Holding to the historic teachings of the Christian Faith regarding the nature of God and the person/work of Jesus Christ (Nicaea and Chalcedon), which proceed from the view that the Bible is the unique revelation of God, and therefore authoritative and sufficient for all of life and practice, we believe the following:
• Life is ultimately about loving, connected relationships because the Creator of all things is Himself a relational Being – i.e. He exists eternally as a loving, connected Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• Loving, connected relationship with God and others is the deepest longing of the human heart. Such relationships alone give the lasting satisfaction and meaning to life that we all seek and desire.
• Gender/Sexuality is a sacred stewardship of creational design. God created men and women to both represent and reflect Him equally but differently in this this world. God uniquely designed men to reflect His strength and movement that creates life, while He designed women to uniquely reflect His beauty and grace that enhances life. Thus, God intends a man and woman – united together in marriage – to be a full-reflection of Him, the very God who blesses the world with order, beauty, goodness and life.
• Because of their foolish belief that goodness/life could be found outside of God, the first Couple chose to disregard their creational design and seek life apart from God (i.e. sin). When this happened the world became a broken place and people were infected with the virus of shame, becoming relationally disconnected from God, each other, Creation, and even themselves. This relational disconnection is the reason for all human loneliness, isolation, fear, hatred, conflict, misery, and death.
• Jesus Christ came into the world to restore life-giving connection with God that is ruptured by our “foolish thinking” (Goodness/life can be found outside of God). He did this by His sacrificial death on the cross that God says alone pays the penalty that our foolish thinking requires, which is judgment and eternal separation from God.
• Our ruptured connection with God is repaired through faith alone in the gracious payment Jesus made on our behalf. It is not repaired by anything we earn or accomplish through our performance or behavior.
• When ruptured-connection with God is repaired through faith in Christ a man’s masculinity and a woman’s femininity can begin the process of being restored to properly reflect the God it was originally designed to reflect. It is through this restorative process in Christ, which is enabled by God’s Spirit that men and women can begin to joyfully realize their God-given design of bringing order, beauty, goodness and life to the World, being united together as God’s representatives.