THE CENTER for MISSIONAL LEADERSHIP

STATEMENT OF FAITH

The Center for Missional Leadership is an interdenominational ministry, praying for unity of the body of Christ and distributing the same grace to each other that we ourselves have been given by our Lord Jesus Christ. We bear witness to the following Statement of Faith:

I. God has revealed Himself to be the living and true God, perfect in love and righteous in all His ways, one in essence, existing eternally in the three persons of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

II. God, who discloses Himself to mankind through His creation, has spoken in the words and events of redemptive history. History is fulfilled in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, who is made known to us in Scripture and by the Holy Spirit.

III. The Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, is the written word of God, the infallible rule of faith and practice. Scripture is to be interpreted according to context, purpose and in reverent obedience to the Lord who speaks through us in the living power of the Holy Spirit.

IV. God, by His Word and for His glory, freely created the world. He created us in His image for us to have a relationship with Him. Tempted by Satan, we fell into sin, and we rebeled against God. Being estranged from our Creator, apart from His grace through Jesus Christ, we are incapable of returning to God.

V. The only mediator between God and humanity is Jesus Christ our Lord and savior, God's eternal son, who, being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, fully shared in our humanity and redeemed our lives with a life of perfect obedience. By His death in our place, He revealed God's divine love for us and upheld divine justice, removing our guilt and reconciling us to God. Having redeemed us from sin, on the third day Jesus Christ rose bodily from the grave, victorious over death and the powers of darkness. He ascended into Heaven where, at God's right hand, He intercedes for His people and rules as Lord over all Creation on earth.

VI. The Holy Spirit, through the proclamation of the Gospel, renews our hearts, and persuades us to repent of our sins and confess Jesus as Lord. By the same Spirit we are led to trust in divine mercy, whereby we are forgiven all our sins, justified by faith alone through the merit of Jesus Christ our Savior, and granted the gift of eternal life by His sovereign grace.

VII. God graciously adopts us into His family and enables us to call him Father. As we are led by the Spirit, we grow in the knowledge of the Lord, freely keeping his commandments and endeavoring so to live in the world that all may witness good works that flow from our hearts, out of love for Him and His people, by His grace, and solely to point to redemption through Jesus Christ and to the glory of God the Father who is in heaven.

VIII. God, by His Word and Spirit creates the one holy, universal and apostolic Church, calling sinners out of the whole human race into the fellowship of Christ's Body. By the same Word and Spirit, He guides and preserves for eternity new and redeemed humanity, which, being formed in every culture, and is spiritually one with the people of God in all ages.

IX. The Church is summoned by Christ to offer acceptable worship to God and to serve Him in His mission to the world by preaching the gospel and making disciples of all nations, by tending the flock through the ministry of the word, ordinances and sacraments, by daily pastoral care, by striving for social justice, by relieving human distress and need, and by issuing the grace and mercy that we have been given by the Lord. By doing so, we reveal the amazing grace and glory of God that is His alone.

X. God's redemptive purpose will be consummated by the return of Jesus Christ to raise the dead, to judge all people according to the deeds done in the body, and to establish His glorious kingdom. The wicked shall be separated from God's presence, but the righteous shall live and reign with Him forever. Then shall the eager expectation of the creation be fulfilled and the whole earth will proclaim the glory of God, who makes all things new. 


**Adopted from Fuller Seminary Statement of Faith