What We Believe: A Narrative Theology
In Coastal, we
believe God inspired the authors of Scripture by his Spirit to speak to all
generations of believers, including us today. God calls us to immerse ourselves
in this authoritative narrative communally and individually to faithfully
interpret and live out that story today as we are led by the Spirit of God.
In the
beginning God created all things good. He was and always will be in a communal
relationship with himself-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created us to be
relational as well and marked us with an identity as his image bearers and a
missional calling to serve, care for, and cultivate the earth. God created
humans in his image to live in fellowship with him, one another, our inner
self, and creation. The enemy tempted the first humans, and darkness and evil
entered the story through human sin and are now a part of the world. This
devastating event resulted in our relationships with God, others, ourselves,
and creation being fractured and in desperate need of reforming.
We
believe God did not abandon his creation to destruction and decay; rather he
promised to restore this broken world. As part of this purpose, God chose a
people, Abraham and his descendants, to represent him in the world. God
promised to bless them as a nation so that through them all nations would be
blessed. In time they became enslaved in Egypt and cried out to God because of
their oppression. God heard their cry, liberated them from their oppressor, and
brought them to Sinai where he gave them an identity and a mission as his
treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy people. Throughout the story
of Israel, God refused to give up on his people despite their frequent acts of
unfaithfulness to him.
God brought his people into the Promised Land. Their state of blessing from God was intimately bound to their calling to embody the living God to other nations. They made movement toward this missional calling, yet they disobeyed and allowed foreign gods into the land, overlooked the poor, and mistreated the foreigner. The prophetic voices that emerge from the Scriptures held the calling of Israel to the mirror of how they treated the oppressed and marginalized. Through the prophets, God’s heart for the poor was made known, and we believe that God cares deeply for the marginalized and oppressed among us today.
In
Israel’s disobedience, they became indifferent and in turn irrelevant to the
purposes to which God had called them. For a time, they were sent into exile;
yet a hopeful remnant was always looking ahead with longing and hope to a
renewed reign of God, where peace and justice would prevail.
We
believe these longings found their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah, conceived
by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, mysteriously God having become flesh.
Jesus came to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted and
set captives free, proclaiming a new arrival of the kingdom of God, bringing
about a new exodus, and restoring our fractured world. He and his message were
rejected by many as he confronted the oppressive nature of the religious elite
and the empire of Rome. Yet his path of suffering, crucifixion, death, burial,
and resurrection has brought hope to all creation. Jesus is our GUIDE - our only hope for
bringing peace and reconciliation between God and humans. Through Jesus we have
been forgiven and brought into right relationship with God. God is now
reconciling us to each other, ourselves, and creation.
The Spirit of God
affirms as children of God all those who trust Jesus. The Spirit empowers us
with gifts, convicts, comforts, counsels, and guides us into truth
through a communal life of worship and a missional expression of our faith. The
church is rooted and grounded in Christ, practicing spiritual disciplines and
celebrating baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The church is a global and local
expression of living out the way of Jesus through love, peace, sacrifice, and
healing as we embody the resurrected Christ, who lives in and through us, to a
broken and hurting world.
We believe the day is coming when Jesus will return to judge the world, bringing an end to injustice and restoring all things to God’s original intent. God will reclaim this world and rule forever. The earth’s groaning will cease and God will dwell with us here in a restored creation. On that day we will beat swords into tools for cultivating the earth, the wolf will lie down with the lamb, there will be no more death, and God will wipe away all our tears. Our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation will be whole. All will flourish as God intends. This is what we long for. This is what we hope for. And we are giving our lives to living out that future reality now – here on earth as it is in heaven.
Statements and phrases adapted from: Mars Hill Bible Church and Trinity Church
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