Our Mission

New Albany Presbyterian Church exists to glorify God through lives changed by Jesus Christ.

What We Believe

From the time that Jesus rose from the dead and his followers went out into the world to proclaim the greatest news of all-time, Christians have held to statements that summarize what they believe.  The amazing love that God has for his people in spite of human sinfulness compels Christians to continue to share this wonderful Gospel message.  The earliest statement of faith was “Jesus is Lord.”  Throughout time, as the church endured external persecutions and internal debates about the nature and content of the Christian faith, more extensive statements, catechisms and creeds developed.  The PC (USA) Book of Confessions is an historic collection of these statements that our denomination endorses.  Below, we have highlighted the most important of these beliefs.

We believe that the sixty-six books of the Bible are God-breathed, without error and authoritative.  The Bible is unlike anything else ever written.  It is the revelation of God’s character and God’s ways, seen most clearly in the person, work, life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.  The Bible contains much that is difficult and challenging to us today, yet we believe that it is completely true.  It shows us the great love of the All-Powerful Creator, who sent His Son to save us.

In the Bible we find that God reveals Himself as One God, supreme and sovereign over everything that exists.  He does not share his deity or His glory with any other, nor is He one god among many.  We also find that God is Trinitarian—eternally existing as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  God is three in one.

We believe that all humans are made in the image and likeness of God, which is the unique source and foundation of human dignity and value.  God created us “very good,” and created us for relationship with Him.  This is why we love and value all people, welcoming any who would come to NAPC, regardless of any differences we might have.

In spite of this gift of creation and relationship with God, humans have without exception turned from God, rebelling against His loving authority.  The Bible calls this “sin,” and every one of us stands condemned, by nature and choice, guilty of willfully turning away from God.  Devastatingly, there is nothing that we can do ourselves to remedy this position of sinful rebellion.  Many times we are warned by Jesus and the apostles that the penalty of sin against a perfectly just and righteous God is death—both physical death and eternal death apart from God in a horrible place called Hell.

If this were the end of the story, what an unremittingly bleak story it would be.  But it isn’t!  The amazing reality of God’s love for us and His plan to redeem us is revealed in the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus.  Jesus Christ, who has existed for all eternity, through whom and for whom all things were created, was born humbly into the world in an obscure small town in Judea.  He lived a perfect life, showing compassion to the poor and the outcast, and challenging the religious leaders to turn from their self-righteousness.  He preached that all must repent of sin and believe the good news of the Gospel.  He was unjustly condemned, brutally beaten, executed in the most excruciating and shameful of ways on a wooden cross, and died.  His death was a substitute for our own.  By submitting to his Father’s will to die for us, he paid the penalty for our sin.  Three days later, he literally and victoriously rose from death, having conquered the power of sin and Satan, and appeared among his disciples.  Forty days later, he ascended into heaven, and at the Jewish festival of Pentecost, God sent the Holy Spirit to indwell every believer who repents of their sins and by faith trusts in Jesus Christ alone to reconcile them to God the Father.  As Peter said in an early sermon, “there is only one name under heaven by which we must be saved.”  Salvation from an eternity of separation from God depends wholly and completely upon the free gift of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection (which we call grace).  We receive this free gift only by faith.  This gift is offered to any who would repent of sin and trust in Jesus.  It is for good reason that we call this the greatest news of all-time!

All of those who follow Jesus are commanded to “put away sin” and lead lives of increasing obedience to God.  This will never happen perfectly in this life.  Yet, as Christians, continued repentance of sin and faith in Christ over time should lead to an increasingly joyful, sacrificial, compassionate and purposeful life.  We should increase in generosity, love and commitment to the truth of the Gospel.  We should decrease in fear, in sinful behavior, and in self-centeredness.  This will happen not through an effort to earn God’s love, but in response to His love which has already been freely given.

Every follower of Christ is called to belong to and participate in a local church.  The local church is the physical, tangible representation of the invisible Church made up of all believers in Jesus throughout time.  Elders are appointed to lead God’s church, but they are the undershepherds to the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ.  Joyful obedience to him and his Word are the first priority for leaders of God’s church.  God has given two sacraments to His church:  baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  Baptism is the sacrament of confirming one’s faith in Jesus Christ (either as a believer or as the believing parent(s) of their children).  The Lord’s Supper is the sacrament of eating and drinking in communion with the Risen Christ.

Finally, all believers in Jesus hopefully and patiently await the time when Jesus Christ will return.  He will not return in the way he came to Bethlehem.  He will come in glory and power, to judge the living and the dead.  Those who have trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation by faith will go to their eternal reward with God in Heaven; those who have rejected Jesus Christ will go to eternal punishment.

We believe in these truths that the Bible reveals to us.  Because of God’s great worth, glory and love, we commit ourselves to proclaiming and embodying these truths in word and deed.  To Him be the glory forever and ever!