Church of the Palms believes in a Triune God, known to us as our:
- Creator, the God beyond names and labels who is All in All;
- Redeemer, Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah-Savior of the world;
- Sustainer, the Holy Spirit present spiritually to guide, counsel and comfort us.
We believe in the authority of Scripture in matters of faith; the confession that our justification as sinners is by grace through faith; and the realization that the church is in need of continual reformation and renewal.
We are the root church out of which all Wesleyan churches grew, tracing our theological and organizational heritage back to John Wesley. We believe our salvation comes as a free gift of love from God, demonstrated and made effective in the death of Jesus of Nazareth on the cross as his act of obedient and forgiving love for all humankind. We believe in the free will of persons to choose to follow Jesus or pass Jesus by. We understand those who follow Jesus to be part of God’s universal Church found in Jesus, the Christ.
We believe in the sacrament of Holy Baptism as the present day sign of the amazing grace of God. For us, that grace as signified in Holy Baptism is not dependent upon our acceptance of the offer of the gift of salvation. Therefore we baptize persons of all ages who are presented or present themselves as having trust in God and a willingness to follow Jesus. [read more about baptism]
Parents promise to be faithful in bringing up their baptized children in the church that they may be fully nurtured in the love of God until their majority. Of course, with children and adults of sufficient competence to answer for themselves, we require that they confess their rejection of sin and profess their faith in God prior to their Holy Baptism. Baptism is not only a real act of God’s grace but also a sign of the person’s regeneration or new birth in Jesus, the Christ.
We believe in the sacrament of Holy Communion, also known as The Lord’s Supper and The Holy Eucharist. We partake of the bread and unfermented wine in a heavenly and spiritual manner by faith and do not believe in Transubstantiation, or the actual physical change of the elements of bread and wine into blood and flesh. We do believe that by participating we receive God’s redeeming grace by Jesus, Christ’s death.
We believe in the priesthood of all believers; that all who love God will follow in the way of obedient service which was given its ultimate expression in Jesus of Nazareth. Therefore we believe that we are stewards of all of creation; the people, creatures, earth, water, air and uttermost depths of outer space. We are engaged and involved in our world and do not shrink from spreading the good news of God’s love in every arena of God-created existence.