What We Believe
What We Believe at Miller Church:At Miller Church we share the basic affirmations of faith held by Christians throughout the world, and throughout the ages (found in the Nicene and Apostles Creeds). We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and contains all things necessary for our salvation. We believe that Jesus Christ in the Son of God, and is our Lord and Savior.
As United Methodists, those who stand in the Wesleyan Tradition, we have a number of distinctive and unique emphases that add to our understanding of the Christian faith.
Distinctive Emphases of Wesleyan Theology and Tradition
Wesley and the early Methodists were particularly concerned about inviting people to experience God’s grace and to grow in their knowledge and love of God through disciplined Christian living. They placed primary emphasis on putting faith and love into action. This emphasis was what Wesley referred to as “practical divinity,” and has continued to be a hallmark of United Methodism today.
The distinctive shape of our theological heritage can be seen not only in this emphasis on Christian living, but also in our distinctive understanding of how God’s saving grace is at work in the world that leads us to a deeper idea of what the full Christian life requires. To learn more about these distinctive emphases, read more from The United Methodist Book of Discipline.
1. How we experience and know God:
We meet and know God through four major sources: Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and Reason. These four sources help us to meet God face to face, to hear God’s Word as He speaks to us, and to understand and live out God’s will in our daily lives.
Scripture We believe that Scripture is the primary source of God’s will as it is revealed to us. Through Scripture the living Christ meets us as we experience God’s redeeming grace. We are convinced that the Bible offers to us knowledge of God and God’s desire to be in relationship to us as His children, and contain all things necessary for our salvation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible is the living word of God, and offers us an opportunity to meet God wherever we find ourselves in life.
Tradition Tradition is the history of grace as it is seen in the lives of Christians and the Church universal. Tradition transcends the story of particular individuals or groups of Christians as we seek to understand how God is at work in our world. The story of the Church reflects the most basic sense of tradition, the continuing activity of God’s Holy Spirit transforming human life as a community of faith and as individuals.
Experience Some human experiences can challenge our theological understanding. Many of God’s people live in terror, hunger, loneliness, or other terrible circumstances while others live in safety and comfort. Everyday experiences faced by ourselves and others help us to develop a new awareness of how we can see God in our midst, how we can live as the hands of Christ, and how Scripture continues to be a resource for daily living.
Reason Although we recognize that God often works in ways that surpass human understanding, we also believe that any disciplined effort to live as a follower of Jesus Christ calls for the careful use of reason. By reason we read and interpret Scripture, determine whether our Christian witness is clear, and ask questions of faith as we seek to understand God’s action and will. Reason, like experience and tradition, is tool at our disposal as we seek to discover and follow God’s will for us and this world that God created.
2. The Triune God
(The Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)We believe in one living and true God, everlasting and without body or parts. We believe that God is infinite in power, wisdom, justice, goodness, and love. We believe that God is the maker and preserver of all things, and that God’s mercy is over all that God has made, and is always directed toward the good of all creation. We believe the One God is revealed as the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct but inseparable, eternally one in substance and power.
The Father
We believe in God the Father, the Creator, Sovereign, and Preserver of all creation, who rules with gracious regard for the well-being and salvation of all creation.
Jesus
ChristWe believe in Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh who came to dwell among us. We believe that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus Christ lived, died, and was raised from the dead in order to reconcile us back to God, in order that we might be forgiven of our sins, and freed from the power of sin and death.
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit convinces us of our sin, urges us to a life of righteousness, and assures us of our salvation through Jesus Christ. We are led by the Holy Spirit through lives of faithful response to grace, and are sustained and empowered by the Spirit for lives of Christian service.
3. God’s Work of Salvation
Understanding how God works in our lives so that we might find salvation through faith in Jesus Christ relies upon God’s grace. In the Letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul tells us that we are saved only by God’s grace: “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Our United Methodist heritage is rooted in a profound understanding of God’s grace and is revealed to us through Scripture. Did you ever memorize John 3:16, or have you read it in the Bible? This one verse summarizes the gospel and helps us remember the depth of God’s love that is made known to us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
God’s Grace
Grace is the unmerited, free gift of God’s love and mercy toward humanity, and all of God’s creation. Grace pervades our understanding of Christian faith and life, and is made known to us through the ever-present Holy Spirit. While the grace of God is undivided, United Methodists often speak of grace as prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace.
Prevenient Grace
Grace is God’s active presence in our lives, and is not dependent on human actions or human response. It is a gift — a gift that is always available, but that can be refused. God’s grace stirs up within us a desire to know God and empowers us to respond to God’s invitation to be in relationship with God. God’s grace allows us to see the differences between good and evil, and makes it possible for us to choose God’s good over evil.
Prevenient grace describes how God takes the initiative in searching out humanity in order to save us from sin and death. Because God is always calling us home, we do not have to beg and plead for God’s love and grace, we simply have to accept it!
Justifying Grace and the New Birth
Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). And in his letter to the Roman Christians, Paul wrote: “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). These verses demonstrate the justifying grace of God. They point to reconciliation, pardon, and restoration. Through the work of God in Christ our sins are forgiven, and our relationship with God is restored. God’s image is restored in us through our faith in Jesus Christ. There is nothing we can do to earn this restoration and redemption; we need only to respond in faith.
We believe we are never accounted righteous before God through our works or merit, but only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and by repentance of our sins. We believe that we are made new by God’s grace, and this new birth enables us to trust in God’s grace that we might live free of sin.
Conversion
Conversion is turning around, leaving one way of life for another. It may be sudden and dramatic, or gradual and cumulative, but no matter how your conversion takes place, it signals that you have been “born again” or “born from above.” This comes from words that Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in John 3, and it tells us of the importance of conversion no matter what we call it: being saved, being born again, being born of the Spirit, new life in Christ, or regeneration.
This is part of the process of justification, when we abandon all of our attempts to save ourselves, and instead repent and believe that God will forgive our sins and offer us a new life in Christ. Justification is a time and experience of pardon and forgiveness, peace, joy, and love. We are only justified by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Sanctification and Perfection
Salvation is also an ongoing experience of God’s grace as we are transformed transforming us into the person God intends us to be. This is described as sanctification or holiness of heart and life. Through God’s sanctifying grace we grow and mature in our ability to live as a follower of Jesus Christ. As we engage in Christian practices in our daily lives, we deepen our love for, and knowledge of, God. As we respond to the needs of those around us, we strengthen our love of neighbor. These are the two great commandments that Jesus gave to his followers.
We believe that sanctification is the work of God’s that allows us to be entirely cleansed from sin in thoughts, words, and actions. We believe that we are enabled by grace to strive for and attain holiness and perfect love according to the example of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit in this life. Perfection does not mean that we will never make mistakes; rather it means that by relying on the Holy Spirit in every moment of life, all desire to sin will be removed from our lives through the work of God in us.
Read what John Wesley said in his sermon on Christian Perfection.
Our Life in Faith
Faith is the basic orientation and commitment of our whole being—a matter of heart and soul. Christian faith is grounding our lives in the living God as revealed especially in Jesus Christ. It’s both a gift we receive within the Christian community and a choice we make. It’s trusting in God and relying on God as the source and destiny of our lives. Faith is believing in God, giving God our devoted loyalty and allegiance. Faith is following Jesus, answering the call to be his disciples in the world. Faith is hoping for God’s future, leaning into the coming kingdom that God has promised. Faith-as-belief is active; it involves trusting, believing, following, and hoping.
We believe that all Christians are called to “think theologically,” that is to reflect with others on how our lives as both individuals and members of the Body of Christ allow others a chance to experience God’s grace and to respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Faith and Good Works
United Methodists insist that faith and good works belong together. Scripture tells us that our belief is confirmed and shown to the world through what we do (James 2:14-26). Our personal salvation must be a lived faith, joining together our belief in Christ, our actions, and the ethics of Christian faith. This hallmark of our faith is the joining together of personal piety and social holiness, so that what we be believe is echoed in what we do as individuals and as the Christian Community.
Mission and Service
Because of what God has done for us, we offer our lives back to God through a life of service. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we become active participants in God’s work in the world through mission and service. Love of God is always linked to love of neighbor, and to a passionate commitment to seeking transformation in the world according to the love and ministry of Jesus Christ.
Mission of the Church
Faith always includes a social dimension. One cannot be a solitary Christian. As we grow in faith through our participation in the church community, we are also nourished and equipped for mission and service to the world. Methodism has always sought to be a nurturing community and a community of service to others. Our tradition has instilled in us a desire to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the prisoner (Matthew 25:31-40). Meeting the physical needs of others offers a chance to build relationships with others so that they might see Jesus in us, and might see and hear the Gospel. Our work in the lives of others is one way that we fulfill our historical call to “spread scriptural holiness over the land” as we seek to live as Jesus lived, and to do what he tells his disciples to do.
The Sacraments
Baptism
Baptism, a sacrament commanded by our Lord, declares faith in Jesus Christ and initiates us into Christ’s whole Church, not into any particular denomination. United Methodists recognize all Christian baptisms and look upon baptism as something that should unite, rather than divide. Baptism signifies the work of God in our lives, drawing up closer to Him, offering us grace at every moment. It is the work of God that is celebrated in Baptism, not our human actions. Thus, because Baptism is a mark of our trust in God’s grace, and a sign of God’s covenant with us, baptism is administered only once. However, baptism may be reaffirmed on any occasion, especially when a person returns to God’s grace after falling into sin.
Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper
Holy Communion is not only a sign of God’s love, but also a sacrament of our redemption through Christ’s death and resurrection. In Communion we thankfully, and joyfully, remember the grace given to us through Christ and the power of the Spirit. The Lord’s Supper is a celebrated by the sharing of bread and grape juice, remembering the Last Supper that Christ shared with his disciples, and the promise to create a new covenant for our salvation through his blood, and through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. Holy Communion offers us an opportunity to remember Christ dying for the forgiveness of our sins, as well as providing the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit as we live faithful and righteous lives until Christ comes again.
As United Methodists, those who stand in the Wesleyan Tradition, we have a number of distinctive and unique emphases that add to our understanding of the Christian faith.
Distinctive Emphases of Wesleyan Theology and Tradition
Wesley and the early Methodists were particularly concerned about inviting people to experience God’s grace and to grow in their knowledge and love of God through disciplined Christian living. They placed primary emphasis on putting faith and love into action. This emphasis was what Wesley referred to as “practical divinity,” and has continued to be a hallmark of United Methodism today.
The distinctive shape of our theological heritage can be seen not only in this emphasis on Christian living, but also in our distinctive understanding of how God’s saving grace is at work in the world that leads us to a deeper idea of what the full Christian life requires. To learn more about these distinctive emphases, read more from The United Methodist Book of Discipline.
1. How we experience and know God:
We meet and know God through four major sources: Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and Reason. These four sources help us to meet God face to face, to hear God’s Word as He speaks to us, and to understand and live out God’s will in our daily lives.
Scripture We believe that Scripture is the primary source of God’s will as it is revealed to us. Through Scripture the living Christ meets us as we experience God’s redeeming grace. We are convinced that the Bible offers to us knowledge of God and God’s desire to be in relationship to us as His children, and contain all things necessary for our salvation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible is the living word of God, and offers us an opportunity to meet God wherever we find ourselves in life.
Tradition Tradition is the history of grace as it is seen in the lives of Christians and the Church universal. Tradition transcends the story of particular individuals or groups of Christians as we seek to understand how God is at work in our world. The story of the Church reflects the most basic sense of tradition, the continuing activity of God’s Holy Spirit transforming human life as a community of faith and as individuals.
Experience Some human experiences can challenge our theological understanding. Many of God’s people live in terror, hunger, loneliness, or other terrible circumstances while others live in safety and comfort. Everyday experiences faced by ourselves and others help us to develop a new awareness of how we can see God in our midst, how we can live as the hands of Christ, and how Scripture continues to be a resource for daily living.
Reason Although we recognize that God often works in ways that surpass human understanding, we also believe that any disciplined effort to live as a follower of Jesus Christ calls for the careful use of reason. By reason we read and interpret Scripture, determine whether our Christian witness is clear, and ask questions of faith as we seek to understand God’s action and will. Reason, like experience and tradition, is tool at our disposal as we seek to discover and follow God’s will for us and this world that God created.
2. The Triune God
(The Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)We believe in one living and true God, everlasting and without body or parts. We believe that God is infinite in power, wisdom, justice, goodness, and love. We believe that God is the maker and preserver of all things, and that God’s mercy is over all that God has made, and is always directed toward the good of all creation. We believe the One God is revealed as the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct but inseparable, eternally one in substance and power.
The Father
We believe in God the Father, the Creator, Sovereign, and Preserver of all creation, who rules with gracious regard for the well-being and salvation of all creation.
Jesus
ChristWe believe in Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh who came to dwell among us. We believe that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus Christ lived, died, and was raised from the dead in order to reconcile us back to God, in order that we might be forgiven of our sins, and freed from the power of sin and death.
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit convinces us of our sin, urges us to a life of righteousness, and assures us of our salvation through Jesus Christ. We are led by the Holy Spirit through lives of faithful response to grace, and are sustained and empowered by the Spirit for lives of Christian service.
3. God’s Work of Salvation
Understanding how God works in our lives so that we might find salvation through faith in Jesus Christ relies upon God’s grace. In the Letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul tells us that we are saved only by God’s grace: “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Our United Methodist heritage is rooted in a profound understanding of God’s grace and is revealed to us through Scripture. Did you ever memorize John 3:16, or have you read it in the Bible? This one verse summarizes the gospel and helps us remember the depth of God’s love that is made known to us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
God’s Grace
Grace is the unmerited, free gift of God’s love and mercy toward humanity, and all of God’s creation. Grace pervades our understanding of Christian faith and life, and is made known to us through the ever-present Holy Spirit. While the grace of God is undivided, United Methodists often speak of grace as prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace.
Prevenient Grace
Grace is God’s active presence in our lives, and is not dependent on human actions or human response. It is a gift — a gift that is always available, but that can be refused. God’s grace stirs up within us a desire to know God and empowers us to respond to God’s invitation to be in relationship with God. God’s grace allows us to see the differences between good and evil, and makes it possible for us to choose God’s good over evil.
Prevenient grace describes how God takes the initiative in searching out humanity in order to save us from sin and death. Because God is always calling us home, we do not have to beg and plead for God’s love and grace, we simply have to accept it!
Justifying Grace and the New Birth
Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). And in his letter to the Roman Christians, Paul wrote: “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). These verses demonstrate the justifying grace of God. They point to reconciliation, pardon, and restoration. Through the work of God in Christ our sins are forgiven, and our relationship with God is restored. God’s image is restored in us through our faith in Jesus Christ. There is nothing we can do to earn this restoration and redemption; we need only to respond in faith.
We believe we are never accounted righteous before God through our works or merit, but only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and by repentance of our sins. We believe that we are made new by God’s grace, and this new birth enables us to trust in God’s grace that we might live free of sin.
Conversion
Conversion is turning around, leaving one way of life for another. It may be sudden and dramatic, or gradual and cumulative, but no matter how your conversion takes place, it signals that you have been “born again” or “born from above.” This comes from words that Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in John 3, and it tells us of the importance of conversion no matter what we call it: being saved, being born again, being born of the Spirit, new life in Christ, or regeneration.
This is part of the process of justification, when we abandon all of our attempts to save ourselves, and instead repent and believe that God will forgive our sins and offer us a new life in Christ. Justification is a time and experience of pardon and forgiveness, peace, joy, and love. We are only justified by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Sanctification and Perfection
Salvation is also an ongoing experience of God’s grace as we are transformed transforming us into the person God intends us to be. This is described as sanctification or holiness of heart and life. Through God’s sanctifying grace we grow and mature in our ability to live as a follower of Jesus Christ. As we engage in Christian practices in our daily lives, we deepen our love for, and knowledge of, God. As we respond to the needs of those around us, we strengthen our love of neighbor. These are the two great commandments that Jesus gave to his followers.
We believe that sanctification is the work of God’s that allows us to be entirely cleansed from sin in thoughts, words, and actions. We believe that we are enabled by grace to strive for and attain holiness and perfect love according to the example of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit in this life. Perfection does not mean that we will never make mistakes; rather it means that by relying on the Holy Spirit in every moment of life, all desire to sin will be removed from our lives through the work of God in us.
Read what John Wesley said in his sermon on Christian Perfection.
Our Life in Faith
Faith is the basic orientation and commitment of our whole being—a matter of heart and soul. Christian faith is grounding our lives in the living God as revealed especially in Jesus Christ. It’s both a gift we receive within the Christian community and a choice we make. It’s trusting in God and relying on God as the source and destiny of our lives. Faith is believing in God, giving God our devoted loyalty and allegiance. Faith is following Jesus, answering the call to be his disciples in the world. Faith is hoping for God’s future, leaning into the coming kingdom that God has promised. Faith-as-belief is active; it involves trusting, believing, following, and hoping.
We believe that all Christians are called to “think theologically,” that is to reflect with others on how our lives as both individuals and members of the Body of Christ allow others a chance to experience God’s grace and to respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Faith and Good Works
United Methodists insist that faith and good works belong together. Scripture tells us that our belief is confirmed and shown to the world through what we do (James 2:14-26). Our personal salvation must be a lived faith, joining together our belief in Christ, our actions, and the ethics of Christian faith. This hallmark of our faith is the joining together of personal piety and social holiness, so that what we be believe is echoed in what we do as individuals and as the Christian Community.
Mission and Service
Because of what God has done for us, we offer our lives back to God through a life of service. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we become active participants in God’s work in the world through mission and service. Love of God is always linked to love of neighbor, and to a passionate commitment to seeking transformation in the world according to the love and ministry of Jesus Christ.
Mission of the Church
Faith always includes a social dimension. One cannot be a solitary Christian. As we grow in faith through our participation in the church community, we are also nourished and equipped for mission and service to the world. Methodism has always sought to be a nurturing community and a community of service to others. Our tradition has instilled in us a desire to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the prisoner (Matthew 25:31-40). Meeting the physical needs of others offers a chance to build relationships with others so that they might see Jesus in us, and might see and hear the Gospel. Our work in the lives of others is one way that we fulfill our historical call to “spread scriptural holiness over the land” as we seek to live as Jesus lived, and to do what he tells his disciples to do.
The Sacraments
Baptism
Baptism, a sacrament commanded by our Lord, declares faith in Jesus Christ and initiates us into Christ’s whole Church, not into any particular denomination. United Methodists recognize all Christian baptisms and look upon baptism as something that should unite, rather than divide. Baptism signifies the work of God in our lives, drawing up closer to Him, offering us grace at every moment. It is the work of God that is celebrated in Baptism, not our human actions. Thus, because Baptism is a mark of our trust in God’s grace, and a sign of God’s covenant with us, baptism is administered only once. However, baptism may be reaffirmed on any occasion, especially when a person returns to God’s grace after falling into sin.
Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper
Holy Communion is not only a sign of God’s love, but also a sacrament of our redemption through Christ’s death and resurrection. In Communion we thankfully, and joyfully, remember the grace given to us through Christ and the power of the Spirit. The Lord’s Supper is a celebrated by the sharing of bread and grape juice, remembering the Last Supper that Christ shared with his disciples, and the promise to create a new covenant for our salvation through his blood, and through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. Holy Communion offers us an opportunity to remember Christ dying for the forgiveness of our sins, as well as providing the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit as we live faithful and righteous lives until Christ comes again.
