Silverton Friends Church is a member of Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends

God as Creator

We believe God is the Creator and Sustainer of the cosmos, whose creative work provides the basis for order, beauty, purpose, and thought. God is holy and eternal; loving, almighty, and wise. God is revealed to humankind through rational understanding, experience, and direct revelation. God speaks through the Scriptures.

God’s Revelation in Christ

We believe that the word of God spoken into every heart was supremely manifest in Jesus Christ, true God and perfect human. Christ is the Word, the Light that exposes our need and brings us into the righteousness of God. Jesus is the Redeemer through whose atoning death and resurrection we realize the forgiveness of God. Jesus is Lord, the first and last word of divine wisdom by which God is drawing all of creation into a new covenant of peace.

God’s Revelation by the Spirit

We believe God is the source of truth, that there are no spiritual insights or principles inconsistent with God’s revelation. God’s Spirit teaches us through Scripture, through community, through experience, and through creation. The Spirit convicts and instructs conscience, testifies to salvation through Christ, and gives wisdom and power for holy living. The Spirit gives discernment concerning the purposes of God. The Spirit enlightens reason and quickens human creativity that we might share in the work of the Creator.

God’s Revelation in the Scriptures

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Hebrew and Christian Testaments were recorded and preserved by communities of faithful people. They are the sacred writings that we as Christians are bound to accept and study, and by which we might become “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15 NIV). Interpreted by the Holy Spirit, they are an unfailing source of truth.

Human Redemption

We believe that God created humans in God’s own image; and that when we center the Creator, we are found right (justified) before God. To those who put their faith in Christ, God offers forgiveness, regeneration, and final glorification.

The Baptism with the Holy Spirit

We believe Christ’s baptism to be the inward receiving of the promised Holy Spirit, whereby the believer is immersed in Jesus’ power and wisdom. This baptism is the essential Christian baptism: an experience of cleansing that supplants covenant rituals. The sanctification that is initiated with this experience is a continuing work of the Holy Spirit in which we are instructed into righteous living and perfected in love.

The Church

We believe the Church is composed of persons who, through the faith of Jesus Christ, have been born into God’s Kingdom and baptized with the Holy Spirit into the one Body. This Church is spiritual in nature, universal in scope, holy in character, and redemptive in purpose. Its head is Jesus Christ, who serves immediately as priest and ministers directly as teacher and prophet.

God’s Kingdom

We believe the Church is called to demonstrate in this life the righteous character of Christ’s present and coming Kingdom. The Kingdom is present now to the extent that the people of God hear, obey, and join God in the work God is doing.

The Spiritual Experience

We believe that we may experience Christ directly and immediately without the necessity of priestly or ceremonial intervention and that this experience is available to every person. The spiritual life is nourished by the Holy Spirit, who teaches and guides us both individually and corporately.

Worship

Worship is the adoring response of heart and mind to the Spirit of God. The meeting for worship brings a personal and corporate renewal, an edification and communion of believers. We recognize the value of silence to center our thoughts upon God, and to listen together to Christ, our Present Teacher. We believe the Spirit speaks to worshipers through ordinary people. We believe God calls some persons to a special preaching ministry. Friends observe the first day of the week for corporate worship and for rest.