Who We Are

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You BELONG Here.

At First United Methodist Church, we affirm that all people are created in the image of God and are beloved children of God. We believe that all people are worthy of God’s unconditional love and grace, through Christ Jesus. We embrace and celebrate the gift of diversity in our church and in our world and recognize that we can all Gather in worship and community, Grow through prayer and learning, and Go to serve and invite. 

 

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What We Believe

 

God

God is revealed to us in three distinct ways – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We describe God as everlasting and infinite in power, wisdom, justice, goodness, and love. To imagine who God is and how we can relate to God, we must remember that in Jesus we see God.

Jesus

We believe in the mystery of salvation through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Son of God, God in the world in the form of a human being, Jesus of Nazareth. We proclaim Jesus as our Savior who through His death and resurrection has given us the gift of whole life, eternity with God, and salvation from sin.

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is God’s present activity in our midst. When we sense God’s leading, God’s challenge, or God’s support or comfort, it’s the Holy Spirit at work.

Human Beings

We’ve been made in the image of the Creator. Like God, we have the capacity to love and care, to communicate, and to create. We have the freedom to accept or reject a relationship with God. We believe that all humans need to be in a relationship with God in order to be fully whole.

The Church

The church is the body of Christ, an extension of Christ’s life and ministry in the world. We are called to worship God, to follow Christ, and to transform the world with the love of God.

The Bible

We believe that the Bible is the primary guide for our faith and practice. We say that God speaks to us through the Bible and that it contains all things necessary for salvation.

Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God is both a present reality and future hope. God goes before us, beckoning us into the new world that is already being created, calling us to join in the challenging work of fashioning it.

For more information about the beliefs of the United Methodist Church, click here.

Going Out to Be God’s People in the World

Our understanding of God, as revealed in Jesus Christ, compels us to open our hearts to the experience of God in our lives and in relationships with others; to open our minds to new and deeper understandings; and to open our doors to all people who would join us in loving God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves. We commit ourselves to going out to be God’s people in the world.

The Wesleyan Quadrilateral

As a United Methodist Church, we recognize four sources and criteria for theological thinking: Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and Reason. Together these are known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.

Scripture is primary, so we understand our primary theological task as the disciplined study of the Bible. The traditions of the Church throughout the ages, our personal faith experience, and reason all serve to enlighten and enliven our understanding of scripture and its interpretation today.

We do not, therefore, understand theology as static or the exclusive property of any one particular doctrine, but as a dynamic process involving the entire community of faith.

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At FUMC Cleburne our Mission is to:

Make deeply committed disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, one life at a time. 

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