In Christ, God raises up his creation and he creates a new humanity. This new humanity is the people of God, the community of Christ, the church. The prophets in the Old Testament spoke of the new people of God. In the book of Ezekiel, there is a graphic vision of a pile of dead bones in a valley. The prophet watches the Spirit of God blow over these bones and make them rattle together, grow skin, and come to life. From the old people, a new people is formed.

The book of Ephesians speaks of Christ making one new man out of Israel and the rest of the nations. In the First Letter of Peter, the church is called, A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were no people but now you are God’s people (I Peter 2:9-10). In Jesus Christ, God forms this new community and he dwells in it. The Lord lives among his people. He is among us protecting us, holding us up, feeding us, speaking to us, comforting us, correcting us, and guiding us to completion. The living God is not absent from us, or gone away from us until better times, he is in our midst now. When we gather together in worship, the living Lord is present with us. In the New Testament, the church is called the temple of God (I Corinthians 3:16) and the house of God (Hebrews 3:1-6). In keeping with these metaphors, we are in community with God.

We have been brought into fellowship with each other in Christ. This fellowship is a strange assortment of people with very different interests, incomes, habits, and experiences. We would not naturally come together. It is the Lord's doing. As the fellowship of the Lord, we are to be devoted to each other at all costs. Indeed, the cost will often be great - the cost of time, energy, and priorities. Scripture prescribes this devotion when it tells us that the Christians in Jerusalem...devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers (Acts 2:42). In the church, we are to be lovingly and sacrificially committed to each other. This is what the Spirit of God is doing among us. ::

What We Believe about: Community | Worship | Christian Vocation