We Are Evangelical

We believe in the Triune God, the deity of Jesus, his virgin birth, and substitutionary and vicarious atonement for his people. We believe in the physical resurrection of Christ, his sure and visible return, and the inerrancy, infallibility, and divine authority of the Bible which is the only rule of faith and practice.

We Are Evangelistic

We take seriously the Great Commission, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20) We believe God is sovereign by his Spirit to give rebirth to whomever he pleases, but we also know that the Holy Spirit always works in conjunction with the gospel as it is spoken. Therefore, we place a premium on preaching and verbal presentations of the gospel. Because of the explicit instructions of the Great Commission, we do not regard a person simply "asking Jesus into their heart" as what Jesus was commanding. It is only when a person has trusted in Christ and been baptized and taught the Word of God (i.e., they've become a fully functioning part of the church) that the Great Commission has been fulfilled for that person.

We Are Reformed

We are heirs of the Protestant Reformation which comes from Luther, Calvin, Knox and other reformers. "Reformed" is used most commonly to refer to certain theological distinctives which have marked Reformation believers, particularly those in the Calvinist tradition. Reformed distinctives include the following beliefs:

• All people are sinners and are completely unable to save themselves or even cooperate with God in efforts to earn salvation.
• God is sovereign at all times over all things including the choosing of believers apart from any merit of their own.
• The irresistible grace of God precedes the faith of the individual.
• Christ died potentially for no one, but definitely for his people, whom he chose from the foundation of the world.
• Because God chose his people in the first place, it is his work to make good on his promises, i.e., to cause them to persevere to the end.

We Are Confessional

Many churches claim that the Bible alone is the Word of God. We do too. However, one doesn't have to look very hard to find that, even among those churches, there are great differences. For this reason, we subscribe doctrinally to the Westminster Confession of Faith and its Larger and Shorter Catechisms. We believe these documents are a good and accurate summary of the Bible's teaching. While we do not hold the Confession to be authoritative (that's reserved for scripture), we believe the Confession is a normative understanding of scripture.

It is important to note that every church has a confession, formal or informal. Even churches that claim they have "no creed but Christ" summarize their convictions in some form to distinguish their members from those who are not believers or who do not believe in their distinctives. The problem with "no creed but Christ," is that it is a creed, but not a very helpful one.

We gladly join with other classical Reformed Protestants in enjoying the Three Forms of Unity (the Canons of Dordt, the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism, the latter of which we use regularly in worship.)

We Are Covenantal

We believe the way God has communicated to and redeemed his people is best expressed and understood in classical covenant theology. This majority view of the bulk of church history until the nineteenth-century tells of a relationship of gracious love that God has initiated with his people throughout history. The covenant is a unifying principle of the Scriptures. It draws attention to the fact that there is only one way to salvation in both the Old and New Testaments, by faith alone in Jesus Christ. This covenantal understanding of the Bible is in contrast to any system of understanding the Scriptures that attributes differing ways of salvation to a succession of historical Biblical eras or different races today.

We Are Gospel-Centered

The Gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. Our God reigns! Jesus is the Son of God who became man. He lived a perfect life, the life we could not live because of sin. He died the death that we deserve by being punished for our sins. He was then raised from the dead so that we too can be redeemed and restored to all that we were created to be before sin. We want to be shaped by the gospel and to live according to the gospel. We earnestly desire that our worship reflects the transforming power of the Gospel. We endeavor by the enablement of the Holy Spirit to bring the Kingdom of God to bear upon the world through the Gospel until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)

We Are Presbyterian

All churches have some kind of church government. Some are ruled by the pastor, others by bishops, and still others by the majority vote of the congregation. To be Presbyterian is to be ruled by congregationally elected elders. In the Presbyterian Church in America, we have ruling elders and teaching elders, who are the pastors. They are all intent upon following the Biblical model of the church in teaching, leadership and structure we see in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. These men have as their goal the maturity and care of believers at Heritage and equipping them to do the tasks to which God has called them. A complete description of the Presbyterian form of government can be found in our Book of Church Order.