Oftentimes people will ask, “What does Covenant
Presbyterian Church believe?” Sometimes the questions are
asked these ways: What are our theological distinctives? What
does it mean to be a Presbyterian Church? What does it mean to
say we are reformed? Are these issues even important? Do we,
in our theological tradition, care about evangelism; that is,
winning new people to faith in Jesus Christ?
While this document may not answer every
question of this nature, as elders and undershepherds of the
flock, we do want to help members, visitors and inquirers
learn more about our church.
The Session is convinced that our church must
not be so broadly open that it fails to make vitally important
distinctions which the Bible itself makes; nor are we to
insist that every member share the same precise set of
theological convictions. To be more specific, Covenant is and
will be characterized accurately with the following
terms:
We are
evangelical.
To say that we
are evangelical means that we take our stand with all those
who believe in the basic truths of historic Christianity.We joyfully affirm our
unity with those who believe in these fundamentals of the
Christian faith: the existence of the triune God, the deity of
Jesus Christ, the virgin birth and bodily resurrection of
Jesus Christ, the vicarious or substitutionary atonement of
Christ, the certain and bodily return of Jesus Christ, the
necessity of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ for
salvation from sin and all its consequences, the historicity
of supernatural events described in the Bible, and the
infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible which is our only
guide for faith and practice. Though we may have certain
disagreements in areas beyond these fundamental truths, we
affirm our unity with those who share our common commitment to
these most important
doctrines.
We are
reformed.
The word "reformed" can be defined simply in
two ways: 1) it is a reference to our historical link to the
Reformation of the 16th century and intends to describe us as
the heirs of that tradition which comes from Martin Luther,
John Calvin, John Knox and other reformers. 2) The word
"reformed" is used most commonly to refer to certain
theological distinctives which have marked reformation
believers, particularly those in the Calvinist
tradition.
These distinctives can be summarized by our glad
affirmation of the responsibility of every person to repent
and believe, and that it is God who, by His sovereign electing
grace, draws men and women, otherwise dead in sin, to faith in
His Son. By this faith alone are God's people
justified.
Reformed distinctives include the sovereignty of
God in His creation, providence and election of believers
apart from any merit of their own; the irresistible grace of
God provided for and preceding the faith of the individual;
the sufficiency of God's grace apart from which man is dead in
sin and wholly defiled in all his faculties of soul and body;
the efficacy of Christ's death for all those who believe in
Him by grace; the safe-guarding of all those for whom Christ
died for eternal life.
We seek to hold to our reformed convictions
humbly, recognizing the sincerity and earnestness of Godly men
and women who have other
positions.
We are
evangelistic.
This means we take seriously the Great
Commission, "Go and make disciples of all nations." Without
compromising the sovereignty of God, we affirm the
responsibility of each person to repent and believe in Jesus
Christ as Savior and Lord and our responsibility to extend the
Gospel invitation as a call to salvation to everyone who hears
its message. We invite all, without distinction, to drink
freely of the Water of Life and to live eternally. In this
way, we seek to "extend the transforming presence of the
Kingdom of our Lord Jesus
Christ."
We are
confessional.
This means
that we have a written confession of faith which we believe to
be a good and accurate summary of the Bible's teaching. Our
confession consists of the Westminster Confession of Faith and
the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. These documents (available
in our bookstore and library) are not without flaw; yet we
believe they do contain carefully worded summaries of the
Bible's content. All ruling and teaching elders in the
Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) must vow that they hold
to these standards and are required to indicate to their
presbyteries or sessions where they take exceptions. It is
important to note that every church has a confession, formal
or informal, even though some claim they have "no confession
but Christ" or "no creed but the Bible." Every church
summarizes its convictions in some form in order to
distinguish its members from those who are not believers or
those who do not believe in their church's
distinctives.
We are
covenantal.
To say we are
covenantal means we believe that the unifying principle of the
Scriptures is the one covenant of grace that God made with
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and finally, and most
importantly, in Jesus Christ. The covenant is a pledge or bond
of loyalty which God made to His people through each of the
above named persons. The covenant is a relationship of loving
loyalty that God has initiated with us as His people
throughout human history. To speak of the unity of the
covenants means that there is one way and one way only to
salvation in both Old and New Testaments-that is, by faith
alone in Jesus Christ. This covenantal understanding of the
Bible is in distinction from any system of organizing the
Scriptures which would attribute differing ways of salvation
to a succession of historical Biblical
eras.
We are
Kingdom centered.
We believe that
theKingdom of
God is
not only a future hope but is also a present reality. We
believe that the ascension of Jesus Christ means that He is
presently reigning from Heaven and, therefore, we are called
upon to honor and obey Him in every area of our personal lives
and to plant the banner of Christ's Kingdom rule in every area
of human endeavor. In addition We are committed to engaging in
ministry with other like-minded local churches, Presbyteries,
the denomination, and worldwide ministries in order to extend
the kingdom of God to the end of the
earth. While we are committed to being as specific and narrow
as possible in our theological formulations, we are committee
to being as catholic (universal or broad) as possible in our
fellowship with other
Christians.
We are
Presbyterian
“Presbyterian”
refers to our type of government. We believe that the biblical
form of government is through “elders” or “presbyters” who
govern the church together. The body of elders that governs a
local church like Covenant is called a session; the body that
governs a large geographical area of churches is called a
presbytery; the body that governs the entire denomination is
called General Assembly. This Presbyterian form of government
is contrasted to congregational (government by the entire
congregation) and episcopal (government by an
individual).
We are
means of grace dependant
One of the
most important questions anyone could ask is, “How do I grow
as a Christian?” We believe that God will bless and grow His
people through the use of the ordinary means of grace: the
reading and preaching of God’s Word, the sacraments of baptism
and the Lord’s Supper, prayer, and the fellowship and
accountability of the church family. Therefore, the means of
grace have a priority in the life and ministry of Covenant
Presbyterian Church (PCA) whether in worship, discipleship, or
outreach and missions. We are committed to simple,
God-centered worship that draws on the rich heritage of the
reformed worship tradition.
It is important to know that these distinctives
are good ones; that is to say, it is profitable and
health-producing for Christians to believe these things. We
believe that as we come to appreciate them, we will grow to
love and honor the Lord Jesus more fully and understand more
richly what it means to live by grace.
Nevertheless, acceptance of all these
distinctives is not required for membership in our church. One
can join and be a participating member of our church without
holding to any but the evangelical distinctive. Ruling and
teaching elders and deacons, however, must hold to all these
distinctives.
Likewise, teachers in our Sunday School affirm
their willingness to teach according to the confessional
standards of our church and agree to discuss with the Session
any area where they disagree. Teachers who agree to be
gracious in matters where they take exceptions to our
confessional standards may receive approval to teach by our
Session, which must approve all
teachers.
In the Reformation era, Martin Luther had a
sponsor whose name was Frederick of Saxony. Frederick was a prince and a
16th century entrepreneur who funded many of Luther's
projects. He was a man of warm heart and deep conviction. On
his coach, he had emblazoned these Latin words: suaviter in modo, fortiter
in re, which means, "gentle in manner, strong in truth."
This is what CPC desires to be: warm, gracious, inviting, open
and non-judgmental; yet holding strong convictions that always
come directly from the Bible. It is our absolute and
unwavering conviction that to be strong in truth without being
gentle in manner is unbiblical. It is also our profound
conviction that to be gentle in manner while not adhering to
scriptural truth is also unbiblical. By God's grace, we will
be both as we press on in the Lord's grand design for CPC to
be used on the Eastern Shore
and all the world.
