The Gospel is the goods news that God the Father is redeeming and reconciling us and all creation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ by His Spirit. Jesus lived the life we should have lived (sinless) and died the death we deserve to die (as our substitute). His resurrection from the dead is the central fact of both human history and personal meaning in life. By trusting in him (faith) and turning from of our self-saving strategies (repentance) we find life, meaning, joy, and purpose. At Trinity we are a people who are finding freedom as we learn to trust Jesus, let go of our unbelief and fear, and find joy in the mission that he calls us to.
We seek to live as a Gospel-centered church. What does that mean?
1. WE ADMIT THAT WE DON'T HAVE IT ALL TOGETHER.
Christians are people who admit that they are broken. Because of sin we are separated from our Father—and the result is a God-shaped vacuum in our souls. We try to fill this vacuum without God. We try all sorts of things to run from God--and we're very creative at it. We can run by being irreligious (secular)—we avoid Jesus by attempting to find life on our own. And we run by being religious—we avoid Jesus by trying to produce a righteous life on our own. Those who have the hardest time with the gospel are often the most "put together" because they cannot see their lostness; hard work and morality have blinded him. They might be defensive. Usually they're quite serious.
It is commonly thought that the Christian message is “obey God's law and he'll approve of you." Or perhaps "become religious and virtuous instead of irreligious and immoral.” Yet scripture demonstrates that the Pharisees were deeply religious, but enemies of Jesus. The gospel calls the irreligious and religious to stop their own “self-saving strategies for salvation” and discover grace. The humble are in; the proud are out.
2. WE BELIEVE GRACE CHANGES EVERYTHING.
Ephesians 2:8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
Titus 3:5, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.
Because of grace (God giving us what we do not deserve) we have father and you can go home and know His embrace and His smile.
You can be right with your Heavenly Father. You can know His embrace. How many believe God is angry? How many have never known the Father’s love?
You can be welcomed into His warm embrace not by religion or by trying to prove your own righteousness, but BY GRACE. Righteousness is not something we give to God, but something He gives to us. Who produced the righteousness we need? Jesus did! The Christian stakes his whole eternity not on his own performance, but upon the life and death of Christ who perfectly performed all that God the Father commanded. Through Christ’s work, we receive the credit (ah, grace!) and we can be more loved, valued and accepted by God than we ever dared to imagine. Motivated by grace (not duty, guilt, or fear) we go out rejoicing as we gladly obey and serve all He asks of us!
3. WE REST IN JESUS' PERFECT RECORD
A Christian is a person who has stopped running from God (which the Bible calls repentance) and now runs to Him for grace (which the Bible calls faith). Have youn stopped trying to earn the favor of God? Do you trust in Jesus’ work for you as their sure ground for your acceptance with God? Find your spiritual rest in Christ's work alone.
How Do I Grow in the Gospel?
We believe that you grow in Christ the same way you became a Christian: through faith and repentance. Spiritual practices like worship, prayer, fasting, Bible reading, and love of neighbor are truly important, but they are the fruit not the root of our growth in grace. Come to Trinity's worship service or community groups and we'll talk much more about this.
There are three ways we invite you to think of your own growth in the gospel:
1. We must KNOW the gospel (gospel content--the head). Most Christians overestimate their own understanding of the gospel message. The gospel is something "into which angels long to look" (1 Peter 1:12). And angels are smarter than you. Which means: if you think you "get" the gospel, you probably don't. We must devote ourselves to an ever-deepening knowledge and appreciation of the gospel of Jesus.
2. We must EXPERIENCE the gospel (gospel power--the heart). The gospel is not just a message to be believed, but a power to be experienced. Until the gospel transforms our motivations, we will obey God primarily out of fear, pride, duty, or guilt. Those motivations simply aren't strong enough to sustain lifelong, radical obedience. Only when we begin to live out of our new identity in Christ will we find ourselves loving God deeply in community and obeying him freely.
3. We must LIVE in light of the gospel (gospel witness--the hands). The Gospel is not something we need to understand at the beginning of our Christian life and then move on to other things about being a Christian. The Gospel isn't just for unbelievers to hear so they can be saved. The Gospel is just as much for Christians to know and hear everyday, as it is for someone who needs to believe the good news for the first time. And we strive to practically live out the gospel for God's glory in the world for the good of our neighbor.
At Trinity we assume that most people have not heard or thought out the implications of the gospel. Many at Trinity have not been to a church at all (or understood the gospel) before Trinity. Others will say that they have never known a day when they didn't believe the gospel. We love having both and everyone in between.
We exist to bring things "in step (literally "in line") with the gospel" (Galatians 2:14) which renews us spiritually, psychologically, corporately, and socially. The gospel is not legalism or liberalism, moralism or relativism, yet it does not produce "something in the middle;" rather it is something different from both. The gospel critiques both religion and irreligion (Matthew 21:31), and shows us a God far more holy than the religious can bear (He had to die because we could not satisfy His holy demand) and yet far more merciful than a irreligious can conceive (He had to die because He love us). We believe the the gospel changes everything. Therefore is it central in everything we do at Trinity.
Trinity wholeheartedly embraces the historic Christian faith governed by God's Word and expressed in the ecumenical creeds of the Church (e.g. the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds). As an evangelical and reformed congregation we also submit to the Westminster Confession of Faith. Trinity is a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America and the Acts 29 Network. Click here for a detailed look at what we believe as a member church of the PCA.