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

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, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day 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.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

We believe that God’s most important commandment and desire for human kind is to love Him. Jesus was asked which of the commandments was the greatest and he responds by quoting Deuteronomy 6, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:28-31) Jesus highlights what was meant to be intuitive in hearing the 10 Commandments. The first three of the 10 Commandments were created to call the people of Israel back into their covenantal relationship with YHWH. The other seven dealt with their relationships with other people. (Exodus 20:2-7) Jesus simplifies the list of 10 by saying love God and then love people.

The order in which these two commands fall is important. We are called to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength. In other words, every inch of your being. God desires a people whose devotion and love is reserved for Him alone. Loving our neighbors comes, but it is secondary. This isn’t because God is selfish, it is because loving Him first is befitting of who He is.

Throughout the whole Bible we see God calling for His people to return to Him as their primary love. God pursues His people with His steadfast enduring love in order to have this reciprocated. 1 John 4 reminds us that we only Love him because he first loved us. We see the theme of “first love” begin with the fall of man into sin. God promises Adam and Eve to restore His intimate relationship with them. He then enters into a covenantal relationship with Abraham, Moses, and David. He sends judges and prophets to call the people of Israel back to Himself, reminding them of His promises. He comes to Earth as the incarnate Christ to restore us and display His love for us through the cross.

He sends His spirit to dwell within us and promises that He will return one day for us. The point being, He is a God who pursues intimacy with mankind and He shows us His desire for “first love” by loving us first.

The book of Joel depicts this desire of God so beautifully stating, “Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” (Joel 2:12-13) God desires not just our Christian actions, or our “rended garments” as Joel calls them, but our hearts! As God extends His love to us our response should be to return to Him as our first love.

The term ministering (or minister, ministry, ministered) is used at least 90 times in the (ESV) Bible, half of those times it doesn’t refer to man's ministry towards other people, but of man’s ministering to the Lord. Exodus introduces this phrase into the Biblical narrative as Moses sets up the first tent of meeting where God was to meet with His people. Aaron and his sons are consecrated as priests who are to “minister within the holy place.” (Exodus 28:35-43)

This term is found throughout Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 1 Kings, 1 Samuel, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Nehemiah, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezra. This doesn’t include the times the concept of “ministering to the Lord” is mentioned, but simply the derivatives of the word. The Hebrew word most commonly translated into “minister” is sarat (shaw-rath). It means to minister, to serve, to attend as a menial or worshiper, to contribute ministry or service to, to wait upon. This was the duty of the priests. To serve God in the holy place by waiting upon Him and attending to Him with worship. Although a primary task of the priests was to maintain the sacrificial system, making atonement for the sins of the Israelites, it wasn’t their only duty. They were also meant to bless the Lord (Deuteronomy 10:8) and bring him praise and thanksgiving (1 Chronicles 16:4) through prayer and worship. Throughout these Old Testament books you can track a theme of spiritual revival that follows the people of God every time the priests were reinstated into their position of ministering to the Lord, specifically with praise and thanksgiving.

King David, after finding the ark of the covenant (where the presence of God was housed), builds a tent or tabernacle for it in Jerusalem. He then brings thousands of musicians and hundreds of singers into the city to be employed with one sole purpose, to minister to the Lord with praise and thanksgiving. (1 Chronicles 23-26) The priests did not continue to make sin offerings, only offerings of prayer and worship. These were the main markings of the tabernacle or tent of David. It was why he became passionate about seeing a temple built. He wanted a fitting place for the presence of God to be praised around the clock. (Psalm 132, 2 Samuel 7)

We believe that the call to “minister to the Lord” transcends the Old Testament. The prophet Amos declared that in the generation of the Lord’s return, He would rebuild David’s fallen tent. James quotes this in Acts 15 and declares that David’s tent would be rebuilt and result in the rest of mankind seeking the Lord. ** Even Jesus emphasizes this call to prayer when, after cleansing the temple, he says, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer.” (Matthew 21:13)

We believe that, as Christians, we are now the temple of God and dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. (1 Peter 2:5) We believe that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for our sins and therefore the sacrificial system is no longer needed. However, we hold the conviction, like David, that the Lord still delights in spaces set apart for Him where His people offer Him thanksgiving and praise for who He is and all He has done for us.

** UPPERROOM Prayer Manuel Pg. 7

A Levite is a term that comes from the old testament priesthood, It speaks about a people who are marked with a full time call to minister to God before the presence of God.

More detailed, a “Levite” indicated the Israelites that belonged to the tribe of Levi. The Levites were chosen by God to be set apart to minister within the temple alongside Aaron (the first Priest). King David reinstated the Levites to their God given position when he placed them in the tabernacle, where the ark of the covenant was, in order to spend their time worshiping before God’s presence. The Levites of David’s tabernacle were called to give God sacrifices of praise and thanks instead of animals. They did this day and night year round as a mirror of the worship happening in heaven before God’s throne.

Although we don’t claim to actually belong to the tribe of Levi, we believe there is an invitation to walk with the same Levitical call of ministry to the Lord. We see the Apostles speak to this in the new testament: the finished work of Jesus has made us a royal priesthood Rev 5:9-10.