He came to rescue a physical world. We see this in the way he ministered to people. Where he said “your sins are forgiven”, he also said to the lame “get up and walk”. 

We believe that all people are created in the image of God.  That is a status uniquely given to humans.   We were created to have fellowship with Him but became alienated in that relationship through sinful disobedience.  As a result of human rebellion against God, people are dead in their sins, and incapable of regaining a right relationship with God through their own effort alone.

Anything contrary to the perfect will of God is sin.  We’ve all made mistakes, we’ve all missed God’s perfect mark, we are all ‘sinners’.  We also believe that sin has consequences, but the problem of sin isn’t that it makes us bad people, the problem of sin is that it makes us dead people.  We can’t save ourselves from this situation, we need to be rescued through the person of Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross paid the penalty we deserved, and whose resurrection from the dead gives us new life. 

We believe that salvation can only be achieved by God himself.  God accomplished this by sending his son Jesus to do what we couldn’t do, he lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died.  When we placed our allegiance in Jesus as our king, we graciously receive from him the fullness of life forever.  We also believe that this salvation through Jesus impacts the whole of creation.  His resurrection from the dead marks victory of sin, death and the devil.  That means an end to poverty, injustice, sickness and all the evils of the world.  That’s what we have to look forward to through God’s salvation.  

The Church is a sent people. They are sent by Christ into the world to advance the agenda of God’s kingdom in this world. Jesus did not send His Church out into the world alone. He promised that He would gift them with His very presence, the Holy Spirit. In Acts chapter 2, the Church was born when the Holy Spirit of God entered men and women and empowered them to go out into the world and share the Gospel of Jesus. The Gospel message was announced on the streets of Jerusalem, it spread through Samaria, and it arrived in the ancient metropolis of Antioch. From there, the Church spread throughout the entire Roman empire and continues this day to the ends of the earth. The church is imperfect and broken, because people are imperfect and broken, but when God’s people rally together to do His will God uses the Church to bring about restoration in this world. 

We believe that every Christian should live for Christ and not for himself. By obedience to the Word of God and daily yielding to the Spirit of God, every believer should mature and be conformed to the image of Christ.

We are very proud members of The Covenant Church, a small but vibrant denomination. The Covenant Church is a church of immigrants.  Begun in the 1880’s by Swedish immigrants, we come from a tradition of believers called Pietists who prided themselves on lives dedicated to serving one another and studying the word of God.  Today, the Covenant Church remains an immigrant church with people from all over the world.  We value mission, we value unity in the midst of our diversity, and we are deep lovers of scripture.  You can learn more about the Covenant through its 6 affirmations.