why blue river community church?
The Blue River runs through the heart of Columbia City and is a natural symbol of activity, life, and community in this town. As it winds and turns for over 4.5 miles, it provides Columbia City residents with the opportunity to encounter God's creation.
Rivers themselves have been used repeatedly by prophets and priests to describe the grace and love of God pouring out. In Ezekiel 47, the prophet has a vision of God's holiness pouring out of the temple like a river, bringing dead areas to life. In John 7, Jesus picks up this imagery by saying: "Whoever believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
This is the why.
Mission and vision
Blue River Community Church is focused on encountering God through knowing God, loving our neighbor, and living justice, forever. Through these things, we can be the hands and feet of God's overflowing grace and love.
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins”
Discovering how uniquely special each of us is to be loved by God
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
Sharing God’s hope and love to restore a spirit of faith in this world
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
Responding to physical and spiritual need locally and globally
“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. ”
Discerning Truth and nurturing disciplines to challenge us beginning to end
Beliefs
the Holy Trinity
We believe in the one living and true God, both holy and loving, eternal, unlimited in power, wisdom, and goodness, the Creator and Preserver of all things. Within this unity there are three persons of one essential nature, power and eternity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Father
We believe the Father is the Source of all that exists, whether of matter or spirit. With the Son and the Holy Spirit, He made humanity, in His image. By intention He relates to people as Father, thereby forever declaring His goodwill toward them. In love, He both seeks and receives penitent sinners.
Jesus
We believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, truly God and truly man. He died on the cross and was buried, to be a sacrifice both for sin and for all human transgressions, and to reconcile us to God. Christ rose bodily from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and there intercedes for us at the Father’s right hand until He returns to judge all humanity at the last day.
The Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and is of the same essential nature, majesty, and glory, as the Father and the Son, truly and eternally God. He is the Administrator of grace to all, and is particularly the effective Agent in conviction for sin, in regeneration, in sanctification, and in glorification. He is ever-present, assuring, preserving, guiding, and enabling the believer.
Salvation
We believe that Christ’s offering of himself, once and for all, through His sufferings and meritorious death on the cross, provides the perfect redemption and atonement for the sins of the whole world. There is no other ground of salvation from sin but that alone. This atonement is sufficient for every individual. We believe a person is lost without Christ and one needs a personal relationship with Christ to be saved. Salvation is wholly a work of God’s free grace, received by repentance and faith. Salvation is God's gift to you if you'll accept it. We can never make up for our sin with self-improvement or good works. It is only by trusting in Jesus Christ as God's offer of forgiveness that you can be saved from sin's penalty. Eternal life begins the moment you receive Jesus Christ into your life by faith.
the Bible
We believe that the books of the Old and New Testaments constitute the Holy Scriptures. They are the inspired and infallibly written Word of God, fully inerrant in their original manuscripts and superior to all human authority, and have been transmitted to the present without corruption of any essential doctrine. We believe that they contain all things necessary to salvation; so that whatever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man or woman that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.
God’s Purpose for Humanity
We believe that the two great commandments which require us to love the Lord our God with all the heart, and our neighbors as ourselves, summarize the divine law as it is revealed in the Scriptures. They are the perfect measure and norm of human duty, both for the ordering and directing of families and nations, and all other social bodies, and for individual acts, by which we are required to acknowledge God as our only Supreme Ruler, and all persons as created by Him, equal in all natural rights. Therefore, all persons should so order all their individual, social, and political acts as to give to God entire and absolute obedience, and to assure to all the enjoyment of every natural right, as well as to promote the fulfillment of each in the possession and exercise of such rights.
The Church
We believe that the Christian Church is the entire body of believers in Jesus Christ, who is the founder and only Head of the Church. The Church includes both those believers who have gone to be with the Lord and those who remain on the earth, having renounced the world, the flesh, and evil, and having dedicated themselves to the work which Christ committed unto His church until He comes. The Church on earth is to preach the Word of God, properly administer the sacraments according to Christ’s instructions, and live in obedience to all that Christ commands. A local church is a body of believers formally organized on gospel principles, meeting regularly for the purposes of evangelism, nurture, fellowship, and worship.
Women in Ministry Leadership
We affirm full opportunity for women to serve in any and all ministerial and leadership capacities. We recognize that such a position on women in ministry is sometimes challenged on the basis of certain Scripture passages. However, we believe that all pertinent Scriptures need to be interpreted in the light of their immediate contexts, as well as in the context of Scripture as a whole. We believe that God has progressively revealed in the Scriptures His purpose to call, equip and empower women for full opportunity of ministry in the church.