Vision
Living Hope exists to invite the people of Peterborough to experience Christian community (BELONG), explore faith in Jesus Christ (BELIEVE) and express Jesus’ love to others (BLESS).
Statement of Faith/the Meaning of Our Name
LIVING HOPE
Our “first” name comes from 1 Peter 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a LIVING HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Our hope for living is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We do not reminisce about a deceased hero. We serve a living Savior. Jesus’ death has freed us from our sins and His resurrected life has given us reason for living. We live to love Him. We live to worship Him. We live to serve Him. We live to become more and more like Him. And we live to share Him with others.
CHRISTIAN
Our next name roots us in the universal church and its basic beliefs. We communicate this biblical faith given once for all (Jude 3) in the following statements:
The Bible
We believe that the Bible is God’s Spirit-inspired Word and accept its authority over our faith and lives.
God
We believe in God as revealed in the Bible: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Father
We believe in the Father who created and sustains all things and is our own faithful Father through Jesus Christ His Son.
Sin
We believe that people, though created in the image of God and originally able to love and serve God perfectly, fell for Satan’s lie and broke God’s command. Since then, all people are sinners both by nature and choice and deserve God’s righteous judgment. This original disobedience not only affected human beings, but it impacted all of life, unleashing sickness, death and devastation upon the whole of creation.
Jesus Christ
We believe in Jesus Christ. For our salvation He came to earth as a human being through a supernatural conception within the virgin Mary. As a human, Jesus experienced the difficulties and temptations of human life yet He never sinned. Through His conversations, teachings and miracles, Jesus revealed God’s character and love.
Jesus died on the cross, bearing our sin, to pay for God’s righteous judgment against it. After three days He arose from the dead to give us new life and has ascended back to heaven where He now reigns as the Lord of the universe.
Salvation
We believe that it is by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone that we receive the forgiveness of sins and are restored into a right relationship with God, gaining membership in His family as His sons and daughters.
Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit who lives in believers. The Holy Spirit sets believers free by the truth of God’s Word, assures them of their salvation, nurtures them in their understanding and expression of the Christian life and empowers them to carry on the ministry of Jesus Christ.
The Church
We believe that God gathers His family on earth together in the church. The church is called to do God’s work in the world as it reaches out through the words and works of Jesus Christ. The church is to wholeheartedly praise God for His grace, lovingly function as the body of Christ, practically extend Christian compassion toward the needs of people and faithfully witness to the message of the Gospel.
Jesus’ Return
We believe that one day Jesus will return to earth to raise the dead, judge all people and recreate heaven and earth. Those who have rejected Him will be punished with Satan in hell, but those who believe in Him and long for His coming will be given eternal life.
Outflow
We believe that Christianity isn’t just about believing the above things, it is about enjoying the flow of God’s love to us in such a way that it overflows from us into the lives of others. Our desire is to pass God’s gracious blessing on to others and so point them to Jesus.
REFORMED
If the church universal is the trunk that gives us root, then the Reformed tradition and, more specifically, our own Christian Reformed denomination, make up the branch on which we grow.
One of teachings that this Christian tradition highlights is the belief that sin has so infected and affected every aspect of our lives that apart from Christ we are spiritually dead and in bondage to sin. Because of this spiritual condition we cannot make a move to God unless He first makes a move to us, liberating us from the power of sin and giving us spiritual life.
He graciously has done just that through the sacrifice of Jesus and continues to do that through the power of His Word and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit who leads us to repentance and faith.
We also stress God’s unique relationship with our families. God doesn’t just relate to us as individuals, but to us as families, from generation to generation. In other words, God cares deeply about our children and He calls parents and the whole church to raise them to know, love, serve and share Jesus Christ as both Saviour and Lord.
Another biblical teaching that we highlight is the fact that Jesus is Lord of all of life. There is no aspect of life as individuals, families, church and even communities and nations that doesn’t fall under His ultimate authority. Therefore, we seek to live according to the principles of His Kingdom in every facet of life – from education to recreation, from work to entertainment, from science to politics.
These are just a few of the biblical teachings that our Reformed tradition highlights. To discover more, pick up the helpful little pamphlet entitled What the Christian Reformed Church Believes
CHURCH
That brings us to the last word in our name – Church. For us a church is not so much a building, as it is a people – a people with a mission. Following the model of the early church (Acts 2:42-47), Living Hope expresses its mission in this way:
Living Hope exists to invite the people of Peterborough to experience Christian community (BELONG), explore faith in Jesus Christ (BELIEVE) and express Jesus’ love to others (BLESS).
AN INVITATION
So what is Living Hope all about? Our invitation says it all.
Belong
Experience Christian Community.
Believe
Explore Faith in Jesus Christ.
BLESS
Express Jesus’ Love to Others.
For a contemporary statement of what the Christian Reformed Church believes see Our World Belongs to God.
For more information on the Christian Reformed Church in North America visit our denomination’s website.