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We believe in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - the Trinity.
We believe in Jesus Christ's virgin birth, His sinless life, His death and resurrection, and His promised return in the future.
We believe a person is lost without Christ and that every human needs a personal relationship with Christ to be saved.
We believe in the afterlife - that all humans will be resurrected some day and there is heaven or hell as our final destination.
We believe Christ died for all men and women and none of us can be saved except through Christ's sacrifice on the cross.
We believe in the church - the collective group of Christian believers, and we believe God works through this collective body on earth to help Christians guide and direct each other to live in this present age.
We believe the Bible is God's inspired Word to us and that it is authoritative in guiding us in what to believe and in how to live.
We believe in an active work of the Holy Spirit, God's invisible presence today on earth, to guide and direct people and draw them toward Jesus Christ and the Father and to empower them to change and live a Christ like life.
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We want to be a community that puts our faith into action. Ultimately if we are going to show people who Christ is, we need to be more like Him. When God shows up through us in simple practical ways, our lives and the lives of others will be transformed. We need to be more than good people. We have to systematically and practically live out our faith by practicing the way Jesus taught us to live. We will do this by our life actions:
1. Give yourself to the needs of the poor and vulnerable each week
(Acts 3:1-10)
We go by the poor and vulnerable on a daily basis. Not just on the street but in our workplaces, our neighborhoods. Take time to turn, acknowledge, look them straight in the face and give whatever you have to help them.
2. Bless People each week (Luke 6:27-35)
Blessing involves extending God’s love to those around you. Make it a point every week to bless someone somehow. Corporately we are going to do this through Echo OPS. In order for God’s Kingdom to truly break out, we need to be blessing people. Give your waiter an extra tip, when you are in line at McDonalds, pay for the person behind you without them knowing, and do it not expecting anything in return.
3. Party with others each week (Luke 5:27-32)
Develop a life that is enjoyable.
Take time each week getting together with someone and simply have fun. Take someone out for coffee, dinner, dessert, something to just learn to party a little better. We should be able to be together just because.
4. Learn from God’s word and Listen to God's voice each week (Mark 1:35)
This is a discipline that we need to have in our lives, because everything else depends on this. Let’s face it; doing all of these other things is hard to do on our own. If we don’t have the desire to be more like Jesus, we won’t be able to make the decision to be more like him. For our desire to grow, we need to learn from him and listen to him.
5. Let go of the Unnecessary (Matthew 19:16-22)
Letting Go is getting rid of the unnecessary so that the necessary can speak. We need to let go of bitterness, insecurity, and the need for things.
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