Our Core Beliefs
The Main Thing!
There is a God who wants men and women to know Him intimately and personally. This God came to earth as Jesus Christ.
The Bible
The Bible is God's completely true story about who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He is going to do. The Bible contains everything a human being needs to know to be connected to God and live for His glory. It is the source of direction for our personal conduct and functions as a church.
God
There is one God. His nature is fully revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Through Jesus we see that God is holy, all-knowing, all-powerful, unchanging, full of love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness. He is the creator of all things and He keeps everything going. God is revealed in the Bible in three persons (the Trinity): God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These three are one in essence but each has distinctive characteristics. No human can fully understand the Trinity but every person can experience God in three ways: as a loving Father, a compassionate Savior (Jesus), and as an empowering Spirit.
Sin
Sin is choosing our own way instead of God's way. Sin is "not believing God" and it results in some of the the stupid things that we do that keeps us from being connected to God and to each other. Sin destroys relationships, especially our relationship to God.
The Church
The church is God's spiritual family made up of all Jesus-followers in the past, present, and future. This means that the church is people, not a building, place, or institution. Woodland Hills Church is one local congregation of believers. We are made up of imperfect people who are learning to respond day by day to the stunning grace of our God. He loves us in spite of our imperfections and we are learning to love each other in the same way. While we understand that there are no perfect humans, we encourage one another to live lives that please and honor God. Jesus, as our head, established the church to spread the message of the Good News of Jesus.
Real Life
Real life begins when a person responds in faith to Jesus Christ. Forgiveness and
a new relationship with God are offered to us through His life, death, and resurrection. Jesus (God the Savior) came to this earth and gave His perfect life as the sacrifice for all humanity's sin. He died for everyone. However, we only experience that forgiveness and restored relationship with God when we believe in Him and truly ask Him to take control of our lives. Whenever a person responds to Jesus in this way, the Bible says that he or she is saved. This means that a person is connected with God, has His forgiveness and is promised a place in heaven. If a person has been sincere in receiving Jesus, God begins to change that person from the inside out, making our character more and more like Jesus' character. As we grow in our relationship with God, that relationship has a positive effect on every other aspect of our lives.
Baptism and Communion
After a person asks Jesus to take control of his/her life, Jesus wants the new relationship to be demonstrated before witnesses. It is the same reason witnesses are required at a wedding ceremony. Our love and commitment to a spouse has to be demonstrated publicly. In the same way, our love and commitment to Jesus is demonstrated publicly through baptism. The physical act of baptism symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf.
Communion, or the Lord's Supper, is the way that the Bible says to remember the death of Jesus on our behalf until the end of time. When we eat the bread, we remember that He gave His body to be sacrificed on the cross. When we drink the wine, we remember His blood that was shed so that we might be forgiven.
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