Our Beliefs
We believe that we live out an active faith that is seen in our community and in our mission outreach to the world. The challenge before us is how to live out that identity in a way that invites, receives, nurtures and sends forth disciples of Jesus Christ.
We see all our work in the ministry of Christ as a series of holy choices. There are choices for our private lives, our church and our leadership in the world. Each choice we make whether as an individual, a family, a youth group, trustees or a church council has an impact on the way in which we grow into the image of Christ as his disciples. To present our continuing spiritual formation as a series of holy choices that brings us into closer relationship with the Christ who calls us seems a logical way to form disciples in a local congregation. The holy choices before us are ones that help us to daily seek Christ.
Our mission statement at FUMC, established long ago, is “Seek Christ today.” Four short statements: Called to Faith, Connected to God, Committed to Growth and Commissioned to Serve, reflect the United Methodist desire for each United Methodist Church to invite, receive, nurture and send forth are the practical steps we at FUMC have chosen to seek Christ daily.
We hope you will join us at First Church as we continue to seek
Christ today by living an active faith in community with one another
and in mission to our world.
Our United Methodist Beliefs
With Christians in other communions we confess belief in the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This confession embraces the biblical witness to God’s activity in creation, encompasses God’s gracious self-involvement in the dramas of history, and anticipates the consummation of God’s reign.
We hold in common with all Christians a faith in the mystery of salvation in and through Jesus Christ. At the heart of the gospel is God’s incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth. Scripture witnesses to the redeeming love of God in Jesus’ life and teachings, his atoning death, his resurrection, his sovereign presence in history, his triumph over the powers of evil and death, and his promised return. Because God truly loves us in spite of our willful sin, God judges us, summons us to repentance, pardons us, receives us by that grace given to us in Jesus Christ, and gives us hope of eternal life.
We share the Christian belief that God’s redemptive love is realized in human life by the activity of the Holy Spirit, both in personal experience and in the community of believers. This community is the church, which the Spirit has brought into existence for the healing of the nations.
Through faith in Jesus Christ we are forgiven, reconciled to
God, and transformed as people of the new covenant.
Life in the Spirit involves diligent use of the means of grace such as
praying, fasting, attending upon the sacraments, and inward searching
in solitude. It also encompasses the communal life of the church in
worship, mission, evangelism, service and social witness.
We understand ourselves to be part of Christ’s universal church when by adoration, proclamation, and service we become conformed to Christ. We are initiated and incorporated into this community of faith by Baptism, receiving the promise of the Spirit that recreates and transforms us. Through regular celebration of Holy Communion, we participate in the risen presence of Jesus Christ and are thereby nourished for faithful discipleship.
With other Christians we recognize that the reign of God is both a present and future reality. The church is called to be place where the first signs of the reign of God are identified and acknowledged in the world. Wherever persons are being made new creatures in Christ, wherever the insights and resources of the gospel are brought to bear on the life of the world, God’s reign is already effective in its healing and renewing power.
We also look to the end time in which God’s work will be fulfilled. This prospect gives us hope in our present actions as individuals and as the Church. This expectation saves us from resignation and motivates our continuing witness and service.
We share with many Christian communions a recognition of the authority of Scripture in matters of faith, the confession that our justification as sinners is by grace through faith, and the sober realization that the church is in need of continual reformation and renewal.
We affirm the general ministry of all baptized Christians who share responsibility for building up the church and reaching out in mission and service in the world.
With other Christians, we declare the essential oneness of the church in Christ Jesus. This rich heritage of shared Christian belief finds expression in our hymnody and liturgies. Our unity is affirmed in the historic creeds as we confess one holy, catholic (universal), and apostolic church.
(Paragraph 101, Book of Discipline, United Methodist Church, 2004)