As United Methodists we share a great deal in common with many other Christian denominations. A more complete understanding of the doctrines of our church can be found in our Articles of Religion, Confession of Faith, and the historic creeds of the church, but the following beliefs will give you a quick introduction to who we are.
God
We affirm that there is one God, who is the Creator and sustainer of the universe. We believe that our one God is known to us in a Trinity of beings: God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus is the Christ/Messiah who is both fully human and fully divine, and was sent to secure our salvation through his life, death, and resurrection. We believe that after Jesus was resurrected from the dead he ascended into heaven, and that the Holy Spirit was sent to the Church to sustain us as the mystical body of Christ until the return of Jesus.
Scripture
We believe that our sacred scriptures contained in the Holy Bible are the divinely inspired word of God. We further believe that the revelations about God that are made in the Bible are sufficient to lead a person toward salvation and therefore should be received as the true rule and guide for faith. However, we do not read the Bible from a literalist or fundamentalist perspective. We recognize that the authors of scripture received their messages as a gift from the Holy Spirit and that we must also read the scriptures with the aid of the Holy Spirit and through the lens of Jesus Christ. We know that the scriptures are filled with poetry, metaphors, symbols, and other figurative language in order to convey infinite truths in finite language. We also know that our scriptures were written in particular times and places to particular groups of people within their own contexts. That long history of composition means that sometimes the authors of scripture even disagree with each other as they probe the depths of God’s mysteries. Our approach to scripture therefore is one of humble curiosity as we seek to discern how God continues to speak into our own lives through these ancient words. When we struggle to understand the meaning of scripture we are always guided by the truth that God is Love.
The Need of Salvation
We believe that salvation through Jesus is necessary because we live in a world of sin. We know that sin language has sometimes been misused and abused by the Church to harm people, and yet we recognize it to be a useful way of identifying the woundedness of the world when used responsibly. To speak of sin is to recognize the separation that we experience from the love of God, and by extension our failure to love one another. As Methodists we have a distinct belief that God’s power and presence in our lives (which we call grace) is moving us toward perfection in love. We believe that true religion is expressed in a feeling of gratitude toward God and loving mercy toward other humans.
The Sacraments
We recognize two sacraments as having been ordained by God through the ministry of Jesus: baptism and communion. Baptism is the sacrament by which we are reborn through water and the Spirit into the family of God. Through this sacrament we die to a life of sin and are “born again” to a life of holiness. Because we believe baptism to be the work of God we do practice infant baptisms; believing that God is already at work in a person’s life even before they are consciously able to recognize that work. Therefore, when a child is baptized it is expected that their family and the church will make vows on their behalf to lovingly raise that child within the Christian community until they can make an affirmation of faith for themselves. We also do not “rebaptize” because we believe that God’s work through the sacrament does not fail. There may be times when we wander away from the commitments made at our baptism and, in those cases, it is appropriate to remember our baptisms through a separate ritual where we reaffirm our own work in our relationship with God.
Communion is the sacrament that sustains us in the life of holiness. We believe that communion is not a mere memorial or symbol, but that through the ordinary elements of bread and wine/juice we encounter the real presence of Jesus. As United Methodists we practice open communion – meaning that a person does not need to be a member of our local churches or denomination in order to participate. We believe that God’s grace is made freely available to all people regardless of affiliation. All that we ask when inviting people to communion is that they 1) have an earnest desire to repent of their sins (meaning a genuine desire to leave behind the brokenness and hurt of their lives) 2) seek to know God and 3) seek to live in peace with one another.
Free Will
We believe that God has given each and every one of us the agency to make moral decisions in this life. We do not believe that certain people are predestined for salvation while others are predestined for damnation. God is ever reaching out to us, inviting us into a life of holiness expressed through love and justice. God does not force us in one direction or the other, but instead seeks to empower us through the gifts of the Spirit. It is our responsibility to use the gifts that we have been given.