God is Love
At NBUC you will hear this message almost every Sunday. This is a good place to start, and a great place to come back to over and over again. We believe that God is love, that God loves us, and that Love Wins – always and forever. This includes the love of the cross that brings saving grace and forgiveness for all. That is why God created and is creating. That is why we will do our best to rise about theological differences and the reality of personalities and always come back to this basic and transforming truth – God is Love.
Jesus is Our Way
We believe that Jesus is the greatest expression of God that we can find, that He was both fully human and fully divine, that in His life, death, and resurrection we experience the core of the Christian life, and that this is where we can find our greatest hope. We believe that Jesus can transform individuals and neighbourhoods and invites us to join Him in that process.
Presence of the Holy Spirit
We believe in the gift of the Holy Spirit as one of the most powerful promises and realities of the Christian life. Jesus gives us His Spirit that lives in us and works through us. The Holy Spirit brings healing, confidence, strength, guidance, and deep peace & assurance. As we grow in our walk with God, we continue to deepen our receiving of the Holy Spirit and our living into the blessing that we are not alone.
The Bible Speaks Today
We believe the Bible is inspired by God, and that He speaks to us through these stories, words, and promises. We believe Scripture is one of the most significant ways that God speaks to us today. Daily reading of the Bible brings great blessings to our lives as followers of Jesus.
The Church is the Hope of the World
We believe that the church was God’s idea, and when it is working right has the potential to be the Hope of the world. When this community of faith is working right, there is a sense of unity, growth, and tranformation. When this is happening, we see positive impact on the world around us, and lives change. When a community like this is alive, there is a passionate and natural response to be a part of it.
We are All Partners
We believe that each and every person has been given spiritual gifts and is invited to participate in what God is doing in the world. This is the great invitation, the great adventure, and the great miracle – God working in and through us as we partner with Jesus to bring healing to this broken world by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Sacrament of Baptism
We offer baptism to all ages. We believe that the gift of God’s love does not depend on our availability to understand it, so we baptise everyone from infants right up through adulthood. With children, instruction is given to parents or sponsors to equip them for the child’s Christian nurture. During the baptism, everyone in the congregation pledges support for the child and their parents.
The Sacrament of Communion
At the communion table, we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the host and all are guests at the table. The meal uses symbols of small pieces of bread and a taste of wine or juice to remind us of Jesus’ last supper with His followers and of God’s enduring love. We practise an open table, inviting all who seek to love Jesus to share in this family meal.