After over half century on my faith journey, I have arrived at a set of beliefs, which are central to my life and ministry. I believe...

...God is love and has been revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (The Trinity), who lives in perfect community creating, redeeming, and sustaining all that is, was and will be, that we may live in perfect community within friendships, marriages, families, churches, neighborhoods, nations and all of creation.

...we are created in the image of God as we are formed in the womb; are deformed by sin when we enter the world; are periodically reformed by the power of our will when we realize our sin; but are only free from the power of sin when we are transformed by the renewal of our minds and willing to be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

...Christ Jesus is the head or the Church, the Body of Christ, (not bishops, ministers, boards, or committees), and we are all called to submit to the Lordship of Christ, and in communion with him, our uniqueness and diversity are transformed into one body, so the word becomes flesh in the midst of the world around us. His vision for the church is that we are one as he and the Father are one.

...the mission of the church was established by the risen Lord when he told us, "Go make disciples of all nations"; "preach the gospel to the whole creation," and all other functions and ministries of the church exist to support and sustain that mission. God will supply our every need to accomplish his will and purpose for this church.

...Servant Leadership, modeled by Jesus, is a call to greatness, so he gives us the choice to become servants in his name and follow the example of the saints of the church to minister to the poor, hungry, naked, imprisoned, sick and the stranger, as if ministering to Christ himself.

...each person is called to fulfill the will of God in some unique way no one else can fill; are equipped with the talents, abilities, and gifts necessary to carry out that call; and discovering and fulfilling that call and claim upon our lives is our most important life work, our destiny.

...as members of the Body of Christ, we are to be dedicated to God and support the Church with our prayers, presence, gifts (possessions, talents, abilities, natural and spiritual gifts) and service. The church belongs to Christ, not to us; we are stewards of all his resources.

...the tithe is only a minimum standard for giving to the work of God through the church with advice to "gain all you can, save all you can, then give all you can, ...all you have to God." JW The Church’s goal should be to give as much or more to others as we spend on ourselves.

...as a minister in a local congregation, I am called to be a spiritual leader (not a CEO) by spending the majority (75-80%) of my time using the spiritual gifts God has entrusted to me to fulfill his mission and equip the saints in discovering and sustaining the use of their spiritual gifts for the glory of God and the upbuilding of the body or Christ in this community. My three confirmed spiritual gifts are teaching/prophetic preaching, knowledge, and exhortation, and hopefully the gifts of faith and leadership will be confirmed in this ministry.