What We Believe

To give you a sense of where we’re coming from, here are a few things that are important to us.

We believe in Jesus—not as an abstraction, not as a doctrine, but as a person, human and divine. We believe an encounter with Jesus is the only path to life.

We believe the Bible is God's word. We don't worship the Bible, but we follow the word of God to Jesus, the ultimate Word of God, to whom each book, chapter, and sentence points. We strive to read each portion of Scripture according to its genre, context, and intent.

We believe there are inherent mysteries in the Bible, as in life, and that theology is not meant to remove these mysteries. There is room for disagreement and discussion. As we have studied, prayed, and pastored over the years, we have become less territorial over doctrine.

We believe the two greatest commands are to love God with everything we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We believe failing to obey these commands to love is a greater sin than failing to adopt an orthodox stance on every theological issue.

We believe every human being is a jackass on some level. This is another way of saying "all have sinned." We're broken, and in our pain we consistently hurt others. We also believe some of the worst pain human beings inflict on one another is that which is inflicted in the name of God. We believe we are the worst among jackasses and that Jesus is the true cure for jackassery. We write as a means of confession and in hopes of nudging the Church away from its jackass tendencies and closer to Jesus.

We’re probably not as heretical as you assume; we’re probably not as into your theological emphases as you want. Please avoid ridiculous assumptions and reading between the lines. Believe us when we say it’s pure coincidence that if you read this statement twice you’ll have read 666 words.