Origin

A Narrative Theology of Origin Church

We believe that God inspired the authors of Scripture by His Spirit to speak to every generation of believers, including us today. His word is authoritative and it’s meaning is life. It is sharper than a two-edge sword, able to divide soul and spirit. While it’s truth is perfect, we are called as people of God to ask, seek, and knock to find the answers as to how He wants us to carry out His message of truth.

In the beginning was God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. A timeless being that has no beginning or end, God created all things and declared them as good. He created man in their image, and provided Adam with a helpmate, a wife in Eve. From the start, man was created to live in relationship with his creator, his community, and all of creation. Satan entered the human story as he tempted the two to sin. Sin led to the destruction of the relationship between man and God, and all of creation responded in pain at the fracture. The brokenness left man in need of redemption and salvation from his sin and disobedience.

However, in God’s anguish, He did not abandon man in his state of need. Instead, He promised to restore man, and to heal the wound. As part of his purpose to restore man, God chose a people, Abraham and his descendants, to represent His hope. This people, chosen by God, soon found itself captured in slavery, and they cried out in anguish. As God heard their cry, he delivered them from their bondage, with the purpose of delivering them to the Promised Land. At Sinai, God gave the Israelites their mission, and He declared them a royal priesthood, a holy people. Although chosen by God, the Israelites disobeyed and rebelled against God. Even in there disobedience, God pursued them in an effort to reconcile them to Himself.

God delivered His people into the Promised Land, and His blessing on them was unified with a call for them to embody the triune God to all the nations. Israel took steps toward this movement, but in disobedience, allowed foreign gods into their land, as they overlooked the poor, the broken and marginalized. As they labored in un-holiness, God sent out prophets who would call for repentance, and for the people and nation of Israel to turn from their idols, and return to God. These prophets revealed the nature of God’s heart, and today calls us to a pursuit of holiness, while loving and caring for the lost, broken, and poor.

Out of Israel’s disobedience, a remnant has remained in preparation for the peace and justice of the Lord to return.

In their disobedience, God brought about a new covenant, in which He would redeem the people of the earth, but it would not just be through His chosen nation of Israel, but would go the ends of the earth. The prophets of old and all things of the past spoke and pointed to the coming of the Messiah, the Savior, who would come to save the world. Born of a virgin birth, God became flesh, walking among us. Named Jesus, He came to preach the good news and to deliver us from our brokenness. He brought healing, completion, love and hope to the broken. Yet, as He confronted the religious systems of the day, He was hated and persecuted. His subsequent, arrest, crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection brought hope to us again, as He conquered death. Jesus is our only hope and way towards reconciliation and wholeness with the Father. Through Jesus, we have been forgiven, and are able to walk in right relationship with the Father.

The Spirit was sent after Jesus ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father. The Spirit gives us gifts, leads, convicts, corrects, comforts and guides us. He also confirms to us all those who are followers of Jesus. Through the Spirit, God is working to reconcile man and all of creation to Him. The Sprit works to bring us into a life of worship and leads us to a missional expression of our faith through community.

This community, known as the “church,” is not an organization, but a living, breathing organism. As part of the body of Christ, the church is called to be the hands and feet of God, working to bring about the hope of Jesus. Each member of the body is needed to do the work of God and is uniquely gifted and called. Its mission is to work to restore the community offering faith, hope and love to a lost and broken world. The church is to embody the work of the Holy Spirit, bringing repentance, forgiveness, healing, sacrifice and wholeness in an effort to live a life of abundance given by Jesus.

We believe there is a day coming when God, in His own way and in His own time will bring the world to its appropriate end. Jesus will return to take those who have placed their trust in Him. The return will also begin the process of bringing an end to the injustice of the world, and reconciling it to God. His coming will lead to His judgment of the people of the earth, as the dead are raised, and each person must give account to his life. Man will spend eternity either separated by sin from God in Hell, or will spend eternity in Heaven with Him. For those who trust in Him, through that final time of tribulation, as God works to restore His will, we will again find peace and restoration in all of creation. Sin will no longer reign, and God will wipe away all of our tears.