beliefs

In all matters of doctrine and practice, as a reformed church, our final authority is the Holy Spirit speaking infallibly through Scripture as the word of God.

However, recognising that different interpretations exist as to what the Bible teaches, most Christian churches hold subordinate standards such as creeds, confessions and statements of faith. They provide churches with descriptions of truth, bonds for unity and a defence against error. For Trinity Church these include the Westminster Confession of Faith, in addition to the Larger and Shorter Catechisms.

While there is an expectation that Trinity Church’s teaching reflects these documents, we acknowledge that other streams of Christianity may not hold to all within these confessional statements. However, we acknowledge their validity as Christian churches and believers and we welcome them into fellowship with us.

In the words of St. Augustine, we hold “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”

The following doctrinal statements Centre Church holds as essentials for membership.

Knowing God in Scripture

We believe that our one aim in life and death should be to glorify God and enjoy Him forever; that God teaches us how to glorify and enjoy him in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, which He has given by the infallible inspiration of His Holy Spirit in order that we may certainly know what we are to believe concerning Him and what He requires of us.

The Trinitarian Nature of God

We believe that God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and incomparable in all that He is. One God but three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God as the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe

We believe that the heavens, the earth and all that are in them are the work of God and that all that He has made. He directs and governs in all their actions so that they fulfil the end for which they were created.

Humanity created in the image of God

We believe that God created humanity after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, and entered into a covenant of life with them upon the sole condition of their obedience that was due to God.

Humanity fell under condemnation

Humanity, by wilfully rebelling against God, fell into a state of sin into which we have been born. Being fallen in Adam, our first father, we are under the condemnation of God, corrupted in body, mind and soul, repeatedly sinning. We face death and eternal punishment. We cannot be delivered from this but through the unmerited grace of God our Saviour.

Humanity’s redemption through Christ alone

We believe that God has redeemed His people to Himself through Jesus Christ our Lord; who, though He was and ever continues to be the eternal Son of God, yet was born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them that are under the law: We believe that He bore the penalty due to our sins in His own body on the cross, and fulfilled in His own person the obedience we owe to the righteousness of God, and now presents us to His Father as His purchased possession, to the praise of the glory of His grace forever.

The bodily resurrection and present rule of Jesus Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ our redeemer, who died for our sins, was raised again for our justification, and ascended into the heavens, where He sits at the right hand of the Father Almighty, continually making intercession for his people, and governing the whole world as head over all things for his Church.