What We Believe

There’s not enough room here to explain everything we believe as a church. In one sense, we believe the same things that most churches have believed for 2000 years. We believe in Jesus. We believe in the Word of God. We believe in gathering together as a local church. But, let’s face it, not all churches are the same. Beliefs vary greatly from church to church. Not only does each church vary theologically but the culture varies. The best way to understand what a particular church is about is to experience it for a season. But here’s an attempt to explain the unique beliefs and culture of Renaissance Church.

Scripture
We are very firm in the essentials of the historic Christian faith as expressed in the Nicene Creed. There are people at Renaissance who come from a variety of faith traditions including Baptist, Reformed, Pentecostal, Catholic and so on. People within the community do not all agree about peripheral issues of theology, politics or personal convictions but we have created an atmosphere where peaceful dialogue can happen. It doesn't mean we aren't passionate about these issues, but we have decided to create some space for differences out of the conviction that in the next life, all those who are in Christ will be sitting around the same table. We also believe that the gracious posture that allows for differences results in a  richer understanding of Christ. 

We are not affiliated with a denomination. We do not have “distinctives” on doctrinal matters. In fact, amongst our leadership there is some measure of theological diversity. What we all agree on are the essentials. There are many nondenominational Christian seminaries and ministries, as well as many churches that have similar doctrinal statements on the essentials. One example would be the campus ministry called Cru. Another would be the publication called Christianity Today. One of our favorite churches, Church of the City in NYC, also has a nicely crafted basic doctrinal statement. We agree with all of these. 

Gospel 
The most important and frequently emphasized belief we hold is the scandalous grace of God demonstrated on the cross. We understand that we are who we are by grace. The Lord chose us not because of any good thing in us. He set His affection upon us before the creation of the world when we were spiritually lost and dead. While in this lost, dead in sin state—Jesus revived us, adopted us into His family, and lavished on us an eternal inheritance. We work hard to keep this central and allow this truth to produce in us gratitude and a longing to give ourselves fully to Him. We never tire of reveling in the idea that Jesus stood in our place and took the punishment we deserve. We are spiritually alive because He is risen! This Gospel is at the heart of everything we teach and do. We believe the simple message of the Gospel is nothing to be ashamed of because it is the power of God for salvation (Rom 1). 

Spirit
We are keenly aware that apart from Christ and the power of the Spirit we cannot be what God is calling us to be. We believe that our preaching, our devotion to one another, our love of enemies, our virtue, our bravery, our wisdom, our works and so on should be such that they could only be explained by God's power through the Holy Spirit. We pray constantly that our gatherings would be marked by the tangible presence of Jesus and that our lives would be marked by supernatural love. The underlying secret to being filled with the Spirit is to cultivate hunger and thirst for God through classic spiritual disciplines like prayer, contemplation and fasting. We devote ourselves to the lifelong pursuit of these things both privately and as a community. Because we believe that the power of the Holy Spirit flows through us, we dream big. Our dreams are not based merely on what we can do in our own strength and ability. But rather our dreams are according to the unlimited resources of the Eternal God who we are collaborating with in this great work. 

Great Commission 
We are very passionate about the great call of Jesus to go into all the world and to shine brightly with our lives and the message of the Gospel. We believe God calls us to serve people outside the walls of the church. We see Jesus in Scripture eating and drinking with a cast of characters that could be described as unsavory and irreligious. We want to follow Him in that. It doesn't mean that we are careless in our interactions with culture; we are aware of the dangers of sin on every side. But we believe that we are called to boldly step into danger. We believe the grace of God is sufficient to keep us. We are constantly building bridges into the surrounding neighborhoods so that we might demonstrate the love of Jesus in our region. 

Symphony 
We share the common conviction that mediocrity is not an option. We believe that the local church matters, and that every member is called to play their part well. We think of it like a symphony in which every instrument is important. Isolated, the sounds of any individual instrument would be meaningless and even perhaps unpleasant. But when every instrument is in harmony and playing the music of the composer, under the guidance of a conductor, the result is stunningly beautiful music. We don’t believe in just attending church but in being fully devoted to one another in the spirit of the early Christians. We are convinced that only this sort of church will be taken seriously in a cynical world. One of the catch phrases we like to say is that we are “fusing together our best to build what God is building for the fame of Jesus”.  

Beautiful Diversity 
The Word of God tells us that God intends for his church to be a house of prayer for all nations (Isaiah 56). There’s a beautiful glimpse of the family of God in the last book of the Bible that describes them as from every tribe and language and people and nation. In other words, the future Church will be wildly diverse! 

It’s a very human thing that people gravitate toward people who are similar to them. It starts in grade school and eventually cliques develop by high school. People join together because of similar interests, ethnicity, economic status, color of skin, education and many other things. It is our desire to reflect the diversity of the region we live in. There are so many beautiful people in Rhode Island and our prayer is to display the power of the Gospel to break down cultural barriers that divide. 

Passion
Many people have been raised in religious environments that suffocated them with condemnation and fear. They have seen the way of Jesus turned into an oppressive system of dos and don'ts. They have witnessed people being super religious to impress people. 

What we have come to see is that when Jesus really comes into our lives He transforms us from the inside out. We are totally morphed; our appetites and affections change. We want to please God and we begin to repel the old sinful passions we used to love. We are like the bride who willingly, joyfully and unreservedly marches to the altar to dedicate the rest of her life to the groom she loves. We believe that though the Christian life is not easy it should be marked by passion. 

Young people 
When the church began in 2003, a huge part of the vision was to create a space where young adults could thrive. In those days, most churches were dominated by older Christians. It’s always been a strong value to hand the torch to the younger people in our midst. This vision has become even stronger in recent years as we’ve witnessed a massive falling away of so many people once they enter adulthood. We are fiercely passionate about figuring out ways to make the children really feel part of the church family. And we are even more passionate about praying for them that they would have genuine encounters with Christ that will mark them deeply. We want young people at Ren to really know God and to become profoundly rooted in Christ in such a way that they will not be shaken in their faith when they are older and tested. For this reason, we regularly include children in our main services; we include them in community meals; we are thoughtful about their discipleship; we work hard at teaching them in ways they’ll understand; we bring them with us into local mission efforts. We also bring young adults to the leadership table and have allowed them to lead in a variety of capacities. We are constantly striving to raise up the next generation. 

Revival 
It’s a loaded word, we know. We don’t mean frothy, hyper-emotional type activity. What we mean by revival is simply the fullness of what God wants to do in our lives, in our homes, in our church, and in our region—in our time. We are fully persuaded that the present state of the Church, at least from what we see in New England, is far short of what the Lord desires. We believe that the Father has so much more that he desires to unleash and lavish upon his people. We are convinced that there are countless uncashed promises waiting for us. Revival has been defined as an acceleration of the normal working of the Spirit. In view of the tragic decline of the American Church we believe that there is an urgency about praying for a move of God in this generation. Studying the great historic revivals we see a clear pattern. The state of things would become bleak. A small handful of Christian would feel burdened and begin to give themselves to day and night desperate prayer. They would consecrate their lives radically and orient their lifestyles fully around the pursuit of God. In due season (sometimes many years later), the Lord would break forth in mighty power and work in an accelerated fashion. Revivals can be messy, no doubt. But the genuine, prolonged outpourings of the Spirit throughout history have resulted in the rebirth of multitudes and the fame of Jesus taking hold of entire regions and, in some cases, nations. So—we constantly cry out to the Lord for revival, awakening, and a mighty move of God in this generation that will bring great glory to Christ. 

Generosity
In times past, we have believed that it would be ideal if every person attending the church tithed (gave 10% of their income). This would actually be pretty spectacular and a lot more than most church people are doing. But we have become deeply convinced that this is not the desire of God. We believe He wants every member to take ownership of the finances of the church by giving sacrificially and joyfully. And, also, to give secretly, to please God and not to impress people. For some that may mean selling a piece of land and giving the profit to the church. For others it may mean giving 21% of their income. For still others it may mean dropping the only two coins they have into the bucket on Sunday. We don't talk a lot about money. But we do believe that the way we relate to money tells a lot about the state of our hearts. We trust God with our finances, and as a result we are willing to take risks and step into things that don't always make sense with the calculator. 

Honesty
One of the sad reasons people leave churches is because they feel like the relationships are shallow. Sometimes there’s a pressure to be happy and "spiritual" 24-7 that can be very exhausting. This kind of atmosphere does not welcome doubts or deep questions or even dark nights of the soul. 

We believe life is way too short to pretend. We are bent on being real. From pastor to pew we are not afraid of showing our flaws and admitting our failures. We are comfortable being who we are. We know that we are weak—works in progress—and far from perfect. So we do our best to provide an atmosphere where broken people can come to be healed. 

This belief in being honest applies also to our intellectual life. If we aren’t certain about something we believe it’s best to be honest about it. If we aren’t sure what a Scripture means then we don’t pretend we do. There are a great number of theological questions that we simply do not have answers for. We believe in being honest about that. There are many passages in the Scriptures that we are baffled by. Instead of interpreting Scripture in a rigid way to give the impression that we are certain about everything, we believe in being honest about our uncertainties. The Scriptures were written over the span of a thousand years by many different authors in a variety of contexts and written in genres that are not easy to decipher. These are authors who lived thousands of years ago! We believe it’s wrong to pretend to know with certainty how everything should be interpreted. We believe a posture of intellectual honesty and humility optimizes our potential for understanding truth. 

Creativity
We believe that since God is the Creator that we were created to create. We are made in the image of the creator. We believe that the local church should be on the forefront of making great art and that the full orb of creativity and imagination God has given us should be harnessed to communicate eternal ideas in a way that is compelling. 

This plays out in our thoughtfulness of space design, worship, writing, websites, print design, installations, sermons and innovative outreaches. Art is employed to serve the purposes of God. Often artists in culture challenge the status quo and are much like prophets who speak to important issues. Artists can be disruptive in needed ways to shake society and get them talking about what matters. We believe we have a special calling as a church to utilize the arts as much as possible to make Jesus known in this generation of information overload. In a society flooded with competing ideas—art can sometimes cause an idea to stand out. And we believe that the idea of Jesus deserves to stand out! 

Jesus
Perhaps the most important thing we can express is that we are about Jesus. While we strive to do all things with excellence, it is not to make a name for ourselves. Christ is our obsession and our treasure. We exist to know Him and to enjoy Him forever. We desire to display His greatness, splendor, and beauty to the world. This world is not our home. Christ is our life and our all. We make it our goal to please Him and bring Him honor and glory in everything we do. 

That's why everything we do points to Christ and everything we do is for Christ. In every aspect of this church we constantly ask “how does this glorify God?” 

This is in no way an exhaustive list of what we hold dear but hopefully it provides enough to help you decide whether you should “come and see” what we are about.