Beliefs
1. God
We believe in the one true, holy and living God, Eternal Spirit, who is Creator, Sovereign and Preserver of all things visible and invisible. He is infinite in power, wisdom, justice, goodness and love. We believe the one God reveals himself as the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; distinct persons of one substance, power, and eternity.
2. Jesus Christ
We believe in Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man, in whom the divine and human natures are perfectly and inseparably united. As ministering Servant he lived, suffered and died on the cross. He was buried, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven to be with the Father, until His return. He is eternal Savior and Mediator, who intercedes for us, and by him all people will be judged.
3. The Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from and is one in being with the Father and the Son. He convinces the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He leads humanity through faithful response to the gospel into the fellowship of the Church. He comforts, sustains and empowers the faithful and guides them into all truth.
4. The Holy Bible
We believe the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, reveals the Word of God so far as it is necessary for our salvation. It is to be received through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice. We believe these scriptures to be authoritative, infallible, and inerrant.
5. The Church
We believe the Christian Church is the community of all true believers under the Lordship of Christ. It is the redemptive fellowship in which the Word of God is preached b men and women divinely called, and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christ's own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit the Church exists for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers and the redemption of the world.
6. The Sacraments
We believe the Sacraments, ordained by Christ, are symbols and pledges of the Christian's profession and of God's love toward us. They are means of grace by which God works invisibly in us, quickening, strengthening and confirming our faith in him. Two Sacraments are ordained by Christ, namely Baptism and the Lord's Supper. We believe Baptism signifies the entrance into the household of faith, and is a symbol of repentance and inner cleansing from sin, a representation of the new birth in Christ and a mark of Christian discipleship. We believe children are under the atonement of Christ and as heirs of the Kingdom of God are acceptable subjects for Christian Baptism. Children of believing parents through Baptism become the special responsibility of the Church. They should be nurtured and led to personal acceptance of Christ, and by profession of faith confirm their Baptism. We believe the Lord's Supper is a representation of our redemption, a memorial of the sufferings and death of Christ, and a token of love and union which Christians have with Christ and with one another. Those who rightly, worthily and in faith eat the broken bread and drink the blessed cup partake of the body and blood of Christ in a spiritual manner until he comes.
7. Sin and Free Will
We believe that humanity is fallen from righteousness and, apart from the grace of our Lord, is destitute of holiness and inclined to evil. Except a person be born again, they cannot see the Kingdom of God. In our own strength, without divine grace, we cannot do good works pleasing and acceptable to God. We believe humanity, influenced and empowered by the Holy Spirit is responsible in freedom to exercise their will for good.
8. Salvation
We believe that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The offering Jesus freely made on the cross is the perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, redeeming us from all sin, so that no other satisfaction is required. We believe we are never accounted righteous before God through our own works or merit, but that penitent sinners are justified or accounted righteous before God only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe regeneration is the renewal of persons in righteousness through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, whereby they are made partakers of the divine nature and experience newness of life. By this new birth the believer becomes reconciled to God and is enabled to serve him with the will and the affections. We believe, although we have experienced regeneration, it is possible to depart from grace and fall into sin; and we may even then, by the grace of God, be renewed in righteousness.
9. Sanctification and Christian Perfection
We believe sanctification is the work of God's grace through the Word and the Spirit, by which those who have been born again are cleansed from sin in their thoughts, words and acts, and are enabled to live in accordance with God's will, and to strive for holiness without which no on will see the Lord. Entire sanctification is a state of perfect love, righteousness and true holiness which every regenerate believer may obtain by being delivered from the power of sin, by loving God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength, and by loving one's neighbor as one's self. Through faith in Jesus Christ this gracious gift may be received in this life both gradually and instantaneously, and should be sought earnestly by every child of God We believe this experience does not deliver us from the infirmities, ignorance, and mistakes common to humanity, nor from the possibilities of further sin. The Christian must continue on guard against spiritual pride and seek to gain victory over ever temptation to sin. They must respond wholly to the will of God so that sin will lose its power over them; and the world, the flesh, and the devil are put under their feet. Thus we rule over these enemies with watchfulness through the power of the Holy Spirit.
10. The Judgment
We believe all people stand under the righteous judgment of Jesus Christ, both now and in the last day. We believe in the resurrection of the dead; the righteous to life eternal and the wicked to endless condemnation.
These beliefs come from the 2000 edition of The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church. Most of this is "word-for-word" from The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church and The Confession of Faith of the Evangelical United Brethren Church. Some words have been changed or omitted for better understanding.