What does St. Paul's believe?
Our Mission - At St. Paul's we believe God has called us to"touch and make lives whole in Christ: spirit, mind and body."
Wholeness in Christ is only experienced through full surrender to Christ, and is demonstrated in one’s commitment to the following principles:
Making Jesus Lord - I believe that I am truly free to live my life only when I am bound to Jesus in full surrender (slavery) as Lord and Master of my life, and I therefore place God’s agenda before my own in my choices and actions.
Ephesians 1:22 (NIV) And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church.
Biblical authority - I believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and therefore the highest voice / source of authority for truth in decision-making, belief, and values. The Bible overrides personal opinion, feelings, and the dominant value system of the culture.
2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.
Loving adoration of God through worship - I believe worship is a lively meeting of God with His people and a mutual exchange of love, and therefore I release myself to focus my full attention upon God in my worship.
Mark 12:30 (NIV) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
A lifestyle of prayer - I believe prayer is to the spirit what oxygen is to the body; it is the lifeline that sustains and fuels the Christian life, and I am therefore in perpetual conversation with, and awareness of, God throughout the day.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NIV) Pray continually.
Authentic Christian community - I believe that God exists in community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and I am therefore created to be in authentic community through a small group of other Christ followers for the intentional purpose of my spiritual formation.
Acts 2:46 (NIV) Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.
Servant-ministry - I believe God has given me a spiritual gift mix for serving Him, therefore I am to discover and develop my gifts, and in obedience to God’s call, not my personal convenience, deploy my gifts by serving others in ministry (within the body of Christ) and in mission (beyond the body of Christ).
Mark 12:31a (NIV) “. . . Love your neighbor as yourself.”
1 Peter 4:10 (NIV) Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.
Sacrificial living - I believe I must sacrifice what I want for myself for what God wants from me and my life financially, relationally and vocationally, and practice generosity by giving away rather than hoarding life.
Mark 8:34 (NIV) Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
1 Corinthians 16:2 (NIV) On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
Deuteronomy 16:17 (NIV) Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.
Discipling Others - I believe I am a representative for Christ in the world and therefore intentionally reproduce in others the life of Christ forming within me.
2 Timothy 2:2 (NIV) And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.
Proverbs 27:17 (NIV) As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.