Doctrine matters. So does spiritual experience. And I’m tired of the false dichotomy that says we can only have one or the other depending on what expression of the Body of Christ we’re part of. In fact, solid doctrine without deep spiritual experience is just empty words. And deep spiritual experience without solid doctrine is nothing but emotional reactions.
We need both. At City Church Seven Hills, we are committed to having both. We believe the Bible and we teach the Bible. We also pursue deep, profound experiences in the Spirit. We want to know God, as He is revealed in the Bible and we want to encounter Him in our mind, will, emotions, and body. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed.” The Bible is incredibly important but it is not just an ancient collection of writings to be studied. It is the words of God, breathed out on us to show us who He is.
So whether you are new to our family, just checking us out, or you’ve been part of our community for years, we want to create a resource here for you to know what we believe.
Sunday mornings are a time when we come together to share what God has been doing in our lives. We worship and pursue that deep spiritual experience together. We also open the Word and preach the message that we believe God is speaking in that moment. For us, this is not often a place where we explore the deep theological questions. If we’re all honest, there aren’t many churches who plumb the depths of theology on a Sunday morning. It’s simply not the best place for it. There’s a wide of range of people, knowledge, and experience in any given church on any given Sunday and in order to speak to them all, we have to make certain choices about how we structure our services and choose our messages. None of this is to say that we, or any other church, waters down the gospel or ignores sound theology in order to appeal to a wide base. I’m simply acknowledging that Sunday morning worship services are not the ideal forum for teaching deep theology and walking through doctrinal statements. We touch on these things, but we don’t often dig deep.
A big part of the reason for this is that spoken words are far from the best way to communicate these heavy doctrinal concepts. Look at the early church. Paul wrote countless words to lay out his theology in many letters that we have collected in the New Testament and continue to study thousands of years later. No doubt, he spoke as well, but the letters he wrote were an indispensable part of his ministry and teachings. Not only because they gave those he was writing to a chance to dig deep and reflect on what he said over and over, but because they preserved his teachings through the millennia so that Paul can still influence and teach us today.
In the links below, we’ll be going through the doctrinal statement of City Church here on the blog. When we’re done, we’ll have a central place to answer the question, “What do we believe?” We can get in depth and we can be thorough. I pray this will be a helpful resource for you, both to give you a deeper understanding of your own faith and to help you articulate the specifics of the beliefs that define our community. Here is our full Statement of Faith along with links to the article on each point.
Statement of Faith
We Are Christian
We believe in the Trinity – God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (2 Corinthians 13:14, Colossians 2:9, Matthew 28:19)
We believe that Jesus lived, died, rose again, and ascended to heaven to remove the barrier of sin between us and God. (Romans 6:8-11, Acts 1:9, 1 Peter 1:3, Philippians 2:8-11)
We Are Protestant
We believe that each individual can connect with God and hear his voice through Scripture, prayer, worship, and community. (John 10:2-4, John 16:13, Hebrews 4:12)
We Are Evangelical
We believe that the Bible is inspired by God and useful for the teaching and equipping of the church. (1 Timothy 3:16-17, Matthew 4:4)
We believe in a historical, contextual, literal interpretation of the Bible that all points to Jesus (Luke 24:27, Matthew 24:35, Romans 15:4)
We believe that the Gospel calls each individual to make the personal decision to be born again by grace through faith in order to enter the Kingdom of God. (John 3:3, 16, John 14:6, Ephesians 2:8)
We Are Charismatic
We believe in the full operation of all the gifts of the Spirit as practiced by the early church. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11, Ephesians 4:11-13, Romans 12:6-8)
We believe in enthusiastic, dynamic expressions of worship including singing, lifting hands, dancing, shouting, and waving flags. (Psalm 63:4, Psalm 134:2, Psalm 57:9, Psalm 149:3, Exodus 15:20, Jeremiah 51:27, Psalm 150:3-5, Joshua 6:20)
We believe that experiencing the tangible presence of God is essential for the Christian life. (John 15:5, Ephesians 3:16-19, Romans 6:4-9)
We are Jesus-focused, presence-centered, and missions driven.
City Church Seven Hills 