Southridge seeks to live out a vision of what we call “Love Beyond Belief”.
This means two things: first, that our primary calling as Jesus followers is to live out His “Greatest Commandment” to love God and others, above and beyond our theological differences.
That said, we appreciate that there are some theological essentials on which the Christian faith is founded, that we seek to understand, unite around and faithfully live out as a community.
As a Jesus-centred, biblically-rooted, orthodox Christian church, we have unified around some core doctrinal essentials.
We understand these essentials to be the basic building blocks of the Christian faith, uniting all believers in and followers of Jesus around the world.
Represented by a summary like the Apostles’ Creed, our core essentials include:
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We believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
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We believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to 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. -
We 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. Amen.
Consistent with our commitment to “Love Beyond Belief,”
We're eager to include, involve and unify people who disagree on a variety of theological issues that are outside core doctrinal essentials.
By identifying some core doctrinal essentials, summarized by the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed, we’re conceding that not all theology is core, that some beliefs are what the Bible refers to as “disputable matters.”
On issues of these non-essential doctrinal distinctives, we seek to prioritize the Great Commandment to love God and others above the upholding of our personal beliefs and convictions, striving to more fully and comprehensively embrace the unity found, not in unanimity, but in the diversity of the Body of Christ that Jesus envisioned.
Examples of “Love Beyond Belief” here at Southridge include things like baptism — where we fully embrace and include people who hold diverse convictions around infant and believer’s (adult) baptism — as well as interpretations on the biblical definition of marriage, where we fully and equally include and embrace people who hold both “traditional” and “affirming” views.