The full statement
Twelve articles, the creed we say out loud, and an honest account of where we will and will not divide. Nothing here is hidden until after you join.
The Apostles' Creed, in the old wording, every Sunday. Children learn it before they can read it.
I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth;
and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.
Catholic here means the whole church in every age — not the Roman communion
Adopted by congregational vote and amendable only the same way. Members are asked to affirm these; visitors are asked nothing. The passages behind them are gathered on the scripture page.
I
The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are the word of God written, inspired, without error in what they affirm, and sufficient for what God requires of us. No tradition, vision, prophecy or council stands over them.
We preach consecutively through whole books rather than topically, so that the text sets the agenda and the preacher cannot skip what he would rather avoid.
II
One God, eternally existing in three persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — equal in power and glory, one in essence, distinct in person. He is not a committee, a force, or one being wearing three masks.
III
Made in God's image, male and female, of immense worth. Fallen in Adam, guilty and unable to repair the breach from our side. Sin is not merely damage done to us; it is rebellion we chose and keep choosing.
IV
Fully God and fully man in one person, born of a virgin, sinless in life. He died a substitutionary death for sinners, was buried, and rose bodily on the third day — not as a symbol, a vision, or a story the church told itself afterwards.
He ascended, reigns now at the Father's right hand, and is the only mediator between God and men.
V
By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Not earned by works, not kept by works, and not supplemented by anything a church can sell, withhold or administer. Works follow salvation as fruit follows a living root.
VI
God himself, not an influence. He convicts, regenerates, indwells, seals and sanctifies. He gives gifts as he wills, for building up the body rather than for display, and he never contradicts the Scripture he authored.
VII
All the redeemed of every age, gathered visibly in local congregations. This congregation governs itself: elders teach and shepherd, servants keep the common holdings, and the members vote on the budget, the officers and every admission and removal.
No outside body owns this church, appoints its officers, or can sell its building.
VIII
Baptism by immersion, for those who have believed, as a public burial and rising with Christ. It saves no one and is refused to no believer.
The Lord's Supper weekly, open to any baptized believer walking in repentance, whatever congregation they belong to. The bread and cup are not a sacrifice and are not withheld as leverage.
IX
What the first believers did in Jerusalem — selling, sharing, distributing as any had need — is described rather than commanded. We take it as a pattern worth imitating gladly, not a law that binds the conscience.
Therefore: no household is required to hand over property, giving is never published, and no one's standing in this church depends on what they contribute. A cooperative that coerces has stopped being one.
X
Mercy is owed to people who will never join us and can never repay us. The relief fund, the tool shed and the hall are open outward on purpose, and we do not attach a sermon to a sack of groceries as its price.
XI
Christ will return bodily, visibly and personally. We hold that he returns before the thousand years of Revelation 20 and reigns on the earth — the premillennial position — followed by the resurrection of the dead, final judgement, and the new heavens and new earth.
We hold this seriously and teach it plainly. We also refuse to divide over it, refuse to set dates, and treat anyone who does set dates as having disqualified himself as a teacher.
XII
On matters Scripture leaves open, no member may bind another's conscience, and no elder may make his preference a test of fellowship. Schooling, politics, diet, drink, calendars, medicine and holidays are the household's business.
Not everything true is equally weighty. Sorting that out in advance is how a congregation avoids fighting its way to the answer later.
Deny one of these and we are not the same religion, however warmly we speak to each other.
Real disagreements that make one body impractical, held between people we still call brothers.
We teach a position and expect to be disagreed with by members in good standing.
Named as teachings, not as people. Anyone holding them is welcome to come, sit, and argue with us from the text.
That God is one person. Any teaching that makes the Son a creature, an angel, or a mode of the Father empties the cross of the only thing that made it sufficient.
That a man holds the keys. No apostle, prophet, pastor or council today speaks with authority equal to Scripture, and any who claims it should be measured by Deuteronomy 18:22 rather than by his following.
That the date is known. Setting a date for the return, and resetting it when it passes, is not enthusiasm. It is the mark Scripture gives us for a teacher we should stop listening to.
That faith buys health and money. Treating God as a mechanism that pays out on sufficient belief slanders him to the sick and blames the poor for being poor.
That grace is a licence. Being freely forgiven and continuing deliberately in what killed him are not compatible, whatever the doctrine of assurance is stretched to cover.
That the church is the kingdom's builder. The kingdom comes when the King does. We work hard, and we do not confuse our garden with the new earth.
Argue with us
If you think an article here is wrong, the elders would rather hear it from you across a table than not hear it. Nobody has ever been asked to leave for asking.