Our Beliefs

Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was both fully human and fully God. His life provides us with the example of what true humanity ought to look like, and his defeat of death accomplished what only God could accomplish for us: abundant life on earth and freedom from death. His life, death and physical resurrection from the dead communicated both the depth of God’s love and the breadth of His expansive desire to invite the whole world into His family. He is the Bread of Life who nourishes our souls, Light of the world especially in our darkest seasons and the Word of God incarnate. He shows us the Way home, the Truth about God and ourselves, and Life abundant.

God created us in His image and saw that His creation was good. Christians sometimes forget that our story does not begin with our sinfulness; rather our story begins with God’s goodness in creation. Yet, in our brokenness we rebelled against the One who created us; in spite of our best efforts, we continue to hurt each other and ourselves, and we fail to live up to the life God calls us to live. We stand incapable of taking even the first step toward God. Nonetheless, God has been pursuing us since we were born so that we might return home to the God who made us, wants us and loves us.

Because God first loved us, He sent his Son Jesus to teach us how to live, to die for our rebellion against Him and to defeat even death itself so that we might all have the possibility to return home to God. The offering Christ freely made on the cross is the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, redeeming humanity from all sin. This invitation to salvation is open to all people, without exception. It cannot be earned because it was given freely to all people. God’s gift of salvation has only to be received and accepted in order to be made effective in our lives.

Too many of us have made Christianity more complicated than God intended it to be. We believe in a simple, clear approach to living our faith that is built on Jesus’s teaching. He said that the greatest commandment was to “Love the Lord your God…and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37). Methodist Christians have long lived according to this commandment, sometimes articulating it as John Wesley (founder of the Methodist movement) did in this manner: “First, by doing no harm…secondly, by doing all good of every possible sort…and thirdly, by attending upon all the ordinances of God” (in other words, engaging spiritual disciplines like worship, prayer, scripture, fasting etc.). Christian living is not about proving our value or worth to God (He already loves us), nor is it about proving how much holier we are than the world around us (we’re all sinful and in the same proverbial boat). Rather, Christian living is working with God and the Body of Christ (the Church) to transform the world around us, helping to be as God intended it to be.

In order to preserve the ministry values and integrity of Mount Pisgah Church’s mission, the following statements convey the integral importance of scripture in what we believe and how we acknowledge God’s Word in everything we do.

Our Beliefs
We believe in the infinite, personal God, eternally existent three persons in one: Father, Son and, Holy Spirit. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

We believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless human life, His miracles, His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His personal return in power and glory to judge the living and the dead.

We believe that regeneration by the Holy Spirit in response to an individual's acceptance of the gospel message is absolutely necessary for the salvation of lost and sinful persons and we believe the Christian life is possible only by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit enabling the believer to live a godly and sanctified life.

We believe the Bible to be the infallible, authoritative basis for our understanding of doctrine and truth; following the Wesleyan theology of viewing all things through the lenses of Scripture, Reason, Experience, and Tradition with Scripture as Primary.

We believe Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

We believe in the unity of believers through the sharing of common life in Christ Jesus.

We believe in the importance of making disciples here, there, and everywhere.

We believe in a life eternal through faith in Jesus Christ— the saved to a resurrection of life and the lost to a place of eternal separation from God and love.

We believe God offers redemption to all who confess and repent of their sin. (Acts 3:19-21; Romans 10:9-10; I Corinthians 6:9-11)

We believe and practice open communion to all who love God, who earnestly repent of their sin, and who seek to live in peace with God and one another.

We practice the sacrament of water baptism, both believer’s baptism and infant baptism, as an outward and visible sign of our inward and spiritual stance instituted of God.

We value all people as people of sacred worth with equality across race, gender, and cultural differences. All people are welcome at Mount Pisgah. We believe that all human life is precious as created in God's image. We believe this extends to every stage of human life from conception through natural death. We are therefore called to defend, protect, and cherish all human life (Psalm 139).

We believe that God creates each human as uniquely male or female, and that each person is created in God's image (Genesis 1:26-27).

We believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman in a three-way covenant with God at the center (Genesis 2:18-25; Mark 10:6-9).

We believe God intends sexual intimacy as a gift for a man and woman who are covenanted together in this unique union of marriage (1 Corinthians 6:18; 7:2-5; Hebrews 13:4).

We believe that any form of sexual activity outside of the marriage covenant is sin (Matthew 15:18-20; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

We believe that we all sin, and while we cannot condone, endorse, or in any way participate in the expression of beliefs or lifestyles that are at odds with this statement of faith, all persons must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity (Mark 12:28-31). In this context, we do not believe that disagreement with another's beliefs is to be equated with intolerance. While God sets clear ethical standards through His infallible word — the Bible — for which we are to stand without compromise, God loves all men and women, even those who reject His moral imperatives.