What We Believe

North Shore Community Church is affiliated with the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) which holds that the purest expressions of scriptural doctrine are found in the Calvinistic creeds, particularly the Westminster Confession of Faith. Click here for more information regarding the PCA.

The PCA's representative form of church government is rooted in its name - presbyterian. Local churches are governed by elders elected by the church members.The North Shore Community Church is subject to the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, the word of God.

Our doctrinal standards are set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith, together with the larger and shorter Catechisms. For purposes of our faith, doctrine, practice, policy, and discipline, our session is the church’s final interpretive authority on the Bible’s meaning and application.

This statement of faith does not exhaust the extent of our beliefs, but does include the following:

Baptism

Baptism is the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. This sacrament signifies our in-grafting into Christ and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord's. Baptism is a sign of God's covenant and is administered to believers and their children.

Bible

We believe in the inspiration and authority of Scripture.  The Bible is the Written Word of God without error and of divine authority in all matters of faith and life (II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:20 - 21).                                                                               

Born Again

Those sinners whom the Spirit quickens, come to believe in Christ as their Savior by the Word of God, are born again, become sons and daughters of God, and will persevere to the end. God alone knows whom He has and will regenerate.

Gospel

The "gospel" is the good news that Jesus Christ has entered history to usher in the kingdom of God and redeem the whole world (Galatians 4:4-7).

Heaven and Hell

At death the Christian's soul passes immediately into the presence of God and the unbeliever's soul is eternally separated from God unto condemnation. 

Human Kind

Human Beings are the pinnacle of God’s creation, made in the image of God.  (Genesis 1:28) We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female and that these two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God. Man is a moral being, a social being, and a purposeful being because God is first all of these things. Every human has an inherent dignity as God’s image-bearer from conception.  Thus we reject the killing of innocent human life - from abortion to euthanasia. (Exodus 20:13)

Jesus is coming again

Jesus Christ will return to earth, visibly and bodily, at a time when He is not expected, to consummate history and the eternal plan of God. 

Justification and Sanctification

Justification is an act of God, wherein he pardons all our sins, accepts us as righteous in His sight. Being seen righteous in God's sight is only because the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us. Justification is received by faith alone.

Sanctification is a progressive work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, whereby we are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. This process makes us more like Christ in our actual lives.  

Marriage

We believe that God created marriage to be exclusively the union of one man and one woman and that intimate sexual activity is to occur exclusively within that union.

Purposes of the Church

The church is called to glorify God 1) Through Worship, 2) Through the Spiritual nurture and development of those who come to the Church, 3) Through reaching the lost by sharing the gospel with the spiritually lost (evangelism), and 4) Through the mercy ministries whereby we meet the physical needs of the homeless, the orphans, and the widows.

Redemption

All mankind participated in Adam's fall from his original sinless state and is thus lost in sin and totally helpless.

The Sovereign God, for no other reason than His own unfathomable love and mercy, has chosen lost sinners from every nation to be redeemed by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit and through the atoning death and resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ.  

Trinity

There is one God, eternal and self-existing in three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) who are the same substance, equal in power and glory and are to be equally loved, honored, and adored.