Messiah United Methodist Church
What We Believe
The United Methodist Church is a global denomination that opens hearts, opens minds and opens doors through active engagement with our world. The mission of The United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
We believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth
We affirm God is "everlasting" and "infinite" in "power, wisdom, justice, goodness, and love." Because we cannot speak literally about God, we use metaphors: God is a Shepherd, a Bridegroom, a Judge. God is Love or Light or Truth. We God creates, sustains, loves, suffers, judges, redeems and reigns.
We believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son,
our Lord
We believe in Jesus as God's special child. We call this the Incarnation, meaning that God was in the world in the actual person of Jesus of Nazareth.
We affirmed that Jesus was a person in every sense that we are. He was tempted. He grew weary. He wept. He expressed his anger. In fact, Jesus is God's picture of what it means to be a mature human being.
We also proclaim Jesus as our Lord, the one to whom we give our devoted allegiance. To claim Jesus as Lord is to freely submit our will to his, to humbly profess that it is he who is in charge of this world.
We believe in Jesus as Savior, as the one through whom God has freed us of our sin and has given us the gift of whole life, eternal life, and salvation. We believe that in ways we cannot fully explain, God has done this through the mystery of Jesus' self-giving sacrifice on the cross and his victory over sin and death in the Resurrection.
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We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
The Holy Spirit is God's present activity in our midst. When we sense God's leading, God's challenge, or God's support or comfort, we say that it's the Holy Spirit at work.
We believe in the Bible, the Word of God for the people of God.
We hold that the writers of the Bible were inspired by God, that they were filled with God's Spirit as they wrote the truth to the best of their knowledge.
We hold that God was at work in the process of canonization, during which only the most faithful and useful books were adopted as Scripture.
We hold that the Holy Spirit works today in our thoughtful study of the Scriptures, especially as we study them together, seeking to relate the old words to life's present realities.
We believe in the church - the people who love God and follow Jesus' teachings.
We believe that the church is the body of Christ, an extension of Christ's life and ministry in the world today.
We believe that the mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
We believe that the church is "the communion of saints," a community made up of all past, present, and future disciples of Christ.
We believe that the church is called to worship God and to support those who participate in its life as they grow in faith.