What We Believe…

But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you will have life by the power of His name. (John 20: 31)

 
First Presbyterian Church of Moorestown is a diverse community of Christians united by our common love for God made known most fully in Jesus Christ. Our faith in Jesus Christ is our deepest comfort, our highest joy and our greatest asset as a church.
 
We believe in God, the Maker and Master of the universe. At the heart of God is a loving relationship between the three persons of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This love was demonstrated to the world by the sending of the one and only Son of God Jesus Christ into the world. “For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son…” (John 3:16).

We believe in Jesus. We believe that Jesus died to forgive us of our sins. His death sets us free from fear and gives us new life that is abundant and eternal as we acknowledge our wrongs and place our full trust in Him.

We believe that Jesus was bodily raised from the dead and lives and reigns as our Savior and Lord. Since He is alive we have a living relationship with Jesus. Jesus said “I am the vine and you are the branches.” (John 15:5).

We believe that the Holy Spirit is the presence of God given personally to us. The Holy Spirit gives the church the spiritual power to love one another, to forgive one another and to live like Jesus taught us to live. The Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts to empower us to do the things God calls us to do. When we live in the power of the Spirit our lives produce the deepest qualities or fruit modeled by Jesus including joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control and most importantly, love. (Galatians 5: 22, 23)
 
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ. As such, we believe the Bible is to be read with both the mind and the heart. We believe the Bible is both a question book, provoking us to deeper faith and thought, and an answer book, providing the answers to the most important questions of life: Who are we? (children of God) What is our purpose? (to glorify God) and What is our destiny? (eternal life).

We believe that the church is a community of imperfect people who come together to worship, grow and serve because of our common relationship with a perfect God. Our congregation is only one small part of the much larger Church which includes believers from other traditions and other eras. In worship we celebrate two sacraments, baptism and communion. In growing we believe faith is journey, not a destination. We never stop growing as Christians. In service, we strive to serve the lost, lonely and least in the world.
As Presbyterians, FPC Moorestown embraces the essential tenets of the reformed faith including that we are saved only by grace through faith, that God is sovereign over all things, that every person is given gifts for ministry by God, and that we all share in the responsibility for building up the church, the body of Christ. We believe that leadership in the local church is best determined by the members of the church and as such we elect our own leaders. At the same time, we believe that we should work in partnership with other churches and participate in the life of our denomination the Presbyterian Church USA.