A Bible-believing, confessional church: To be a Bible-believing church is to believe that the Bible alone is the inspired and infallible Word of God. Our church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). Moreover, “we believe that this Holy Scripture contains the will of God completely and that everything one must believe to be saved is sufficiently taught in it” (Belgic Confession, Article 7). Click here to learn more on what we believe about the Bible.
To be a confessional church is to be a church that believes and confesses the Word of God as summarized in the great creeds and confessions of the historic Christian church; it is to be a church firmly rooted in the Scriptures. Sometimes people claim to have “no creed but Christ.” However, we find that on closer examination, everyone has a set of beliefs about what the Bible teaches. We believe that having written statements of our essential beliefs helps us to clearly and transparently communicate to others where we stand. We find that creeds and confessions help:
- Preserve the church’s unity in the truth
- Protect the church from heresy
- Provide instruction on the essentials of the Christian faith
As a confessional church we confess the following Ecumenical Creeds as faithful statements of the catholic, or universal, faith confessed by all Christians everywhere, especially describing the nature and acts of the Triune God, whose name we take in our baptism, and the glorious mystery of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are a Protestant Church in the Reformed tradition and therefore confess the confessions which have come to be called the “Three Forms of Unity.” These three confessional documents from the 16th-17th century Protestant Reformation serve both as a standard for what we believe: a norm to be upheld by office bearers–and as a useful tool for the instruction of adults and youth. The Word of God, as summarized in the Three Forms of Unity (especially the Heidelberg Catechism) is regularly preached in our services on the Lord’s Day. As a confessionally Reformed church, these Reformed Confessions are embraced by all our members and unite us in the truth of God’s Word.