Our Beliefs & Distinctives

Our Beliefs:

  • We believe in the one true God, the Creator of all, who eternally exists as one essence and three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:18-20, John 1:14, Hebrews 1:3, John 15:26-27, Psalm 24:1)

  • We believe that God has made Himself known to His creation, revealing Himself to us in His Son, the incarnate Word, in Scripture, the inspired Word, and in creation. We believe in the accuracy, truth, authority and power of the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God. (Hebrews 1:1-2, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Psalm 8, Romans 1:20)

  • We believe God created all things for His glory, from nothing, and governs all things at all times in all places. (Genesis 1, Psalm 24:1, Colossians 1:17)

  • We believe all humanity is created in the image of God and therefore possesses intrinsic dignity and worth. God made humanity—male and female—in His own image, made to compliment one another in a God-ordained pattern of relation to each other. (Genesis 1:27-30, 1 Corinthians 10:31)

  • We believe sin has corrupted everything God made to be good. All people have a sin nature with a depravity that is radically invasive, leaving all people under the condemnation of God. As a consequence of sin, all humanity is separated us from God and in need of salvation. (Genesis 3, Romans 3:9-20, Ephesians 2:1-3)

  • We believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We believe that, due to universal death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again (John 3:5-8); that salvation is only by grace through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ; and that all who receive the Lord Jesus Christ through faith are declared righteous by God and become children of God (Hebrews 10:19-25).

  • We believe that the Church consists of all who have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for their eternal salvation, and is sent into the world to shine forth the glory of God. God, by His Word and Spirit, creates the Church, calling sinful humanity into the fellowship of Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). By the same Word and Spirit, He guides and preserves that newly redeemed humanity. The Church is made up of those who have become genuine followers of Jesus Christ and have personally appropriated the gospel. The Church exists to worship and glorify God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The ministry of the Church is an extension of the ministry of Jesus in the power of the Spirit.

  • We believe that Jesus Christ is returning to the world in the future to judge the living and the dead (2 Timothy 4:1). The consummation of all things includes the future, physical, visible, personal and glorious return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead and the glorification of those alive in Christ, the judgment of the just and the unjust, and the fulfillment of Christ’s kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth. In the consummation, Satan, with his hosts and all those outside Christ, are finally separated from the benevolent presence of God, enduring eternal punishment (Rev. 20:7-15), but the righteous, in glorious bodies, will live and reign with Him forever, serving Him and giving Him unending praise and glory. Then the eager expectation of creation will be fulfilled, and the whole earth shall proclaim the glory of God, who makes all things new (Rev. 21:1-5).

  • The gospel is the “Good News” which announces the arrival of God’s Kingdom and reign. It is the Good News that, through Jesus, God is reconciling and restoring all things to Himself. It is historical narrative of the triune God orchestrating the reconciliation and redemption of a broken creation and fallen creatures from Satan, sin and its effects to the Father and each other through the life, death, resurrection and future return of the substitutionary Son by the power of the Spirit for God’s glory and the Church’s joy.

Our Distinctives:

  • Historically, the church has protected the centrality of the gospel by understanding the relative priority of doctrine for faith and practice. While all doctrine is important, it doesn’t all have the same functional relevance for unity within the local body and collaboration with other churches. Through theological triage, we can, humbly and in unity, stay focused on the essentials while being charitable in the non-essentials. The goal of this framework isn’t to exhaustively categorize every doctrine but to provide a way of thinking about the functional relevance of doctrine for faith, practice, and partnership: 

    1. First-rank doctrine: doctrines essential to the gospel itself such as the divinity of Jesus, the bodily resurrection, and the authority of Scripture

    2. Second-rank doctrine: doctrines which are urgent for the health and practice of the church such that they often cause Christians to separate at the level of the local church, denomination, or ministry. Examples might include church governance, views of men and women serving in the church, and modes of baptism.

    3. Third-rank doctrine: doctrines which are important to Christian theology, but should not be used to justify separation or division. Examples of this type of doctrine would be views of the age of Creation, views of the end times, and practice of communion.

    4. Fourth-rank doctrine: doctrines which are functionally unimportant to our gospel witness and ministry collaboration such as instrumentation in worship, the number of angels, church building design, etc.

  • Being a part of the Reformed tradition means we hold a high view of holiness and God’s sovereignty. We believe that mankind was hopeless in our sin and separated from God. By God’s grace alone, He made a way for us to be saved, gave us the faith to turn to Him, and by His sovereign grace we are sustained to the end. He alone deserves the glory, honor, and praise for our salvation and faith in Him.

  • A frequent concern is how to faithfully navigate the roles, expectations, and formation of men and women in the church. We desire to be faithful to Scripture, so below is an arc of what we understand being true and will put into practice in our church: 

    • Men and women are created equally in the image of God. 

    • Equality between men and women as image bearers does not mean we are completely the same; God intentionally and essentially made mankind gendered to reflect his glory, wisdom, and beauty.

    • We believe that every gift of the Spirit is given among both men and women, including leadership, teaching, prophecy, and wisdom. For this reason, both men and women should minister within the local church according to their calling, gifting, and the affirmation of the church’s pastors. 

    • We believe that men and women in the church should operate as spiritual brothers and sisters; the commands to love, serve, teach, correct, encourage, and pray for one another are not intended to be observed exclusively within single-gender community. While we want to be wise and pursue holiness in every manner, we reject the notion that we must capitulate to our hyper-sexualized culture in our practice as the community of saints. Instead, we see our gender not as a problem to navigate or fear but as a blessing from God; for this reason, we call men and women to operate together as brothers and sisters in the family of God. 

    • We believe the distinctions between men and women for leadership in the church and in the home are not arbitrary; the provisions for only male pastorship in the church and husbands as the head of the home reflect the beauty and goodness of God. While some make the error of viewing this dynamic of men and women only through the lens of authority and submission, we instead seek to understand and practice God’s design more holistically. Therefore, we will call men to love and serve just as we will call women to leadership and spiritual direction. Though our unique roles will give shape to our practice, no trait or spiritual gift is exclusive to men or women. 

  • Though some churches hold the view that what are known as “supernatural” gifts of the Spirit like tongues or healing have ceased, we see no such biblical warrant to believe this is so. Rather, we eagerly “desire the greater gifts” (1 Cor 12:31), understanding Paul’s instruction that follows to be on the basis not of caution but order. For this reason, both our gatherings and liturgy will be orderly and prayerfully crafted, though we encourage people to desire and practice whatever gift of the Spirit might be given to them. It isn’t a requirement for any member of Redeemer to practice any certain gift nor is it a requirement for members to hold the same viewpoint about their operation in the church today. However, Redeemer is decidedly not cessationist, which will mean we navigate this tension with love, patience, generosity, and kindness, eager for the Spirit to move among us as He will.