About our Community

We believe that the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that “it contains all that is necessary and sufficient for salvation.” We do not believe in the fundamentalist position that scripture was either dictated by God or is infallible. Instead, through our Wesleyan heritage, we properly read scripture within the believing community, interpreting texts within their place in the Bible as a whole, and we are aided by scholarly inquiry and personal insight under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We emphasize what has become known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, which says that we read scripture through the use of tradition, experience and reason. Because of the importance of scripture in the development of our faith, we set an expectation that we will be reading the Bible daily, and provide different resources to facilitate that process.

We believe that worship is essential to our practice of the faith. However, we do not worship because God needs our worship, or will strike us down if we don’t worship, or don’t worship properly. Instead, worship is the natural outgrowth of celebrating and recognizing the work that God has already done, and continues to do in our lives. The communal element of worship, of being together as one body, is also important in developing our faith. Like most other Protestant traditions, the reading of scripture, and teachings on the day’s readings are the central focus of worship. As Methodists we are also a “singing people”, and hymns and songs also play a central role in worship. We alternate each week between traditional worship, using hymnals and older songs, and contemporary, which uses more recent praise songs.

In its simplest terms, Grace is God’s unmerited favor and love poured out for the world. It is God’s grace that conveys God’s saving actions into our lives, and gives us the strength to endure life’s challenges. In the Methodist tradition, we believe there are three types of grace. Prevenient grace – the grace that comes before. This is God’s love given for everyone, even if we don’t recognize it or the need for this grace. This is universal grace with no restrictions on who can or cannot receive God’s grace. Justifying grace – the moment we recognize the need for God’s grace in our lives to provide and guide us to healing and wholeness. It is when we accept God’s grace for ourselves and seek to live lives centered in Christ. Sanctifying grace – while this idea is found in other traditions, it does take on a unique understanding in the Methodist tradition and is known as Christian Perfection. As we seek to live our lives more and more like Christ, we seek to be moving on to perfection such that our hearts will be so full of the love of God that we no longer willfully sin. This is, however, a temporary state, and most of our lives are spent on a sliding scale of doing good and needing improvement, and thus a common statement in Methodism is that “we are moving on to perfection.” We believe that God’s grace is resistible and that we have to make the conscious choice to accept God’s grace, to live in God’s grace and to offer God’s grace to the world. It is a decision we get to make every moment of every day as we seek to grow and strengthen our faith and relationship with God and with each other.

We believe that prayer is one of the primary ways in which we are connected with God and with each other. Prayer is the first of our membership vows, and the second of our church’s values, because of its importance in the practice and development of our faith. Being unsure of how to pray is natural, and even the disciples asked Jesus how to pray. Prayer is not about asking God for things, or telling God what to do, prayer is part of our dialogue with God of seeking guidance, help and support. Since it is a dialogue, prayer also requires taking the time to be silent and be in the presence of God in order to listen. We believe that the movement of the Holy Spirit will sometimes provide the answers to our prayers in the most unlikely times and from the most unlikely people. Prayer can also take place not just through talking but through scripture reading, meditation, or other things when they are intentionally set up to connect us with God. We offer classes on prayer, and ways of being in prayer, on a routine basis.

Doubt, or asking questions, is a natural and healthy part of faith. While we do believe in some absolutes, such as that God is love, in order to grow and develop in our faith we believe that our faith must be dynamic and moving with the changing realities of our life and world. While there are people who are prominent due to position or education, we do not believe they have all the answers. They too are learning and changing and growing in their prayer, study and conversations with others. And often, our questions do not lead to concrete answers, but instead to more questions, and that’s okay. As soon as our faith gets set hard, like concrete, it will crack when challenged or pushed in new ways. We want our faith to support us and provide a foundation for living, but to be flexible and supple enough to grow and change with us over time. This is why one of our values is to be growing in faith.

As Christians, as believe that Jesus is the guide to how we should live, and his teachings are found in the New Testament works. We believe that he is the second person of the trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and that he lived, taught, died and was resurrected. Jesus is the Christ, the Greek word for Messiah, the savior, and was sent not to condemn the world, but to redeem it. To bring healing and wholeness, to restore us into right relationship with God and with each other. When we are looking for how to live our lives, we seek to follow his teachings not by asking “what would Jesus do?” but instead “What has Jesus called us to do?” While we know that others find alternate paths to God, we find our path by following Jesus and believing in him as our savior and redeemer.

Like most other protestant denominations, we practice two sacraments: Baptism and Communion. We believe that sacraments are an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace that is conveyed by God. That ultimately means that while the sacraments are performed by humans, God is the primary actor in these activities. Baptism - which can be performed by water being poured on the head, or by full immersion, is the initiation right into the church. Christians are made, not born. It is the initiation not just into the grace of God, as God claims us as beloved children, but it is also the initiation into the body of Christ, the church. As such, we do not perform private baptisms, except in extenuating circumstances, as the members of the church also take vows on behalf of those being baptized to support them in their Christian journey. We can baptize persons at any age, but we do not rebaptize anyone as God is forever faithful to God’s side of the relationship. We can, however, reaffirm our baptism, and we normally do that ceremony in worship at least once a year. Communion - while John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, called for people to receive communion as often as they could, we serve and receive communion on the first Sunday of each month, except for special times of the year. We believe that while Christ is present with us at the table, the elements do not become the literal body and blood of Christ, though there are certainly members of the church who do hold to different beliefs. As we gather at the table we not only remember Christ’s saving actions on our behalf, but we are also re-membered as the body of Christ, being united through the actions not just with those present, but with Christians around the world and all the saints who have come before us. In the United Methodist Church, we practice a genuinely open communion table and invite everyone regardless of background or belief to receive the bread and the cup together.

As Methodists we do not believe there is a separation between our personal faith and how that faith is lived out. When we accept God’s saving grace on our behalf, the only appropriate response, in John Wesley’s words, is to live that faith out in our lives. Or to quote from the Letter of James (part of the New Testament) “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead… show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith” (James 2:17-18) Since our earliest days the emphasis on both of these activities has been crucial to the lives of Methodists, and there is a call to hold what can be polar opposites in tension with each other. This can be found in what has become known in Methodist circles as the three simple rules: Do no harm; do good; stay in love with God.

We believe that just as we are reconciled to God through Christ, so too are we called to be agents of reconciliation, to be ambassadors for Christ in the world. Part of this action requires us to see others not “from a human point of view” but to see them as God sees them. (2 Corinthians 5:16, 18-20) Therefore, we welcome all people, regardless of who you are or what you believe, to join in this walk and journey of faith.