Who We Are
For a recent Upward Basketball season, we created these four videos that illuminate four key aspects of who we are as a church community. We hope these videos will give you insight into what we believe God calls us to be. Further down the page, you'll find info about the beliefs about the worldwide community we are part of -- the Church of the Nazarene.
AGREED STATEMENT OF BELIEF
These are the beliefs Nazarenes hold to be true:
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We believe in one God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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We believe that the Old and New Testament Scriptures, given by absolute inspiration, contain all truth necessary to faith and Christian living.
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We believe that all people are born with a fallen nature, and are, therefore, continually inclined to evil.
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We believe that those who die without repenting are hopelessly and eternally lost.
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We believe that the atonement through Jesus Christ is for the whole human race; and that whosoever repents and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is justified and regenerated and saved from the dominion of sin.
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We believe that believers are to be sanctified wholly, subsequent to regeneration, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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We believe that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the new birth, and also to the entire sanctification of believers.
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We believe that our Lord will return, the dead will be raised, and the final judgment will take place.
OUR CORE VALUES
We Are A Christian People
As members of the Church Universal, we join with all true believers in proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ and in affirming the historic Trinitarian creeds and beliefs of the Christian faith. We value our Wesleyan-Holiness heritage and believe it to be a way of understanding the faith that is true to Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience.
We Are a Holiness People
God, who is holy, calls us to a life of holiness. We believe that the Holy Spirit seeks to do in us a second work of grace, called by various terms including "entire sanctification" and "baptism with the Holy Spirit"- cleansing us from all sin, renewing us in the image of God, empowering us to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves, and producing in us the character of Christ. Holiness in the life of believers is most clearly understood as Christlikeness.
We Are a Missional People
We are a sent people, responding to the call of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to go into all the world, witnessing to the Lordship of Christ and participating with God in the building of the Church and the extension of His kingdom (Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 6:1). Our mission begins in worship, ministers to the world in evangelism and compassion, encourages believers toward Christian maturity through discipleship, and prepares women and men for Christian service through Christian higher education.