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As a member congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) we hold to the very basic set of beliefs laid out in the Preamble to the Design of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Those basic tennents are as follows:
1. We confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God,and proclaim him Lord and Savior of the world.
2. In Christ's name and by his grace we accept our mission of witness and service to all people.
3. We rejoice in God, maker of heaven and earth, and in God’s covenant of love which binds us to God and to one another.
4. Through baptism into Christ we enter into newness of life and are made one with the whole people of God.
5. In the communion of the Holy Spirit we are joined together in discipleship and in obedience to Christ. At the Table of the Lord we celebrate with thanksgiving the saving acts and presence of Christ.
6. Within the universal church we receive the gift of ministry and the light of Scripture.
7. In the bonds of Christian faith we yield ourselves to God that we may serve the One whose kingdom has no end.
Blessing, glory, and honor be to God forever. Amen.
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For those interested in reading The Design of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in its entirety, click on the link below.
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| What Our Congregation Believes |
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a diverse denomination made up of individuals from varying backgrounds and theological perspectives. It is a denomination made up of independent congregations in voluntary covenant with one another and not held together by hierarchical organizational structure. As a product of the Campbellite tradition springing out of the Restoration movement in the early 19th century, we have long prized the individual's right and ability to interpret the Scriptures for him/herself through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Two basic sayings have held true over the last 200 years; 1)"Where the Bible speaks, we will speak. Where the Bible is silent, we are silent" and 2) "In essential things, unity; in unessential things, liberty; in all things, charity (love)."
While these two statements remain true, there are many within the universal church and the culture that have confused the essential and the unessential, and have begun to speak for issues that are contrary to what is clearly written in Scripture. As Disciples, we hold to the belief that the only requirement for fellowship among believers is that they profess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and Him as Lord and Savior. However, at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Perryton, Texas we hold the following as our statement of faith regarding the essentials.
1.We believe that the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the three persons of the One; the Living, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient God.
2. We believe that God the Father is the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth.
3. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father and that salvation can only be received through acceptance of Him as Lord and Savior. Born of a virgin, wholly human and wholly divine, crucified on a cross as the atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, risen and alive he defeated Death and Satan's power over fallen humanity and sits at the right hand of the Father as Lord of Heaven and Earth.
4. We believe that the Holy Spirit is God's guiding hand in our lives. As Divine Wind, upon our acceptance of God's gift of salvation in Christ Jesus, he creates us anew from within and counsels us on our Christian walk always pointing us back to the Father.
5. We believe that the Holy Scriptures in the Bible are the authoritative Word of God. It is through reading the Scriptures that we come to know all of God's character and discover eternal truth. It is in the biblical text that the difference is revealed between God's character and man's sinful nature. It is in the biblical text that we learn the difference between God's absolute truth and man's relative truth.
6. We believe that communion is central to worship as it is in receiving the sacrament that we are reminded of Christ atoning sacrifice for a fallen world. It is also at the table that we are reminded that we are God's family, and it is at the table where families discuss their similarities and differences growing together in their relationship to one another.
7. We believe in baptism of believers by immersion. Baptism is our first act of obedience to Christ. We are immersed as it symbolizes our death to sin, burial and resurrection into the newness of life we receive in Christ. Although we practice believer's baptism by immersion, we accept those who have been baptized by other means.
Again, the above are not an attempt to put into place requirements for fellowship, but simply a statement of the faith of the congregation of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Perryton, Texas.
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