WHAT WE BELIEVE

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God exists, and has existed forever.  All of creation, everything we know to exist and have yet to discover, has been put into place and is in the loving care of God.  God is best referred to without specific gender pronouns, since God is uncreated, unlike humans.

Jesus was a real human being who lived on earth, who died and was resurrected.  Jesus is alive today, and one day the distinction between what we call “heaven” and “earth” will be gone, and we’ll see him again just like those who saw him thousands of years ago.  Jesus is called Christ because he also embodies God’s complete presence. He is how we know God; how we relate to God.

The Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God is what connects our hearts to the heart of Christ.  In scripture, God’s spirit evokes images like water or wind that moves with a powerful, steady force and accomplishes great things in the world we see and in the spiritual world we cannot see.  

Although never referred to like this in scripture, God is revealed in three principal ways.  These are Creator, Redeemer and Connector. (God, Christ, Spirit). Many traditions use the terms Father, Son and Spirit, however we prefer to move away from language that can be viewed as paternalistic or even patriarchal, especially if there is little merit in using it.

Reading scripture is a lot like listening to someone talking on a telephone. You hear part of the conversation and can usually understand what’s being said, but often a little context goes a long way.  

The bible that is used in most Protestant Christian traditions is a variation of  a set of books which was first canonized (or collected into an agreed-upon volume) almost 2,000 years ago. Before then and many times since, various translations have been made.  

It is worthwhile to note that when we read scripture, we are reading a wide array of genres and authors who are all writing with a different purpose in mind.    We are reading history, poetry, myth, parable and in some cases we are even reading some purposefully creative retellings of events. 

The common purpose of the scripture we study is to share the truth about who God is and what God’s hope is for the creation God loves and the people God has placed in it. 

Humankind  has been created as a reflection of God’s image.  In most translations of the Bible, Genesis 1:27 references the notion that a) God created humanity in God’s image and b) humanity was created male and female.  Many modern Christian faith traditions use this exact verse to reinforce the argument that God created humans with a gender binary.  

What these arguments fail to recognize is that there are other binaries presented in the same creation story that most of us would agree are not true binaries in real life. For example, day and night over which the sun and the moon are said to govern are two extremes between which we all experience sunrise, morning, daytime, twilight, sunset and evening and night. 

At Belong, we believe that the male and female binary represents two ends of a spectrum upon which all humans exist, and that all humans on that spectrum are created perfectly (or “very good”).  As such, we are all equally God’s image bearers.  

This extends to people from all walks of life, regardless of race, heritage, social or economic standing, ability, sexual orientation or any other factor that might impact their privilege in a world that is full of biases, conscious and otherwise.  

As Paul writes in Colossians 3, “Christ is all and in all”. We adopt the Jesus Way in response to complete grace, offered freely.  The love of God is not something we earn in any way.  It is offered to everyone in equal measure.