Christians don’t need to see eye-to-eye on everything. Unity is not the same thing as uniformity.
But there are some things that we believe are essential to what we are trying to do at East Hill.
The Bible reveals God’s story.
The words of the Bible are the heart of all we are and all we teach. They are the revealed and authoritative words of God. When faced with life decisions, the first question we ask is, “What does the Bible say?”
God is the center of our story.
The Bible reveals God as three-in-one: Father, Son, and Spirit. Although we may not fully be able to comprehend this mystery, we accept it on faith. We are created by God to live in a loving relationship with him. That is, above all else, the purpose of our existence. Because God is holy, our sin causes us to become separated from him. But God loved us so much that he came to earth in the form of Jesus. His sacrifice on the cross was to atone for our sins.
We are called to respond to the story.
Jesus came so that everyone could be saved, but God will not force himself on us. Our acceptance of God’s free gift of salvation begins with a confession of faith and with baptism. Since the earliest church, these have always been the gateway into God’s kingdom. This makes sense since baptism by immersion is a kind of reenactment of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
Our lives continue the story.
When we become Christians, God comes to live in us through the Holy Spirit. He helps us learn to live the kind of lives that are pleasing to God, the kind of lives that we were created to live. We will never be perfect, but we are always growing in grace.