ABOUT US | Calvin Presbyterian Church

Who We are Becoming

In a world that focuses on and celebrates the self, a world that strives for self-esteem, self-actualization, self-fulfillment, and self-discovery, we aim at a different glory. Following in the footsteps of Jesus, led and inspired by the Holy Spirit, we seek to remove ourselves from the center of our lives and focus instead on our Creator, and through Him on those around us. We believe that life is best lived, not by being faithful to our own inner truth, but by relating to others in the loving and self-forgetful manner of Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and Life.

So we aspire to be a people who follow God by being children, being brothers and sisters, and being neighbors.

Before reading further, please note: we speak of ideals and aspirations. We are describing relationships as they ought to be; not, tragically, as they are. We do not claim to have fully arrived at any of these lofty summits, only to be prayerfully climbing the hill. This is who we are in part. This is who we hope to become in full.

We relate to God by being children.

Before we are anything else, we are God’s beloved sons and daughters. We are the Father’s children, adopted into His perfect, eternal family as the Spirit unites us with the Son, Jesus.

  • Like children, we trust in and depend on our Father’s love, knowing we can do nothing to put ourselves outside His family. When all else fails, we know our Dad loves us.
  • Like children, we know we are unfinished. We know we have much growing left to do, and look upon our need for growth with eager expectation, not shame.
  • Like children, we delight simply to be with our Father. We enjoy His presence, and over time that presence causes us to acquire a family resemblance. His love makes us lovely.

 

We relate to one another by being brothers and sisters.

God has called us, not as individuals, but as a family centered around his Fatherhood. We are brothers and sisters with all other followers of Jesus across the world, and particularly with one another at Calvin.

  • Like brothers and sisters, we know one another well. We love one another too much to hide our struggles or let besetting sins eat away at our loved ones.
  • Like brothers and sisters, we help with any crisis, great or small, and we are unashamed in asking one another for help of any kind.
  • Like brothers and sisters, we pray for one another every day.

 

We relate to those around us by being neighbors.

Our Father has sent us, as He sent His Son, to particular times and places in order that, as members of God’s family, we might love God’s world.

  • Like neighbors, we live on a human scale. We are not too busy with the great issues of the world, nor with private concerns, to love whomever our Father brings across our path.
  • Like neighbors, we practice hospitality. We recognize that our lives and circumstances are not given to us to be guarded, but offered.
  • Like neighbors, we share what is needed without regard to cost. Above all, we share Jesus.

 

Essentials of Our Faith

As a congregation of the EPC, we affirm the following as essential to participating in the life of Jesus.

All Scripture is self-attesting and being Truth, requires our unreserved submission in all areas of life. The infallible Word of God, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is a complete and unified witness to God’s redemptive acts culminating in the incarnation of the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible, uniquely and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, is the supreme and final authority on all matters on which it speaks.

On this sure foundation we affirm these additional Essentials of our faith:

  1. We believe in one God, the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To Him be all honor, glory and praise forever!
  1. Jesus Christ, the living Word, became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth.He who is true God became true man united in one Person forever. He died on the cross a sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures. On the third day He arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, where, at the right hand of the Majesty on High, He now is our High Priest and Mediator.
  1. The Holy Spirit has come to glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to our hearts. He convicts us of sin and draws us to the Savior. Indwelling our hearts, he gives new life to us, empowers and imparts gifts to us for service. He instructs and guides us into all truth, and seals us for the day  of redemption.

 

 

 

  1. Being estranged from God and condemned by our sinfulness, our salvation is wholly dependent upon the work of God’s free grace. God credits His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justifies them in His sight. Only such as are born of the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus Christ become children of God and heirs of eternal life.
  1. The true Church is composed of all persons who, through saving faith in Jesus Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, are united together in the body of Christ. The Church finds her visible, yet imperfect, expression in local congregations where the Word of God is preached in its purity and the sacraments are administered in their integrity; where scriptural discipline is practiced, and where loving fellowship is maintained. For her perfecting, she awaits the return of her Lord.
  1. Jesus Christ will come again to the earth—personally, visibly, and bodily—to judge the living and the dead, and to consummate history and the eternal plan of God. “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” (Revelation 22:20)
  1. The Lord Jesus Christ commands all believers to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to make disciples of all nations. Obedience to the Great Commission requires total commitment to “Him who loved  us and gave Himself for us.” He calls us to a life of self-denying love and service. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

 

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