What We Believe
Interested in what we believe? Good! We encourage people to thoughtfully reflect upon our church's beliefs because we know what you believe affects how you will live.
Orchard Christian Fellowship is a Christ-centered church, dedicated to the spiritual growth of the whole congregation through inspired worship, life-changing Christian education, committed service to others and active evangelism, with a rich fellowship of love and caring for each member of our church family.
Our Core Values Statement
We, the members and friends of Orchard Christian Fellowship hold in high regard, and value, relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, relationship with others, serving others and the Bible. It is our hope that those who join us would hold these values in high regard as well.
We believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God. That His word is never changing and is the compass for our daily lives.
We believe in one God, creator of heaven and earth who exists eternally in three persons- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each believer needs to establish, pursue, and maintain a deep, loving, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ by obeying God’s Word, yielding to the Holy Spirit, and conforming to the image of Christ.
We believe in establishing, maintaining, and deepening a loving relationship with those in the body of Christ. We desire to be a welcoming congregation to believers and seekers, who reach beyond ourselves to our town, nation and world.
We believe in serving others with our talents, gifts and finances and to have the heart of a servant as we see in Christ’s example to us.
Our Beliefs
Orchard Christian Fellowship remembers what God has done for all humanity in the sacrifice and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. We also proclaim to our church, our denomination, and the community in which we live exactly what we believe.
We join with a rapidly growing movement of New Wineskin Churches of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church proclaiming that:
- We believe in one God, the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To Him be all honor, glory and praise forever!
- Jesus Christ, the living Word, become flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. He who is true God became true man united in one Person forever. He died on the cross a sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures. On the third day He arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, where, at the right hand of the Majesty on High, He now is our High Priest and Mediator.
- The Holy Spirit has come to glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to our hearts. He convicts us of sin and draws us to the Savior. Indwelling our hearts, He gives new life to us, empowers and imparts gifts to us for service. He instructs and guides us into all truth, and seals us for the day of redemption.
- Being estranged from God and condemned by our sinfulness, our salvation is wholly dependent upon the work of God's free grace. God credits His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, thereby justifies them in His sight. Only such as are born of the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus Christ become children of God and heirs of eternal life.
- The true Church is composed of all persons who through saving faith in Jesus Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit are united together in the body of Christ. The Church finds her visible, yet imperfect, expression in local congregations where the Word of God is preached in its purity and the sacraments are administered in their integrity; where scriptural discipline is practiced, and where loving fellowship is maintained. For her perfecting, she awaits the return of her Lord.
- Jesus Christ will come again to the earth—personally, visibly, and bodily—to judge the living and the dead, and to consummate history and the eternal plan of God. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Rev. 22:20)
- The Lord Jesus Christ commands all believers to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to make disciples of all nations. Obedience to the Great Commission requires total commitment to "Him who loved us and gave Himself for us." He calls us to a life of self-denying love and service. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Eph. 2:10)
These Essentials are set forth in greater detail in the Westminster Confession of Faith.
Our Confession and Reaffirmation
- We reaffirm that Jesus is the only way to salvation and a relationship with God. Scripture reveals Jesus to be God’s only Son (Luke 3:22, Luke 9:35). Jesus claims that He and the Father are one (John 10:30) and that the only way to the Father is through the Son (John 14:6).
- We reaffirm that Jesus came into the world to die on a cross for the sins of the world. (John 1:29, John 3:16 and Romans 5:6-10). One cannot know God, have fellowship with God and be God’s child unless one believes in his/her heart and confess with his/her lips that Jesus Christ is Lord (Romans 10:9-10). We believe that His death offers forgiveness of sins and eternal life (Hebrews 7:26-28, Hebrews 9).
- We profess and believe that Jesus and God are one.
- We profess and believe that salvation can only be attained through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice.
- We profess and believe that one cannot have a relationship with God outside of Jesus.
- We profess and believe that one should not be a Minister of Word and Sacrament, Elder or Deacon and believe that there are other ways to God, other ways to salvation outside of Jesus.
- We reaffirm that the Bible is the unique and authoritative witness for the Church’s life.
We believe that II Timothy 3:16 is true and that “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” We affirm that the Bible is God’s authoritative word for us. We do not correct the Bible, but through study, prayer and reflection, allow God’s word to correct and instruct us.
- We profess and believe that all parts of the Bible in its original form are applicable to us.
- We profess and believe that as the ages pass, there are no new revelations that show the Bible to be wrong or outdated.
- We profess and believe that we should only ordain or install as Minister of Word and Sacrament, Elder or Deacon, a person who believes in the Bible as God’s unique and authoritative Word for us.
- We reaffirm that the Bible and Jesus Christ are clear that any sexual expression outside of a man and a woman within the confines of a marriage is a sin.
We affirm that all other forms of sexual expression such as living together outside of marriage, adultery, sex before marriage, and sex with a person of the same sex, are clearly defined as sin (I Corinthians 6:9-11). We affirm that the roles of Minister of Word and Sacrament, Elder or Deacon are unique, with higher expectations in living a Holy life. We affirm that unrepentant sinners should not be ordained or installed as Ministers of Word and Sacrament, Elder, or Deacon.
- We profess and believe that we should not ordain or install any Minister of Word and Sacrament who will officiate in any same sex unions, blessing services, marriages, or any other ceremony which invokes the blessing of God on sinful relationships.
- We profess and believe that we should not ordain or install any Ministers of Word and Sacrament, Elders or Deacons who are involved in un-repented sinful behavior, sexual or otherwise, from which Scripture calls us away.
We hereby make this reaffirmation, not so that people will leave or be removed, for it is our desire, the longing in our hearts, that people living in sin would repent from their sinful ways and receive Jesus’ forgiveness (I John 1:6-7). We call on all of us to look to our own lives confessing our sins to God.
For more information on our beliefs, you can visit the web sites for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the New Wineskins Association.