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What we believe and
Values
What is Trinity Presbyterian Church like? What do we
believe? What are our distinctives? What does it mean to be
reformed and Presbyterian? These are all great questions,
and while this overview may not answer every question, there
are some principles and characteristics that not only
accurately describe Trinity but also give us our guiding
values for the future.
We are evangelical
To say we are evangelical means that we identify with a
larger group of Christians who believe in certain
fundamentals of the Christian faith. It goes without saying
that Trinity is a Christian, Protestant church. But because
many other such churches no longer believe nor teach some of
the basic truths of historic Christianity, we joyfully
affirm our unity with those who believe in certain
fundamentals of the Christian faith: the existence of the
triune God, the deity of Jesus Christ, the virgin birth and
bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, the vicarious or
substitutionary atonement of Christ, the certain and bodily
return of Jesus Christ, the necessity of repentance and
faith in Jesus Christ for salvation from sin and all its
consequences, the historicity of supernatural events
described in the Bible, and the infallibility and inerrancy
of the Bible which is our only guide for faith and practice.
Though we may have certain disagreements in areas beyond
these fundamental truths, we affirm our unity with those who
share our common commitment to these most important
doctrines.
We are reformed
To say that we are reformed means that our theological
heritage and distinctives descend from the Protestation
Reformation of the 16th century and the theology of
reformers such as John Calvin, John Knox, and Martin Luther.
These distinctives include: the sovereignty of God in His
creation, providence and election of believers apart from
any merit of their own; the irresistible grace of God
provided for and preceding the faith of the individual; the
sufficiency of God's grace apart from which man is dead in
sin and wholly defiled in all his faculties of soul and
body; the efficacy of Christ's death for all those who
believe in Him by grace; the safe-guarding of all those for
whom Christ died for eternal life; salvation by grace
(alone) through faith (alone) in Christ (alone); the
underlying unity of the Old and New Testaments and abiding
validity of the moral law (Ten Commandments); and the
regulative principle of worship (whatever is not commanded
in worship is forbidden). This reformed heritage is
articulated in our Confession of Faith and Catechisms
[link]. These documents (available free of charge from the
church) are not infallible; however, we believe that these
documents are faithful expressions of God’s word. Therefore,
while members are not required to subscribe to the
Confession and catechisms, officers (elders and deacons) are
and all teachers in the church sign a teacher’s covenant
pledging to teach in conformity with the Confession and
Catechisms.
We are evangelistic
Jesus told his church to, “Go and make disciples of all
nations…” To say that we are evangelistic means that we take
that commission very seriously and therefore are committed
to aggressive evangelism in our community, city, state,
nation, and world. The gospel is the “power of salvation for
all who believe” and is therefore the hope of the world, not
simply the message for the church.
We are means of grace dependant
One of the most important questions anyone could ask is,
“How do I grow as a Christian?” We believe that God will
bless and grow His people through the use of the ordinary
means of grace: the reading and preaching of God’s Word, the
sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, prayer, and the
fellowship and accountability of the church family.
Therefore, the means of grace have a priority in the life
and ministry of Trinity Presbyterian Church whether in
worship, discipleship, or outreach and missions. We are
committed to simple, God-centered worship that draws on the
rich heritage of the reformed worship tradition.
We are Presbyterian
“Presbyterian” refers to our type of government. We believe
that the biblical form of government is through “elders” or
“presbyters” who govern the church together. The body of
elders that governs a local church like Trinity is called a
session; the body that governs a large geographical area of
churches is called a presbytery; the body that governs the
entire denomination is called General Assembly. This
Presbyterian form of government is contrasted to
congregational (government by the entire congregation) and
episcopal (government by an individual).
We are kingdom centered
Historically Trinity has had opportunity, by God’s grace, to
participate in a wide variety of ministries beyond the
specific ministries of this church body. We are committed to
engaging in ministry with other like-minded local churches,
Presbyteries, the denomination, and worldwide ministries in
order to extend the kingdom of God to the end of the earth.
While we are committed to being as specific and narrow as
possible in our theological formulations, we are committee
to being as catholic (universal or broad) as possible in our
fellowship with other Christians.
We are confessional
This means that we have a written confession of faith which
we believe to be a good and accurate summary of the Bible's
teaching. Our confession consists of the Westminster
Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms
[link]. These documents (available in our bookstore and
library) are not without flaw; yet we believe they do
contain carefully worded summaries of the Bible's content.
All ruling and teaching elders in the
Presbyterian Church in
America (PCA) must vow that they hold to these
standards and are required to indicate to their presbyteries
or sessions where they take exceptions. It is important to
note that every church has a confession, formal or informal,
even though some claim they have "no confession but Christ"
or "no creed but the Bible." Every church summarizes its
convictions in some form in order to distinguish its members
from those who are not believers or those who do not believe
in their church's distinctives.
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