What We Believe

In solidarity with most Christians across the world, 2.42 Church officially agrees with the Nicene Creed. That said, we also value the freedom in Christ to explore scripture and Christian tradition for oneself and to come to a faith that is one's own, and we don't believe that can truly be done under a pressure to assent to a particular proposition on threat of rejection. So we welcome anyone who wants to join us in learning the way of Jesus together, no matter what theological statements they do or don't agree with. For us, the creed is a melody to help us harmonize with each other, not a wall to delineate "us" vs "them".

The Nicene Creed

(Some grammar and word choice has been updated from the liturgical texts to make it easier to understand in modern English while keeping as close as possible to the meaning of the original Greek)

We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages;

light of light;

true God of true God;

begotten, not made;

of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made;

who for us humans, and for our salvation, 

came down from the heavens and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary and became human;

and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate and suffered and was buried;

and arose again on the third day according to the Scriptures;

and ascended into the heavens and now sits at the right hand of the Father;

and will come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead;

whose kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the lifegiver;

who proceeds from the Father;

who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified;

who spoke through the prophets.

In a single, sacred, universal, apostolic Church.

We agree over one baptism for the remission of sins.

We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.

Amen.

Other Issues

– LGBTQIA Christians:


In Short:

Our first priority is to make sure LGBTQIA people feel valued, safe, and protected. Hate will not be tolerated in our church. We believe there are multiple faithful ways to interpret the Bible on this topic, so we don't teach a particular doctrine, except that LGBTQIA people are loved by God.


In more detail:

We believe that LGBTQIA people are loved by God and created in his image. They are fully deserving of love and respect from all people.


We believe that it is more important for people to feel loved and accepted by God and his people than it is to hold any particular belief or practice about gender or sexuality. We recognize that faithful followers of Jesus hold to a variety of personal beliefs regarding gender and sexuality as well as interpretations of how Biblical teachings apply to these. Because of this, we do not expect everyone to share the same beliefs or interpretations, and we do not teach a particular stance as a church. This is a complex topic, so we encourage people to look into it through scripture and prayer and come to their own conclusions led by the Holy Spirit.


We want our community to be a place where LGBTQIA people can feel safe and protected, and a place where we can ask questions and figure out life together as we follow Jesus. We know that many churches have hurt many people in the LGBTQIA community for decades and we want to give special attention and love to anyone who has been hurt. Furthermore, because 2.42 Church’s position is that a person can be LGBTQIA and a faithful Christian, it is also our position that being LGBTQIA does not disqualify a person from holding a leadership position in 2.42 Church.