North Harbor has adopted the Apostle’s Creed as its statement of faith. The Apostle’s Creed is believed to be one of the earliest faith statements of the church. Partly designed to unite various Christian faith expressions around a set of essential beliefs, it served to give the early church focus and direction in a world that was pulled apart by competing ideologies. North Harbor sees great wisdom in this strategy.
While many churches and denominations form the core of their being around particulars of theological systems, we endeavor to hold tightly to the core beliefs of historic Christianity while encouraging ongoing discussion of the particulars. In other words, people at North Harbor may hold differing opinions on theological particulars but be unified on these core statements of faith. In doing so we believe we both gain a greater sense of unity as a faith community and enable one another to focus more intently on the life of devotion and service to which God has called us.
The Apostle’s Creed
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker 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, dead, and buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic* church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting**.
* We understand “catholic church” to refer to the Christian church at large, not the Roman Catholic Church specifically.
** We also believe in the divine inspiration of Judeo-Christian scripture. Though not mentioned specifically in the Apostle’s Creed, it was most likely understood by its earliest audiences and is so by our faith community.