We are Gospel-Centered.

We believe the gospel is for every person, and for all of life. We believe the gospel is the key to making disciples that embrace faithful teaching (orthodoxy), faithful practice (orthopraxy), and faithful loving of God and neighbor (orthopathy). And we embrace our gospel-centrality through being: doxological (trinitarian), liturgical in worship, missional in our engagement with the world, communal in our relationships, and hospitable in our posture.

We are Reformed.

We acknowledge that the word “reformed” means many different things to many different people and groups. We seek to hold the following truths graciously and in winsome humility, believing that the Reformed view is the best approach to the Scriptures as we seek to understand God’s revealed Word to us, while welcoming into membership those who have disagreements at certain points. But we believe clarity is a kindness in this matter, and these realities anchor our theology, philosophy, and practice.

In saying we are Reformed, we mean that we follow in the line of the Reformers, as summed up in the following statements:

• We believe that God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 19).

• We believe that God created man and woman in a state of sinless perfection with particular dignity as His image bearers on the earth (Genesis 1:26-27).

• We believe that our first parents sinned against God and that everyone since is a sinner by nature and choice (Genesis 3:1-11; Romans 3:19-20; 5:12-15). Sin has totally affected all of creation including marring human image and likeness so that all our being is stained by sin (e.g. reasoning, desires, emotions, biology, etc.) (Romans 7:18; Titus 1:15; Jeremiah 17:9; Ephesians 4:18).

• We believe that because all people have sinned and separated themselves from the Holy God, He is obligated to save no one from the just deserved punishments of hell. We also believe that God in His unparalleled love and mercy has chosen to elect some people for salvation, having predestined them for salvation in eternity past (Ephesians 1:3-14, 2:4-10; 3:14-18; 1 Corinthians 1:20-30).

• We believe that in a real sense Christ died for all (2 Corinthians 5:14-15); salvation of God’s people from their sins was truly accomplished by the sinless life, substitutionary atoning death, and literal physical resurrection of Jesus Christ in place of His people (Ephesians 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:30; 15:3-22).

• We believe that the salvation of the people of God, by God’s grace alone, shows forth in the ongoing repentance and faith in Jesus Christ that leads to good works (1 John 1:9, Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 2:11-14).

• We believe that God’s saving grace is ultimately irresistible and that God does soften even the hardest heart and save the worst of sinners according to His will (Romans 2:4, 2 Corinthians 4:6).

• Although the Scriptures are clear that God’s choice of us is the first cause in our choice of Him, the Scriptures are also clear that we must choose and our choice matters. There is mystery in the Bible’s clarity: God is entirely sovereign in all things, including salvation, yet commands all men everywhere to repent (Psalm 3:8; Acts 17:30-31). God’s sovereignty in no way absolves us of our responsibility to proclaim the gospel (Romans 10:13-17; Matthew 28:18-20), or of mankind’s responsibility to respond to the preached gospel in humble repentance and true faith (Romans 9:19-24). And this is a mystery that we’re comfortable not solving. And so, part of our mission is to be missionaries to the world (Romans 10:9-10; Deuteronomy 29:29; Revelation 7:10).We believe that the gospel should be passionately and urgently proclaimed to all people so that all who believe may be saved through the preaching of God’s Word by the power of God’s Spirit (Romans 10:13-17; Matthew 28:18-20).

• We believe that true Christians born again of God’s Spirit will be kept by God throughout their life (1 Pet. 1:3-5; Romans 8:24-25), as evidenced by personal transformation that includes an ever-growing love of God the Father through God the Son by God the Spirit (1 Peter 1:8), love of brothers and sisters in the church (1 John 3:14; 1 John 4), and love of lost neighbors in the culture (2 Corinthians 5:14-19).

• We believe that God is Lord over all of life and that there is nothing in life that is to be separated from God (Romans 14:8-9).

• We believe that the worship of God is the end for which people were created and that abiding joy is only to be found by delighting in God through all of life, including hardship and death which is gain (Psalm 16:11, Philippians 1:21, James 1:2-3).

• We adhere to The Foundation Documents of the Gospel Coalition, both the Confessional Statement and the Theological Vision for Ministry as adopted on May 22, 2007 and revised April 12, 2011. These documents are considered to be part of Sojourn’s Statement of Faith.

We are Credobaptist.

We only baptize those individuals who make a credible profession of faith in the Lord Jesus. However, we consider the practice of baptism to be a secondary issue on which good, Christ-loving, Bible-believing people may disagree. While we hold credobaptism to be the Scriptural position, we wish to be gracious and charitable toward thoughtful Christians who hold a robust, biblically informed, Reformed/Calvinistic view of paedobaptism (as opposed to sacramental or regenerative paedobaptism), and we welcome them to pursue membership. Final authority in issues of membership and baptism rests with the elders of Sojourn, as those called by God to shepherd his flock (1 Peter. 5:2).