What We Believe
Rushden Mission Church, a church of the Wesleyan Reform Union, is a group of men and women who have repented and believed, and who now seek to worship God, love each other, and serve our fellow men. It is a Church that is self-governing and independent being subject only to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
Our Aim is to help people find God through Jesus Christ and then enable them to grow to maturity within a caring Church.
We Believe:
In the one true God and Creator of all things.
That the Bible is wholly inspired by God, and authoritative in all matters of faith, doctrine and practice.
That Jesus Christ the Son of God became man and died for our sin, then rose from the dead.
That man is separated from God by sin but can come back to God by repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour.
That the "gifts of the Spirit" are just as valid today as during the New Testament period.
We affirm the foundational truths of historic Christianity as expressed in the creeds. The Apostle's Creed and The Nicene Creed and the Statement of Faith of The Wesleyan Reform Union.
The Apostle's Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He 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.
The Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all that is seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.
Through Him all things were made. For for us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven. And was made flesh by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried. And on the third day He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.
And We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified: He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Wesleyan Reform Union Statement of Faith
Accepted by Conference 1970
(Amended by Conference 2008)
"One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren." (Matthew 23:8)
We Believe:
That there is one true and living God, eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Creator of heaven and earth; Him alone we worship and adore.
That the Holy Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, as originally given, are of divine inspiration and infallible, supreme in authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
That all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and are thereby subject to God's wrath and condemnation.
That God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and that He is truly God and truly Man, Jesus Christ our Lord.
That the Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself as the substitutionary sacrifice for the sin of the whole world, He was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven to be our Advocate and Mediator, and that He will personally return in power and glory.
That the Holy Spirit is a divine Person both equal to and of one substance with the Father and the Son, that His work is necessary to make the death of Christ effective to the individual sinner, granting him repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, and that He also in dwells every believer as his Sanctifier, thus placing His seal upon him as a child of God.
That the Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church.
In the Priesthood of all believers, and that we being members one of another, are one body in Christ Jesus, having equality of spiritual opportunities as the sacred right of all.
That the Sacraments are an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, and that only Baptism and the Lord's Supper were instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ as such, maintaining that the proper subjects for Baptism are believers and children to be brought up within the fellowship of Christ's Church.