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Statement of Beliefs
You are likely reading this, because you are a responsible thinking person who wants to avoid investing any time, heart or treasure in a community only to find out it has crazy beliefs, is flaming liberal, flaming conservative or watered-down centrist. We find Union does not fit nicely on that spectrum since following Jesus often cuts transversally through such culturally created definitions.
Historically, healthy churches have made distinctions between essential and non-essential beliefs: beliefs vital to a saving and transforming relationship with Jesus and those that are not. This is not to say non-essential beliefs are not important nor can serve to strengthen faith and guard against life-wounding falsehoods, just that they are not key to forgiveness, the indwelling of Jesus’ Spirit and living as part of God’s Dream forever. People of good faith can differ on interpretations and expressions of non-essential beliefs.
“Jesus Christ is Lord” is the basic statement of faith for Union and sums up a good deal of the essentials when unpacked. “Jesus” communicates Jesus is fully human. “Christ”, identifies Jesus as the divinely anointed one, sent to redeem all of creation through the cross. “Is” states the present and forever reality of Jesus and “Lord” declares Jesus’ singular lordship and eternal sovereignty over death and all creation.
In other words, we believe the incarnation, the divinity of Jesus, the reconciling work of Christ on the cross, the resurrection, the empowering of Holy Spirit and Christ’s return bringing heaven and earth together, are central to our faith, as is the belief we receive the benefit of all this—a rescuing and transformative relationship with the Living Triune God—by grace through faith and that scripture is the inspired word of God for faith and practice.
But what about infant or adult baptism? Is scripture infallible, inerrant, a witness to the Living Word or riddled with error? What do we believe about abortion, gender issues, nuclear defense, marriage, use of spiritual gifts and details of last days? Truth be told, given the size of our community you will find people who agree with you and those who disagree with you. Some may ask, “what kind of witness does that provide?” We believe a pretty awesome one. Isn’t the truth and beauty of the gospel most powerfully revealed in people, who disagree with one another, choosing to love one another as Christ has loved them?
Non-essentials are important, but they are not essential enough to allow division within the church. Union welcomes people with different views on non-essential doctrines and theologies as well as people with tons of questions who are exploring what they believe. We are a community with a mixture of theological, ethnic, gender, political and social views leading us, as “iron sharpens iron,” to discover how to love people we differ with and to reflect more the image of Christ within us.
We choose to express these differences in love and not allow them to tear apart our unity or subvert our primary call to bear witness to Christ by our love for one another. Instead, we choose to allow our lives to be shaped by the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord.