OUR MISSION
Elm Park United Methodist Church's mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
OUR BELIEFS
DENOMINATIONAL AFFILIATION
We are affiliated with the United Methodist Church, a Christian Protestant denomination that emphasizes God’s love and grace for all people, the intersection of spirituality and justice, and the calling to make a difference in the world.We are a multi-denominational community where people from diverse spiritual traditions and experiences – or no religious experience – can meaningfully connect with others to practice a faith that seeks deeper understanding of Jesus’ message of liberation and justice and participation with God’s activity in the world.
ABOUT GOD
God, who is one, is revealed in three distinct persons. We believe God the Father is the creator of the universe. God has unimaginable intelligence, infinite knowledge and is all-powerful. God has authority and control over all creation and yet desires to love us very personally as God’s children. (Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3; John 1:12- 13)
ABOUT JESUS
We believe in the mystery of salvation through Jesus Christ. God became human in Jesus of Nazareth; and his life, death and resurrection demonstrates God’s redeeming love.
We believe Jesus Christ is uniquely God’s Son — fully God and yet fully human, sent by God to be born of a virgin, Mary. He lived a sinless life and serves as our role model for life on earth. Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection from the dead is the ultimate act of restoration of all personal and collective and systemic sins and evil in the world. It is because of the Cross that we have an image and knowledge that death, evil, and sin do not get the last word in the Christian story. God the Son, Jesus, restored all that was broken in the world, and continually fought for the least, last, and those with their backs up against the wall. Through Jesus, we are all brought into relationship with God. (2 Corinthians 5:19, Luke 21:27; John 1:1; Philippians 2:5-6; Luke 1:26-38; Hebrews 7:26; Acts 2:22; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Matthew 28:6; Acts 1:9-11)
ABOUT BEING A DISCIPLE
ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe the Holy Spirit is God’s presence with us on earth today – our primary teacher, comforter, and source of God’s power. The Holy Spirit came in a new and mighty way upon Christians at Pentecost and is present in the world today. The Holy Spirit convinces the world of evil, sin and leads people to be part of justice, compassion, healing, and salvation in the world. (Acts 2; John 16:7-11; Romans 8)
ABOUT HUMAN BEINGS
Genesis 1:27 asserts that we’ve been made in the image of the Creator. Like God we have the capacity to love and care, to communicate, and to create.
ABOUT THE CHURCH
We believe the Church is not a building: it’s the body of Christ, with Jesus Christ as the head. The Church is a contagious community called to be instruments of God’s presence and justice and healing in Jesus Christ. We’re called to live lives of compassion, justice, generosity, and peace in the world. (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18; Matthew 28:18-20)
ABOUT BAPTISM
In baptism, we publicly acknowledge and celebrate the grace of God, freely offered to us before we were even aware of it. Baptism is a public sign and witness to the grace of God that began in each person at the moment of their birth. Baptism is the public sign of God’s covenant with us. As such, we celebrate the baptism of all people, including our youngest members in our faith community. (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:38-39, 16:15,33)
ABOUT COMMUNION
We believe communion is a remembrance of the suffering and death of Christ, and a way of drawing Christians’ focus back to the essentials of faith on a regular basis. We believe in an open table — all people are fully welcome at this table – that all who long for a connection with the Divine in their life and who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord are welcome to participate in this blessing from God. (Luke 22:14-21)
ABOUT GOD
In baptism, we publicly acknowledge and celebrate the grace of God, freely offered to us before we were even aware of it. Baptism is a public sign and witness to the grace of God that began in each person at the moment of their birth. Baptism is the public sign of God’s covenant with us. As such, we celebrate the baptism of all people, including our youngest members in our faith community. (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:38-39, 16:15,33)
ABOUT THE BIBLE
We believe the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired and holy Word of God – God-breathed. The scriptures are our source of knowledge about God and Christ and contains all the truth necessary for understanding our way to liberation, healing, and salvation. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)
ABOUT GOD’S REIGN
The kingdom or reign of God is both a present reality and future hope.
ABOUT HEAVEN & HELL
A promise of God is the hope and future of salvation, where healing, restoration, and shalom is present for all things that are broken in the world. As much as we look forward to the future promise of heaven, we are committed to experiencing salvation in the here and now. When Jesus prayed for God’s Kingdom to come in Matthew as part of the Lord’s Prayer, a portion centers on
people experiencing the promise of heaven “on earth.”
Our emphasis is less on a future destination at death, and more on living like Jesus and building God’s Kingdom in the world now. As such, salvation is seeking love, justice, and shalom rooted in Christ’s life, teaching, and resurrection for all people. To create an earth for all people to experience the beauty of heaven. Hell remains the opposite of this. Hell is anything or structure or experience that lacks love, justice, and shalom in the world thwarting people of the abundant and good life that Jesus invites all people into in John 10:10. We focus less on eternal destinations (heaven or hell) recognizing that God is the ultimate decider of this. Our emphasis is being people who offer heaven-like moments with others through seeking justice, peace, love, and shalom in the world.
Ultimately it is the grace of God that propels all people into relationship with God. We believe in prevenient grace (grace of God that is with us from the beginning of our life), justifying grace (grace that leads us to seek restoration of all that is broken in our lives and world), and sanctifying grace (grace that leads us toward holiness and depth of faith). (John 1:9, 12:32; Romans 5:17; 1 Corinthians 15:22; Titus 2:11)
ABOUT GRACE
ABOUT HUMAN SEXUALITY/INCLUSION
As a faith community, Elm Park UMC welcomes and honors people of all races, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, religious backgrounds, physical and mental abilities, ages, perspectives, economic or immigration status, as beloved by God and of equal worth and dignity.
We do invite all people, including LGBTQ+ persons, into full participation within our church. Participation includes but is not limited to, leadership roles, paid and unpaid staff roles, worship teams, attendance, serving, receiving the sacraments, and membership. We also invite LGBTQ+ individuals and their families to not only participate but to step into the discipleship journey and receive spiritual care that every sacred person deserves.
We believe it is our calling as a church to invite a diverse community of believers, who may not share every thought, to share in the care and burdens of one another. We pray that our unity be an expression of the grace and love we have received from Jesus Christ and that the same grace and love powers our connection within the body of our church, our community, and our world. (Psalm 139; Jeremiah 29:11; John 14:12; Romans 8:28-38)