Welcome to St. George's! We are committed to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20). We accomplish this mission by focusing on four key aspects of the Christian life: Worship, Love, Learn, Serve. We want all our members to be regular in attending worship services, being in fellowship with one another and supporting prayerfully and financially the work of our Church. We want to be committed to learning the Bible and the doctrines of our faith, and serving the poor, lost, and needy in our community, the nation, and the world.
We believe that Jesus is Lord. This is perhaps the oldest profession of Christian faith. Everyone, everywhere, always serves someone or something. Christians profess that we serve Jesus Christ. He is our Lord, and we claim that he was crucified for our sins according to the Scriptures and raised on the third day for our justification (1 Cor 15:3-5; Rom 4:25). Because he has loved and forgiven us, we reach out and welcome others in love. Three things are essential to establishing and shaping our faith in Jesus Christ, our understanding of God, the world, and even ourselves.
The Bible
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and that the Holy Scriptures are the final authority in revealing who God is, and what he has done in history to redeem human beings through Jesus Christ. The Bible is not just a list of do's and don'ts, nor is it a guidebook with helpful hints on how to live a better life. While it does contain rules and has plenty of guidance on how God wants people to live their lives, ultimately it is a Story. It is a great drama written over thousands of years by many different people, but it is One Story filled with imperfect broken people, great battles, tragedy, comedy, sacrifice, betrayal, hope, and ultimately grace, love, and redemption of the lost. While this Story involves a cast of thousands, the central figure is Jesus Christ. The Story is really all about him, and we read his story to know him and trust him with our very lives.
Tradition
The historic guidelines of our faith and worship are outlined in the 39 Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer. We value tradition because it means we value the ideas and experiences of those who have gone before us. It means we stand on their shoulders and in so doing have (ideally) a clearer perspective. We are not the first to ask questions of faith, nor should we rely only on ourselves and current issues to find our answers. Tradition grounds us in an ever-changing and unpredictable world. We value our traditions not blindly or simply for their own sake, but because they have stood the test of time. Our traditions are derived from and measured against Scripture, but are never held above God's Word.
Thinking
Faith is not simply an emotion or an experience, something generated on our own. Such "faith" is inward looking and focused on the self. True faith must have an object, something outside of yourself, and to which you fix your hope and trust. Faith is ultimately a gift from God which enables us to cling to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and new life in his Name. True faith is not a blind leap, but requires our minds to be engaged with the things of God and His Kingdom. Christians are meant to love God with our heart, souls, and minds. Loving God with our minds means we can ask tough questions and strive to find the right answers. Christianity is a religion of history, that is, it stands or falls on whether certain events outside Jerusalem 2000 years ago happened or they didn't. Christianity invites investigation and has always invited investigation from the very beginning, even if at times the church has had seasons where such investigation has been frowned on. Nonetheless, we can investigate the historical truth claims of Christianity and with our minds come to a reasonable conclusion that what we believe is true because it is grounded in verifiable fact, not just because of a feeling we have in our hearts. There is a joy and peace which comes from Christ, to be sure, and these are meant to meld together with reasonable discernment of the truth of our religion. In addition, over the centuries Christians have developed Creeds, or statements of faith, which describe what we believe and help our minds love and understand God. Very early forms of creeds can be found in the New Testament itself, for example 1 Corinthians 15:3-12 and Philippians 2:5-11. One of the oldest formal creeds dating to the fourth century, is called the Nicene Creed, which we say every Sunday in worship. The other two historic creeds universally recognized are the Apostle's Creed and the Athanasian Creed.