I Believe

Statement of Faith

I believe in one triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: God for us, God with us, and God in us.

I believe in God the Father, creator of all things, visible and invisible. God created humankind, man and woman together, in God’s image. Man and woman, being the sole bearers of God’s image, have been chosen from the beginning to be in special relationship with God.  However, humanity chose their own desires over God’s decrees. In so doing, sin was introduced into the world resulting in a rift in man and woman’s relationship with God, with creation and with one another.

Nevertheless, God would not abandon his creation. God the Father, almighty and powerful, brought liberation to God’s people. God the Father, righteous and holy, called God’s people to be set apart in covenant relationship. God the Father, faithfully steadfast, full of mercy and compassionate love, forgives and makes the way for reconciliation to the thousandth generation. 

I believe in God’s one and only Son, Jesus Christ. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the virgin Mary conceived and bore a real flesh and blood child who was at the same time wholly God. The life Jesus lived- proclaiming God’s word, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, caring for the poor and rejected, loving the unlovely- revealed the Father’s relentless love for the world. Under the rule of Pontius Pilate, Jesus submitted himself to death on a cross. He died, was buried, and rose again after three days. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus atoned for the sin of all humankind and inaugurated the kingdom of God. Jesus ascended into heaven and that he will return again to fulfill what was begun in his resurrection- God’s kingdom here on earth wherein all creation will be made new and the rifts created by sin will be no more.

I believe in God, the Holy Spirit, the comforter, sustainer, encourager, purifier, giver of life and freedom. The Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to enter into right relationship with God and with one another. The Holy Spirit inspired the composition of Scripture, God’s holy and authoritative word. And it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to hear and understand this age-old word as God’s living word to us today. It is the Holy Spirit who acts through the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, making ordinary elements of water, bread and wine to be for us means of extraordinary grace. It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to pray, even when we do not have words. The Holy Spirit indwells all believers, providing a variety of spiritual gifts to be used for the advancement of God’s church.

I believe that God’s triune nature reveals God to be relational and sending. Just as a bridegroom commits himself to his bride, so has God chosen to wed Godself to the church in loving devotion. Just as God sent Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit into the world, so too does God send out each believer, calling and empowering the church to be Christ’s body, living and acting by God’s grace to represent God’s love, mercy, righteousness, and commitment to justice for all to see until Jesus Christ comes again.

Leadership Style

Before everything else, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. With Christ as my Savior, I seek to follow His example, leading by choosing to become a servant to all.

My leadership style falls into three categories: Vision-Caster, Administrator, and Empowerer. 

I am a Vision-Caster. I think creatively and envision the big-picture possibilities the future might hold. I act as a spokesperson, representing the things I care about with passion and clarity. In sharing that excitement with others, I seek to make every vision an endeavor of the whole community.

I am an Administrator. I see and lead toward the achievement of the immediate steps necessary to make such visions possible. I am energetic, meticulous, and practical in my goals and their execution. 

I am an Empowerer. While I am a highly motivated self-starter, I enjoy working with groups. I find that collaboration yields much more creative and fruitful results than working in isolation. I work as a coach, coming alongside others to inspire, aid, encourage, and offer assistance wherever needed.

Vision for Ministry

A few years ago, as I served in ministry as an intern with World Vision in Zambia, I prayed that God would allow me to look out into the world with God’s eyes, to see the world as God sees it. I prayed that the things that break God’s heart would break mine also. God answered that prayer by helping to see our world through new eyes. I saw our world as consisting of two groups of people:

The first group of people includes the citizens of Zambia and those of other impoverished nations who are held captive to their own poverty, unable to escape from the prison of dirty water, chronic hunger, disease, and death. No matter how hard they work, their poverty keeps them in chains, unable to live the full and complete lives that God desires for all people.

My own people, North Americans and other wealthy westerners, comprise the second group. We too are held captive- but our chains are our own prosperity. The more money we make and the more goods we amass, the more we think we need. We are enslaved to our own desires, seeking to fulfill a desire that no amount of money can ever satisfy. We too are unable to live the full and complete lives that God desires.

And I realized that these two experiences of captivity are completely interrelated. My culture’s captivity to prosperity contributes to another culture’s captivity to poverty. 

Scripture reveals God to be a God of liberation. Over and over again in the Biblical story, God steps into history to set God’s people free. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has broken the chains of sin and death and has made a way for all to be free from that which seeks to enslave us.

As a pastor in America, I am committed to proclaiming a message that is different than what our consumer culture tells us: to proclaim freedom in the name of the one Lord Jesus Christ. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom: 

freedom from sin, from isolation, and from indifference

freedom for new life, for community and for vocation.

Thus my ministry will be shaped by the holy task and privilege of introducing people to Jesus Christ: Inviting people to…

Know the Person of Jesus Christ through…

Proclaiming Christ’s Lordship from Scripture

Enabling people know themselves as forgiven by God

Inviting people to worship Him as Lord and receive nourishment in the Sacraments.

Be a part of His Body by…

Making His love known in the context of incarnational relationships

Offering opportunities to partake authentic, accepting relationships in a Christ-centered community

Teaching people how to function as members of this Body, each one knowing their valuable place therein and contributing his or her unique gifts.

Play a part of His Work in the world in…

Sharing the Gospel message with those who do not know

Loving the unlovely

Serving those in need

Fighting injustice in all its forms.