Our Mission & Vision
Our vision and mission is to help connect people to faith
Glade Park Church is a gathering of people who desire to see the Kingdom of God expand on Glade Park and throughout the Grand Valley. We are all people on a journey in our life of faith – some have been at this for decades, others for just a short time. Some may even simply be exploring what it means to be part of such a kingdom. There is no requirement one must meet in order to be part of the fellowship. But there are some distinctives that we hold as a church in the ancient Christian faith. This is our best effort to lay out a clear understanding of these distinctives. It is our hope that all who come will be able – perhaps easily, perhaps after time and some wrestling – to hold these in their hearts as true.
Ancient Faith: The Apostles’ Creed
The basic and most familiar creed of many churches is called the Apostles’ Creed. It is so called, not because it was necessarily penned by the original Apostles, those first Disciples of Jesus, but because of its great antiquity and succinct statement of what those Apostles believed and wrote. It dates from very early times in the Church, perhaps as early as a half century or so from the last writings of the New Testament. This is that creed stated in contemporary language:
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into 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 Christian Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Our Beliefs & Values
While this creed is personal in nature, it accurately reflects what Glade Park Church holds, teaches and preaches. There are several parts of the creed over which the historical Church has labored much in explaining theological mystery – things such as the Virgin Birth and the reality of One God who exists in three Persons (the nature of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). We are content to take those things on faith as being held by the Body of Christ throughout history.
Unity
While the faith is ancient, it can tend to mere “religious-ness” if it has no application to contemporary culture. We believe that we, as part of that faith, have a responsibility to bring the effects of God’s kingdom revealed in Jesus Christ to make a real difference in today’s society, beginning with Glade Park.
Love
We believe God created humans for the sake of love, to share in relationship with himself and with one another. His overwhelming pursuit of us, even in the face of our rejection of him, to the point of sacrificing himself – in the crucifixion of Jesus, the Son of God in 1st-Century Judea – is good news, indeed. This is as crucial to human beings now as it was when Jesus walked the roads of Judea two thousand years ago.
Salvation
The point of the Gospel of Jesus is that we have access to the Intimate Relationship for which our deepest hearts excruciatingly yearn – an authentic love-faith relationship with God through God the Son, Jesus Christ. We believe it is both our joy and our mission to share that with those around us on Glade Park, in the Valley, throughout Western Colorado and the world.
“But they that wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
– Isaiah 40:31
Your place at Glade Park Church
While we believe these things are true for all people throughout all time, they are not a litmus test to see if you can be in fellowship with those who call Glade Park Church their home. You are welcome here, whether or not you can fully embrace this statement of faith. But what you find here may challenge your beliefs, or even your deeply-seated convictions; this seems frequently to be the result of real, authentic relationship with God and with humans, whom he loves. And it is always good to meet those challenges in the company of others. It is our deepest hope that everyone who comes to Glade Park Church will find themselves involved in that Intimate Relationship of Love that comes from God, and receive the ultimate benefit of that Relationship – eternal life in the presence of the God who loves us and desires us, who knows us and names us, who desires to see us become more like his Son, Jesus.
If you are looking for a fellowship of people who have it all together and know exactly where they put it, you may not be comfortable here. However, if you are longing for relationship in faith and hope, come, and be welcome!
For those who desire a concrete statement of doctrine…
…we offer the following declarations of belief:
god
Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit
• GOD IS ONE BEING IN THREE PERSONS: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Who has revealed himself to his people through the Holy Scriptures we call the Bible, and given us his name: YAHWEH. He has revealed his nature through the historical coming in human flesh of Jesus (YESHUA, meaning “Yahweh Saves”), and in continuing revelation in the Person of the Holy Spirit.
• GOD CREATED HUMANKIND in his own image to be in an eternal relationship of love with himself. We were created to be without sin, holy and righteous before the God Who made us to be his companions.
• HUMANKIND CHOSE TO REJECT THE PURE AND SINLESS RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD – by exercising the freedom of will with which God in his grace created us – for one of self-will and control. The Bible identifies this rebellion as, “SIN.” Because of this choice, all humans, without the grace of Christ, are unable to return to that grace of relationship with God for which we were first created. This state is sometimes called “ORIGINAL SIN.”
• YET GOD IS UNWILLING TO ABANDON US to the everlasting consequences of our rebellion. The Bible is the revelation of God’s rescue mission to redeem humankind, to restore us to the state of sinlessness wherein we might once again walk with him as the friends of God, and bear godly fruit as we become more like Jesus.
• JESUS IS THE FOCUS AND FULFILLMENT OF THAT RESCUE MISSION. Jesus is fully God yet born as a human being through Mary – a young woman of 1st Century Judea who had never had sexual relations with a man. Jesus lived his life in full and sinless obedience to God his Father, and though he was without sin, died a horrific and torturous death, the death of a traitor and rebel. He was raised to life again by the power of the Holy Spirit, and afterward returned to his Father – bodily ascending into Heaven – in order that humankind might return to our rightful place at God’s side.
• WE HAVE ACCESS TO AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD ONCE AGAIN. Because of what Jesus did, all who receive Him as their Master and Savior can once again be in an eternal relationship of love with God the Father.