We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who know, love, and glorify one another. The three are distinct in role, but one in being. God reveals Himself as love (1 John 4:8,16). Love cannot exist without relationship (Genesis 2:18; 1 Cor 13:5; 1 John 4:18-19; Matt 5:48; Gal 5:13). Therefore, we can be certain that God is indeed and has always been in perpetual relationship with himself (Deu. 6:4; John 10:30; 2 Cor 3:17). He did not create the world out of loneliness, but out of an overflow of His perfect love and relationship with the Son and the Spirit (Genesis 1:2, 26-27; John 1:1-4, 17:24; Eph 1:3-6). The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit work together, independently but always in unison, with different roles, but the same purpose, all so that we can commune with God relationally.

We can either guess about who God is or we can know who God is through His revealed Word. We believe that the Bible is God's revelation, helping us to trust Him, and navigate this world. It is alive, active, all powerful, all revealing, and dangerous if mishandled. (Hebrews 4:12-13). It is the inerrant, infallible word of God in its original form, authored by the Holy Spirit and man, from everlasting to everlasting, sufficient in its content, authority, and truth (Isaiah 40:8; Psalm 119; Matthew 5:17-18, 24:35; John 17:17; 1 Thess 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Hebrews 6:18; Titus 1:2). Even in knowing the superiority of the word of God we can often miss its intent (John 5:39), and abuse it for selfish gain (1 Tim 4:1, 16, 6:3-5; 2 Tim 4:3-4). The Word became flesh and dwelt among us as Jesus, the Christ (John 1:1-4). The Bible is the written word of God, and Jesus is the incarnate Word of God. Because of this, they have the authority to pick and choose what is right and true and beautiful in us, instead of us claiming authority to pick and choose what is right and true and beautiful in them.

Human beings are the only created beings in Genesis 1 that were made in the image of the triune God (1:26-28). They were created male and female, with equal worth and distinct roles. It was not good that man was alone (without community), so God made him a "helper," the Hebrew word "ezer." This is the same word used for God elsewhere in Scripture. So, woman is a helper for man, as God is a helper for man. The purpose of mankind is to be fruitful and multiply image bearers in the land who continually build shalom (peace, wholeness) communities that glorify the author of life and promote human flourishing.

Mankind chose to break shalom by trusting a lie from Satan, which Adam considered to be more reliable than the word of God. When shalom broke, it broke all around. Between God and man, man and man, God and creation, man and creation, and every other element associated with that created order. Sin immediately affected mankind and everything else, and continues to pervade our lives. Sin has stolen intimacy from us and our father. Sin burdens us and puts us in opposition to God’s will. Sin enslaves us (John 8:34; Rom 7:19-20). Sin kills us (Rom 6:23). It is a burden (Gal 6:1-2), a debt (Matt 6:12), and an illness (Mark 2:17), that defiles (Gal 5:19-21).

But when the fullness of time came (Gal 4:4), God sent His Son, Jesus, the better Adam, as the promised offspring of Genesis 3:15 to remove sin and restore shalom. When He came He emptied himself in countless ways, meeting people affected by the break of shalom where they were. He humbled. He extended worth. He encouraged. He rebuked. He taught. He listened. He showed us how to live by showing us how to die. Once crucified, God proclaimed the sufficiency of His life through the resurrection of His body. He sent the Holy Spirit of promise to seal all who would believe, and called those believers to go and make more believers, promising to sanctify us, by remaking us into His image, within the community of His church.

The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ fulfilled in God's plan. It changes everything. Because of what Jesus has done, we live differently. We spend our money differently. We interact with others differently. We view family differently. We view the world differently. Everything that is good and true and beautiful the gospel can redeem. Everything that elevates self and sin, the gospel opposes. The gospel is the lens that we view our lives through. It reminds us that we were created by God, to image God in all that we do, resulting in human flourishing and glorifying our creator. Exalting Him, and not ourselves. At The Garden Church, our simple definition of the gospel is: While we were dead in our sins, God's kingdom was proclaimed on earth through Jesus, who: Loved us to make us lovely. Died for us that we might live. Rose from the dead and released us on mission to reclaim the hearts of all who would have faith to believe what He has done. To respond to the gospel we simply: Believe it. Repent (or turn away) from our sins and, Receive the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is God and Man. Because Jesus is God, his sacrifice is sufficient, and because he is man, our sanctification, which causes us to look more like him (Gal. 2:20-21), allows us to humbly follow his example. If Jesus is not God, his sacrifice is not sufficient, but God answered the sufficiency in Christ’s resurrection, and through the witnesses that saw him with their own eyes (1 Cor. 15:1-11; 2 Pet. 1:16). If Jesus is not man, then he did not break the curse of Adam and the law. But Scripture speaks to the saving work of Christ who in the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4) came and did what the law could not (Rom. 8:3). Through Adam’s disobedience all men became sinners and through Christ’s obedience all men who have faith, have the right to be called sons of God (Rom. 5:19; John 1:12). He was born to show us how to live (Luke 2:10-11). He lived to show us how to lay our lives down (John 13:12-17; 15:12-15). He died that we might be redeemed and reconciled to the Father (John 17:6-26). He ascended to prepare for us a place and intercede on our behalf for the work he has completed (Luke 14:1-2; Heb. 7:23-27; John 19:30; Rev. 21:6). Jesus Christ is our advocate, the great mediator. We have been chosen in him to be holy and blameless, adopted as sons of God through him. We have been redeemed through his blood, forgiven of our trespasses against God. We’ve been let in on the mystery of all history in him. Everything that didn’t make sense, has been summed up in him. We heard the word of truth, which is the gospel of our salvation in him. We believed in him and have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the down payment of our inheritance. And all of this is to the praise and the glory of his name (Eph. 1:3-14).

The Holy Spirit proceeds from an overflow of the relationship found in God the Father and God the Son. He points to Christ as worthy of worship (1 Cor 12:3; Phil. 3:3), he acts as our helper (Jn. 14:16), he is the down payment for our inheritance (Eph. 1:13-14), and he is our sanctification and freedom (2 Cor. 3:17-18). The Holy Spirit was at work in creation, and throughout Scripture, as his power is still at work today. Upon our profession of belief in Jesus as the Christ with our heart and our mouth, the Spirit seals us with the promise of God, sanctifies us to look more like Him, points us to Jesus, illuminates the Word, produces fruit, works in unity, and never contradicts the Father or the Son (Gen 1:2; Psa. 51:11; 1 Sam. 16:13-14; Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; 1 Cor. 12:3; Jn. 16:13-16; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph 4:1-3).

We believe the kingdom of God has always spread through messy people trusting the word of the Lord over the worry of the world. Jesus speaks about the kingdom of God throughout the gospels as the place where God reigns and man obeys (Mark 1:15; Matt 5:3, 10, 20, 6:9-10, 33, 7:21, 13:31-50, 21:43; Luke 17:20-21; John 3:3; Acts 1:3, 28:31). Where kingdoms of the world are built through conquest and control, God turns that upside down and says that his kingdom is a gift only given to those who admit their inability to earn it (Luke 18:17). Jesus is the giver of that kingdom, which we can only receive by faith. Jesus inaugurates the kingdom (Mark 1:15). Jesus is the kingdom (Luke 17:21). Jesus declares the kingdom (Luke 8:1). Jesus demonstrates the kingdom (Luke 11:20). Jesus deploys the kingdom (Luke 10; Matt 28:18).  Jesus purchases the kingdom (Col 2:14-15). Jesus returns the kingdom (Rev 19:16).

The church is the household of God (Heb. 3:6; 1 Pet. 4:17; Luke 15:11-32) signifying not only a place of confession and reconciliation, but also of discipline and expectations. When referring to others in the church of the New Testament, phrases such as little children, brothers and sisters, brethren and beloved (Jas. 1:16, 2:15; 2 Thess. 3:13; 1 Cor. 15:58; 2 Pet. 3:14; Jn. 13:33; 1 Jn. 4:4) are often used to denote the relational familiarity of all who are in Christ. Throughout the Old Testament we are also given consistent references to the people of God, their children, children’s children, future generations, and their fathers who were before (Gen. 5:1, 45:10; Ex. 31:16; Num. 14:18; Deu. 6:4-9, 10:15). Therefore, within the entirety of Scripture, we see the familial and relational nature of Yahweh to his people. But through the work of our Lord Jesus, The church of the New Testament, has become God's New People, a family freed from the genealogy and geography that was limited to the people of the Old Testament. Now, through the blood of Jesus, we, as this new people, have been reconciled and redeemed, bought and adopted into the family of God by His grace, through our faith.

We believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus himself. Baptism is like our wedding day. It is not when we fall in love with Jesus and understand what He has done, but rather, it is when we outwardly profess that love within the context of a body that will help us walk out our new life in faith. There are many in our context that misunderstand the biblical reason for baptism. Although, it is an important outward declaration, it is not for salvation, or to say it another way, you cannot just be baptized and be saved. It is a commitment to Christ lived out in a commitment to Christ’s church which leads to a life lived out in union with Him. If baptism is the wedding ceremony in which a believer publicly declares his or her commitment to Christ, the Lord’s Supper is similar to an anniversary celebration in which the wedding vows are renewed. Through the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper we renew the commitment to Christ and our family looking back in remembrance of His sacrifice, looking here at the faith and endurance of the saints and looking to the future when He will return and we will feast and fellowship in glory.

As we witness Jesus ascend in the book of Acts, we are given an incredible promise by two messengers in white robes...he is coming back (Acts 1:9-11). We believe that Jesus will come again in the same way that he left, to consummate the kingdom he inaugurated. He will dwell with his people, and remove all death, pain and sadness. He is making all things new (Rev 21:1-5). The righteous shall rise for their inheritance, but the guilty will by no means go unpunished (Rev 21:7). He will be our temple and our light and we will be with him forever.