What We Believe
Our Statement of Faith
Rockharbor Church proclaims the Nicene Creed as our statement of faith. This creed dates back to the fourth century, and served as a statement of unifying belief for early Christian communities who came together and composed this formative and definitive precept.
The Nicene Creed has stood the test of time as a standard of what Christians from every stream of the Body of Christ believe. It is more than an intellectual checklist of doctrine; it is a confession of worship that forms us as the people of God and draws us together into the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, visible and invisible.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy worldwide and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Rockharbor Convictions
The Bible
We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. God’s Word has the power to accomplish God’s purposes in the world. The message of the Bible is addressed to all people. The Holy Spirit still speaks today through the Scriptures, illuminating the minds of God’s people in every culture to perceive its truth freshly through their own eyes and thus disclosing to the whole church ever more of the many-colored wisdom of God.
Marriage and Singleness
Marriage is designed by God to be a lifelong covenant between a man and woman that is characterized by faithfulness and self-giving, sacrificial love. Marriage is also meant for fruitfulness: it carries the potential for the procreation and care of children. As a union of two equal yet different persons, male and female, marriage reveals both the design of creation and the goal of salvation. One of the ways the Bible describes the union of heaven and earth and of God and His people is through the metaphor of marriage. And yet, marriage is not a more elevated status than singleness. Jesus is the fullness of a flourishing human being and was single in His earthly life. Every single human is the image of God, and is therefore complete before God, bestowed with the dignity and purpose of reflecting God’s rule in the world. Moreover, singleness bears witness to the full arrival of God’s Kingdom when marriage is no more and God will be all in all.
Sex and Sexuality
Sexuality is a significant but not a central feature of individual identity. Sex is a gift not a right; it is the embodiment of the union between a man and a woman in marriage. Within a Christian marriage, sex is a powerful way to celebrate each other, unify the couple, and glorify God. Sex also carries the potential to create life, fulfilling the call for humans to be fruitful within God’s world. Sexual expression outside marriage is damaging to the self and to the other, and dishonoring to God. Bodies matter to God because bodies are created by God and will be redeemed by God in fullness through resurrection. For the Christian, we recognize that our bodies belong to God and are a temple of the Holy Spirit. As such, our life in the body now must honor God— this includes our sexuality and sexual expression. However, one of the ways that sin manifests in this life is through our experience of sexual brokenness. We depend fully on the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God as a response to His abundant mercy.
The Kingdom of God and the Mission of the Church
The Kingdom of God is a central theme throughout the Bible, representing God’s rule expressed through His power in a particular place (all over creation), through a particular people (Israel first, then the church in the new covenant). God’s throne is established on a foundation of both righteousness and justice, uniting the two as essential elements of God’s reign. The Gospels reveal Jesus as the Kingdom-bringer, the one who inaugurates the arrival of God’s reign on earth through his incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection. At his ascension, Jesus takes the throne and rules as King by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit at work through the church. The culmination of the Kingdom comes when Jesus returns and brings about the renewal of all things. The church lives between the “now” and the “not yet” of God’s reign. The mission of the church in relation to the Kingdom of God is to announce and to anticipate the Kingdom of God. The church announces the Kingdom, proclaiming the good news and inviting people to experience God’s forgiveness and life-giving rule. The church also anticipates the Kingdom’s arrival in fullness by seeking to live now as it will be then. This looks like engaging in acts of mercy, praying for miracles, giving and receiving forgiveness, bringing about reconciliation, and more as we seek and to see God’s Kingdom come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
The Gathering and Sending of the Church
The church is a community of the Kingdom of God. We are a people who have been redeemed by Jesus, called by His name and made a new creation; we are being filled with the Spirit as one new family to live together under the reign of Jesus and walk together in the Way of Jesus. The church expresses its life together as it gathers in worship and is sent in mission throughout the world. We recognize that the Scriptures admonish us to continue gathering together to glorify God and edify (build up) each other. Though God is present throughout His world, we believe that God is specially present when the church gathers in Jesus’s name. The church is also sent out from
the gathering by the power of the Holy Spirit on mission with Jesus into the world for the good of others and the glory of God.
Spiritual Gifts and Prayer Ministry
We believe in making space for the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, welcoming the Spirit to move in whatever way God pleases while also exercising wisdom and discernment for each context. For this reason we eagerly desire all spiritual gifts and seek for everyone of all ages to practice them regularly in a fitting and orderly way, while also remaining open to the holy wildness of the Spirit’s work.
In the context of prayer ministry, spiritual gifts are to be exercised in a way that submits to pastoral leadership and honors the people present and their stage in the journey of faith as well as their unique story. We embrace a loving posture, recognizing that the purpose of the prophetic is to strengthen, encourage, comfort, and build up the church.
Giving and Generosity
Every good gift comes from our good and generous Father. As children of God, we want to allow the Holy Spirit to help us cultivate lives of generosity that demonstrate the heart of our Father. We learn from the Old Testament practice of tithing that giving of our resources is to be done regularly and symbolically. The principle of “first fruits” invites us to honor God with the fruit of our labor as a sign that everything we have comes from God and belongs to God. In the New Testament, we find that giving to God is to be an act of worship that is brought to the house of worship (see Acts 5), continuing a theme from the various practices of tithes and offerings in the Old Testament. Both Jesus and Paul urge us to give generously not begrudgingly. Living with generosity requires embracing simplicity and contentment, both of which are virtues the Bible exhorts us to embrace. At Rockharbor, we desire followers of Jesus to give regularly, symbolically, and generously to God through the local church as an act worship.
Women in Ministry
Male and female are created in the image of God, therefore men and women have equal status and dignity before God. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit empowers both men and women for the mission of God, as the Book of Acts testifies. The gifts of Spirit— including the gifts of teaching, preaching, and leadership— are available to both women and men. Numerous examples of women operating in these gifts occur in the New Testament, including Priscilla, Junia, Lydia, Phoebe, Euodia, and Synteche. Thus we believe in the full equality of women and men in status, giftedness, and opportunity for ministry. We embrace and celebrate the different ways God builds up the church through Spirit-empowered women and men.
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