Teaching
The Kingdom of God is both here and now - and also coming. What is the Kingdom?
When Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray, he says "Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." So very simply, the Kingdom has come when God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
Sometimes this happens; many times it doesn't. This is why the Kingdom is both already here and yet coming. And there will be a time when Christ returns and the Kingdom will be fully realized. Every tear will be tried, every sorrow will cease, every evil will be exposed, everything that is wrong with the world will be redeemed - to the glory of God.
As Christians, we are to embody the Kingdom. To create small spaces where God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven. This means giving God glory and training ourselves to become like Jesus. This also includes fighting for justice for the poor and oppressed, caring for the widows and the orphans, feeding the hungry, comforting the afflicted (and afflicting the comfortable), healing the sick, loving the unlovely.
Loving God, loving people, making disciples. That's what it's all about. Jesus Christ. That's who it's all about.
Theology
God
We believe that God exists eternally as One Triune being, manifested in the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Human Beings
We believe that God created human beings in God's Image with the purpose of glorifying God and enjoying God forever. Sin, brought about by the free choice of human beings to actively oppose God's will, has marred this beautiful Image and separated human beings from God.
The Word: The Son
We believe that Jesus Christ is the Word of God, the full and final Revelation of God, sent into the world by the Father as the Son to bring light to all people and to restore God's Image to human beings. Restoration of God's Image and salvation for all of Creation, of which human beings are a part, depend on a relationship with Jesus. All who are to be saved are saved by what God has done in Jesus Christ through his teachings, his death on the Cross, and his Resurrection rather than by human effort or any organized religion (this includes Christianity.)
The Holy Spirit
We believe that The Holy Spirit is the love-bond found in the Triune Godhead, through which the Revelation of God in Jesus is made known to human beings.
Scripture
We believe that Scripture, as revealed to human beings by God through the Holy Spirit, is the Witness to the Word of God (The Son) who is God's full Revelation to Creation; as such it is infallible and is the supreme and trustworthy source for all matters of theology, doctrine, and Christian teaching. It is therefore the authoritative source for all aspects of Christian living and the church.
The Church
We believe that The Church exists as the body of Jesus Christ on earth; its purpose is to evangelize the lost and make disciples of the found, glorying God the Father through the witness of the Holy Spirit, and bearing witness to God's present and coming Kingdom on earth.
Eschatology
We believe that Christ will return, at a time unforeseen by any human being, to judge both the living and the dead and to establish God's Kingdom on earth. At this time, all people will be bodily resurrected. Those saved by Christ will be completely restored in the Image of God and enjoy eternal fellowship with God; those who are not saved will either be put back to death and remain eternally separated from God or will experience God's love as pure wrath for all eternity (either interpretation is Scriptural).
Salvation
All who are to be saved will be saved through what God has done in Christ (his life and teachings, his vicarious death, and his resurrection). No one comes to God except through him (John 14:6). However, there does seem to be room for the possibility of salvation for people who are not Christians. (1 Timothy 2:4; 4:10, Colossians 1:20; 1 Corinthians 15:28, 1 John 2:2). In other words, it is quite possible that while everyone who is to be saved will be saved through Christ, they may not be saved through Christianity (Jesus is the savior, not religion).
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