What Van City
Believes

At Van City, we work to embody and exemplify uncompromising faithfulness to the essential, core doctrine precious to disciples of Jesus throughout church history, while simultaneously making room for honest questions and complex, even painful, wrestling with God.

We want our family to be an environment where both new and seasoned Christians can work out what it means to follow Jesus faithfully, and there is grace and accountability for both

The Apostle’s Creed

The Apostles’ Creed is an early summation of doctrine core to Christianity. Though discipleship to Jesus is expressed across many traditions, each with unique nuance of doctrine and interpretation of the Scriptures, we recognize brothers and sisters who hold these things to be true.

The Nicene Creed

The Nicene Creed is a 3rd Century statement of belief for early Christian churches across the Greco-Roman world.

  • I believe in God, the Father almighty,

       creator of heaven and earth.

    I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

         who was conceived by the Holy Spirit

         and born of the virgin Mary.

         He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

         was crucified, died, and was buried;

         he descended to hell.

         The third day he rose again from the dead.

         He ascended to heaven

         and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.

         From there he will come to judge the living

    and the dead.

    I believe in the Holy Spirit,

         the holy church,

         the communion of saints,

         the forgiveness of sins,

         the resurrection of the body,

         and the life everlasting. Amen.

  • I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. 

    And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds;

     God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; 

    begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. 

    Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, 

    and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; 

    and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; 

    He suffered and was buried; 

    and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; 

    and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; 

    and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; 

    whose kingdom shall have no end. 

    And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; 

    who proceeds from the Father and the Son; 

    who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; 

    who spoke by the prophets. 

    And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; 

    and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. 

Doctrine

  • We believe in the triune God revealed in the Bible—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe in one all-powerful cosmic creator who spoke the universe into existence, who is the gracious and nurturing father, and who is best revealed in Jesus—the exact representation of his being—and who continues to speak, convict, teach, heal, and redeem by his Spirit.

    Humanity was created in God’s image and granted genuine autonomy to carry out life within the good and gracious collaborative reign of God or to define what is good for themselves at the expense of other humans and all of creation. Humanity consistently chooses the latter.

    Rather than destroying the human project, God instead chooses to pursue his unrequited love, going as far as to step down into a finite world marred by human beings that he might be with them in the mess of their own making and rescue them from the consequences of their own sin.

    The creator God was made flesh in Jesus, who succeeded in humanity’s divine mandate where humanity had failed. Jesus inaugurated God’s kingdom, and by his life, death, and resurrection, humanity can be reconciled to God. Because of the saving work of Jesus, initiated and accomplished by God, the Spirit of God enables broken humanity to accept Jesus’s call of apprenticeship. Any and all people who accept the invitation of Jesus (come, take up your cross, and follow me) will apprentice in a new way of life—and life to the fullest, and as we follow Jesus, the Spirit of God in us empowers us to become like Jesus.

  • The Bible is a library of writings composed and compiled by many human authors in collaboration and concert with one divine author. A work of supreme literary artistry, the Bible was “breathed out” by God himself and is, therefore, authoritative, true, and trustworthy in all it intends to say and teach.

    In the Scriptures, we encounter the story of God and learn the will of God for his people then and now. Though understanding and applying the Scriptures requires thoughtful interpretation, we enter this process with an advance commitment to accept as authoritative truth all that the Scriptures teach for belief and practice.

  • Discipleship to Jesus is always carried out in the context of community. The Christian community—the church—is made up of all kinds of people with all sorts of stories. In the church, we experience the transformative power of vulnerability, accountability, and shared life. The church is a people; thus, it is broken and imperfect. As with all relationships and communities, we accept the inevitability of human failure without being overwhelmed or undone by it. Though we can be hurt by others, spiritual formation happens first and foremost in the context of relationships.

    In community, we open our lives to one another in vulnerability and hold one another accountable to the authority of the Scriptures and the teachings of Jesus with compassion and forgiving grace. This is the only way to follow Jesus.

  • We believe that the journey of discipleship is just that, a journey. All of us are becoming someone else over time through the trial, rigor, joy, and suffering of life. Becoming like Jesus happens neither by an instantaneous bolt of purification from the Holy Spirit nor by an entirely effort-driven human struggle. Instead, the disciple of Jesus—like all who apprentice a master—makes every effort to take up a life of consistent, disciplined faithfulness while, concurrently, we partner with the Holy Spirit in transforming our character.  

FAQ

  • We rejoice that all people are made in the image of God and that the church thrives when led by a variety of unique men and women of all stories, backgrounds, ethnicities, and nationalities. We invite, train, equip, and ordain men and women into all offices of church leadership based on Biblical character qualifications and the availability of those in our community.

  • As said in the earliest creeds and throughout church history, Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. All people will be raised. Faithful disciples of Jesus will join him in everlasting life at the renewal of all things. Of those who reject the saving love of Jesus, God will honor their choice freely taken and hand them over to everlasting destruction.

  • We believe that because God was interested in authentic relationship rather than a precluded pseudo-drama with automatons, he created human beings and spiritual beings truly free. Human and spiritual beings often elect to use their freedom for evil. As a result, both the physical and spiritual realms are broken, chaotic places marred by sin, suffering, and death.

    God does not will, determine, or ordain suffering or evil. Though God remains in charge of creation—his ultimate purpose for redemption is unstoppable—we carry out life in the chaotic crossfire of freewill consequences, partnering with God through prayer and action to push evil back and to see God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven.

  • We believe in the diligent pursuit of loving God with our minds through studying the Scriptures, theological acumen, history, language, and tradition.

    We also believe in the full and powerful expression of all the things the Spirit does through prophecy and worship, words of wisdom and knowledge, miraculous healing, and the like.

  • We recognize the obvious division and vitriol tangled in questions and issues of sexuality in the church. Historically, Christians have not adequately acknowledged the pain and complexity of these issues nor navigated theological disagreement with humility and self-sacrificial love.

    At Van City, all people are enthusiastically welcomed to worship, learn, and pray with our family on Sunday regardless of belief, theological disagreement, sexual orientation, or gender.

    When and if a person decides to involve themselves at Van City in a meaningful way by attending our Basics class and joining a Van City Community, they will enter into the accountability and vulnerability of shared life in which all members of the church family are invited to take up their crosses and follow Jesus. This includes obedience to the Biblical paradigm of gender, romantic intimacy, sexuality, and marriage.

    We believe in the historic Christian paradigm of marriage as a lifelong monogamous covenant union between two biologically sexually different persons (male and female) from different families and that any and all sexual relationships and expressions outside of this marriage paradigm are sin.

    Though heated cultural dialogue often vests personhood in sexuality, we reject any paradigm of personhood that reduces a human being to who they sleep with. Jesus—our greatest example of a Spirit-empowered human being—elected not to have sex and was no less human for it.

    Van City has no intention to, nor interest in, imposing or enforcing our theological paradigm on others, on culture beyond the church, or in the political sphere. What business is it of ours to judge those outside the church? Instead, we invite and accept all people. When and if they freely choose community accountability, we invite one another into the journey toward uncompromising faithfulness to the way of Jesus.

  • God, the artist, wonderfully crafts and creates human beings as male or female. These distinct, entirely equal, and complimentary genders reflect the image of God uniquely and respectively. Though men and women may express certain temperaments and sensibilities less anchored in certain cultural stereotypes of their genders depending on time and place, men and women are inherently different by God’s good design.

    God creates human beings with biological sex/gender as one immutable aspect of their God-crafted personhood. Thus, gender is neither refutable nor open to the individual’s interpretation.

    We recognize that the human experience is complicated and that not every person’s experience of their gender is uncomplicated. Throughout the journey of discipleship, all of us are working to bring all our personhood—including gender—into the redeeming fire of God’s love. The church can and should be a welcoming refuge to allow space for such a thing to take place within the gracious accountability of community.