The source of our belief is not found in us, but in God’s grace.  Our knowledge of God rests on God’s goodness, not our intelligence, spirituality, or morality.  However, as Paul said, in this world “we see through the glass darkly.”[1]  At Northminster, we seek to speak in the language of belief, not certainty. 

[1] 1 Corinthians 13:12

We understand scripture as the inspired word of God.  Written by ordinary believers and inspired by God.  In that sense, it is our rule and guide for life. 

We believe that God is living, active, and sovereign in our secular world.  This secular world is in part why we speak of our church as an outpost.  We are different.  This seems an obvious thing for a church to say, but in the world as we know it, it is quite difficult to maintain a meaningful belief that God moves and acts in the day-to-day of our experience.  I read just the other day that “prayers don’t stop bullets.”  The intent of the comment was to encourage something more helpful than prayer - which qualifies as good advice only if we believe God is not active or sovereign in this world.

God came to us (not we, to him), became one of us (He became human, not we godly), and as one of us made things right between us and God.  Through his life and death, he paid the debt for our sins, making peace with God possible again[1].  Without Jesus we are completely and shockingly without hope.  This is why we work to keep Christ at the center.  What else would we do?

[1] Colossians 2:13-14

The scriptures describe the Holy Spirit in many ways, but since the most ancient times Christians identified the Spirit as the Lord, the Giver of Life.  Paul writes over and over that the new life we have in Christ is a gracious work of the Spirit.  To enter our days alone, without the Spirit, without our brothers and sisters is a truly grave error of pride.

Though we live in a radically individualistic culture.  We believe when called by God we are called into a community of believers.  It is virtually impossible to grow in our faith or accomplish God’s mission without each other.

All of us are sent.  All of us have circles of influence.  Now we are to use that influence not simply for our interests, or the interests of those we love, now we also are called to consider how our influence can be used for Christ.