{"id":18,"date":"2008-12-14T20:05:11","date_gmt":"2008-12-15T01:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summitprojects.org\/?page_id=18"},"modified":"2026-01-02T10:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:24:21","slug":"what-we-believe","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/first-presby.org\/index.php\/about\/what-we-believe","title":{"rendered":"What We Believe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our vision statement:<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

“Living fully in Christ through His Word, community and mission.”<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n

Living fully<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Christian life is a dynamic, overflowing experience.\u00a0 Jesus said that He came to bring us an abundant life \u2013 one that overflows with a sense of purpose, a central peace, a freedom from crushing guilt, and a joy that comes from being in a right relationship with God and with people around us.\u00a0 This is the life we were created to have.\u00a0 It\u2019s what we\u2019re all thirsting for.\u00a0 Jesus described it to a seeker as a spring that bubbles up within us and never runs dry.<\/p>\n

Living fully in Christ<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The source of this abundant life, however, isn\u2019t a system of ethics.\u00a0 It\u2019s not religious ritual.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a self-initiated morality.\u00a0 It\u2019s a relationship with the Creator through His Son, Jesus, who stood in our place to receive the punishment our sins deserved.\u00a0 For those who believe, His death and resurrection restore that connection to God that He desired from the start.\u00a0 And that reconnection shapes how we live our lives: we find our daily purpose and power in Christ.\u00a0 We live in Him<\/em>.\u00a0 Little by little, we become more like Him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What enables us to live this dynamic life in Christ?\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We see three essential components:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His Word<\/strong><\/p>\n

Far more than a simple moral guide, the Bible is the authoritative source for understanding God and how to relate to Him.\u00a0 It is God\u2019s inspired and reliable Word.\u00a0 And though it can be challenging to understand, we\u2019re eager to engage Scripture because we see in it God\u2019s great desire to open a dialogue with us \u2013 He speaks through His Word, showing us how to rightly respond to Him in prayer and worship.\u00a0 And the Bible guides our actions as well.\u00a0 What we learn about God and ourselves through personal study, preaching and small group discussion shapes the way we live.<\/p>\n

Community<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we come to Christ, we\u2019re adopted into a spiritual family.\u00a0 We\u2019re not alone any more.\u00a0 God reveals Himself in a special way to the community of believers that cannot be experienced by individuals.\u00a0 His grace is made real through the ways we care and serve each other.\u00a0 Because we all see ourselves as flawed but forgiven, we can build real trust and accountability. As we share our lives, we experience what the Bible calls true fellowship.<\/p>\n

Mission<\/strong><\/p>\n

As God shares His heart with us through His Word and through other followers of Christ, our hearts overflow with a desire to bless those around us.\u00a0 We realize that the spring of life within us is not meant just for us, but to satisfy the spiritual thirst of people He has put in our lives \u2013 not only here in our local communities, but across the world.\u00a0 He calls us to give and to get involved.\u00a0 And as we do, we find ourselves drawing closer to Jesus and to each other.<\/p>\n

We know we\u2019ve still got much room to grow in these areas.\u00a0 But our vision is of what God desires us to be.\u00a0 And we\u2019re excited about the journey!<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our vision statement: “Living fully in Christ through His Word, community and mission.” Living fully The Christian life is a dynamic, overflowing experience.\u00a0 Jesus said that He came to bring … Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":2,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/Pa0M4a-i","featured_media_urls":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/first-presby.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/first-presby.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/first-presby.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/first-presby.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/first-presby.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/first-presby.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7848,"href":"https:\/\/first-presby.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions\/7848"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/first-presby.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/first-presby.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}