A draft, awaiting the elders. These are the congregation's positions as they stand; the wording is not yet theirs.
The Scriptures
We believe the Scriptures — the Tanakh and the writings of the New Covenant — were given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and are the complete and final authority for what we believe and how we live. Where our traditions, our experience or our own reasoning disagree with them, the Scriptures decide.
God
We believe in one God, eternal, Creator of heaven and earth, who has revealed Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit — one God, not three, and not one who merely appears in three ways. "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4).
Yeshua the Messiah
We believe in Yeshua of Nazareth, the Messiah promised in the Scriptures of Israel: eternally God, born of a virgin, fully man, who lived without sin, died as an atonement for sin, was raised bodily on the third day, ascended, and is coming again. Salvation is found in no one else.
The Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit convicts, gives new birth, indwells every believer, and forms the character of the Messiah in us. We believe His gifts are given to the congregation today, not only to the first generation, and that they are to be exercised in order and in love, for the building up of the body.
People and salvation
We believe every person is made in God's image and every person has sinned. Salvation is a gift of God's grace, received through faith in Yeshua the Messiah — never earned, never deserved, and never dependent on our descent or on our observance.
Israel
We believe God has not rejected His people Israel. His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and His promises to the people and to the land, are irrevocable. The congregation has not replaced Israel and does not inherit her promises in her place. We believe that in the end all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26).
Torah and Jewish life
We believe the Torah is holy, and that it is fulfilled in the Messiah. We keep Shabbat, the feasts and the rhythms of Jewish life because we are Jews and they are ours — a heritage received, not a debt owed. We do not keep them in order to be saved, and we do not require them of anyone. Non-Jewish believers among us are welcome in all of it and obliged to none of it.
One body
We believe Jewish and non-Jewish believers are made one in the Messiah — without the Jew ceasing to be a Jew, and without the non-Jew being required to become one. We are one family and one table, and the distinction between us is a gift rather than a wall.
Immersion
We believe immersion (tevilah) follows faith and does not produce it. It is for those who have understood the message and have themselves turned to the Messiah — which means it is not for infants, or for anyone too young to understand what they are doing and to mean it.
The congregation
We believe the local congregation is a family under the care of elders, gathered around the Scriptures, prayer, the breaking of bread and one another's lives.
The hope
We look for the return of Yeshua the Messiah in power, the resurrection of the dead, the judgment of all people, and the kingdom of God.
