About First United Brethren in Christ

We believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites through Moses. We believe this God created all things in creation – the heavens and the earth and all that humans have discovered and are yet to discover. We believe this God of the Old Testament is one God in three persons, which in Christian circles is spoken of as the Triune God. There are no perfect concepts, analogies, or metaphors that can explain what it means to say God (YHWH) is one God revealed in three persons. Nonetheless, we believe that God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit’s love for one another is steadfast and perfect in every way. Motivated by such love, God created all that we see in creation. All three persons of the Godhead are co-equal and not one is above the other. The best way those who believe in Jesus can comprehend the three persons in the Godhead is by the responsibilities that they have assumed in the work of creation, sustenance, redemption, and sanctification of humanity and all that is subjected under the responsibility of the humans.

We believe in the historical person called Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the living God, who is also the Christ (Messiah). We believe that the Lord Jesus is God, and He spoke the world and everything in it into existence. We believe that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin named Mary of the Tribe of Judah. When it came to the sins of the world, it is God the Son who died for the sins and not God the Father nor the Holy Spirit. After having died for the sins of humanity and of the world, He was buried in the grave for two days, and on the third day, He was raised to life from the dead by the Father. We believe that right now, He is seated at the right hand of God the Father interceding for His people, the Church, as her High Priest until it is time for Him to return to earth a second time. When He returns, He will come back as the King of all kings and Lord of all lords to judge the world.

We believe in the person of the Holy Spirit, who is also known as the Spirit of God in the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit is the person of the Godhead that moves into a person who chooses to believe in Jesus. He is the one who is the guarantee of a person’s salvation in Jesus. He is the one who holds the fruit a believer is to bear and the gifts that are needed to minister to the world around us. We believe that the Holy Spirit is the mark of a believer in Jesus that the angels will recognize when they come to reap the harvest. Without one being born again in the Holy Spirit, he/she will not be able to inherit eternal life, which is also known as the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

We believe God created people in His very own image and likeness. There is nothing in all of creation that is in God’s image and likeness other than humans. Because humans are so precious to God is why He sacrificed the life of His Son Jesus to reconcile us to Himself through His death, burial, and resurrection work. Because God cares so much about people, we seek to care for people as God leads us by His truth in Jesus. God did not cave to human sin, but He rescued us from the power of sin and death. Hearing and submitting to the gospel of Jesus and confessing and repenting from our sins is the only way one can become a child of God. One cannot believe in Jesus and blatantly continue to practice their old sinful ways but must surrender to the process of renewing their mind with the truth of God’s word and healing of the heart through fellowship with other believers. The Holy Spirit uses both of these practices to transform the person who chose to follow Jesus into His image and likeness.

The true Church is the Body and the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every person who comes to believe in their heart that Jesus is Lord and confess with their mouth that God raised Him from the dead is saved and belongs in the Church. We believe that when God looks at a city in the world that has believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, He sees one Church, even when we might see multiple congregations and denominations. We as congregants of this body of Christ recognize ourselves as the First United Brethren in Christ of the Church in Findlay, Ohio. By certain traditions and practices of worship, we differ from other churches and denominations, but our identity as a member of the Body of Christ is in the foundational belief that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, who died for the sins of the world, was buried in the grave for two days, and was raised to life by God on the third day.

The purpose of the Church is to be the person to point to the hope in Jesus. The Church is to represent the Lord Jesus in how she lives out the presence of God. While a believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Church is the Temple of God. A person who believes in Jesus cannot say that they do not belong with the Church; to love Jesus is to also love and belong to the Body of Jesus.

We believe that the documents that are compiled together, historically known as the Bible, are the inerrant, infallible, spoken, and documented word of God. We believe that the entire Bible is authored by the Holy Spirit through the people that God chose over the course of History. The Bible is the only written document that tells us who the Living God is and who humans are to Him. The consistent theme of the Bible is the love of God pursuing His creation faithfully and adamantly in order to restore and reconcile it to Himself because it was separated from Him due to the sin of Adam and Eve. The Bible is the only religious book in history where salvation is an invitation made by God fulfilling the promise made to humanity as the creator becomes the savior and not something to be earned by works.

We believe in the ordinances that Jesus has commanded for those who belong to Him and belong in the Church. These ordinances are water baptism, feet washing, and communion or the Lord’s Supper.

1. Water baptism is an ordinance commanded by Jesus to be practiced as an act of obedience by every new believer in the Lord Jesus who desires to submit to His Lordship to walk in fellowship with Him and His Church.
2. Feet washing is a demonstrative act of service that Jesus performed to His disciples and is recorded in the Bible as an ordinance that displays what the life of a person in Christ should look like – a life of servanthood that places others before oneself in service and humbling oneself to be served as well. It is not expected that one must practice this ordinance, but we in the United Brethren Church practices it as a reminder of the essence of a Christian life.
3. The Lord’s Supper is an ordinance Jesus commanded His disciples to keep in remembrance of Him and the salvation work that He has done.

These practices are the evidence we hold within the Church as the outward mark of a believer and recognition of the Savior that we belong to and are serving.