What We Believe
Theology: Knowledge of God is important to us at Fellowship. We also stress, however, that theology rightly understood produces in us humility and a love for Christ; it is not just about having all the right answers. We embrace the Westminster Standards as expressing the great doctrines of the Scriptures, teachings which, though forgotten during much of the Middle Ages, were recovered during the time of the Reformation.
Bible: We believe the Bible is the Word of God and that in it He reveals Himself and speaks to us. We believe the Scriptures to be true, complete, reliable and sufficient to show us everything we need to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
God: We believe there is one God who exists in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – and that these three are one God, all being equal in power and glory.
Man: Man, though created good as the pinnacle of creation and designed for relationship with God, turned from God and plunged himself into rebellion against God. Since then, we have all been from conception inherently sinful; that is, we fall short of God's perfect standard, stray from His ways and make ourselves a horrible perversion of what we were designed to be. This bent to disobey God (sin) is not because we are born into a bad environment; we create bad environments because we are born into sin.
Christ: God the Son came into our midst in the person of Jesus, lived and walked among us for some thirty years, obeyed the heavenly Father perfectly (He never sinned!), bore God's wrath when He died on the cross in our place for our sin and rose from the grave on the third day. Jesus Christ now has complete authority over all of God's creation and will return one day to gather His people and judge His enemies.
Salvation: We are saved from the bondage and penalty of sin by God's grace through faith in what Jesus Christ accomplished in His death and resurrection. We can never erase our own sin or do anything to merit God's favor – we are guilty! But God punished our guilt in Christ and declared us "not guilty" by covering us in Christ's righteousness. As Martin Luther said, Jesus accomplished the "great exchange" by taking our sin upon Himself and covering us in His own righteousness! We are saved by looking to Christ to save us.
Spiritual Growth: For the rest of our lives after coming to Christ, God is working to make us more and more like Christ. The Holy Spirit is constantly opening our minds to understand the Scriptures, enabling us to see how they apply to our lives and moving us to respond in obedience out of love for Christ. This is a life-long process and we never become perfect in this life, but we are continually being "perfected"!
The Future: At a time known only to the Lord, Jesus will return to gather His people. Those Christians who are dead will physically rise, those who are living will join them and we will all be radically transformed. All remaining sin in us will be at that time washed away, we will be perfectly glorious and will delight in the presence and worship of God forever.
Church Government: We are Presbyterian in our government, meaning "ruled by Elder". If this is unfamiliar to you, it simply means that there are men, recognized within and by the congregation, who are called to lead in the spiritual nurture and direction of the church; and these men serve in the office of Elder. Others have been called to serve in the office of Deacon, their task being to minister to physical needs within the congregation. As part of their ministry in the body, Elders and Deacons are constantly encouraging every member of the congregation in the use of his or her gifts.