Core Values

Core Values

• The stated mission of Hebron Presbyterian Church is simple: “To Spread the Word of God.” We seek to do this in a variety of ways and through all of our activities and worship. Our Sunday services are both in-person and online, so that they are accessible to all. Our children and youth are nourished with biblical principles, and we provide a safe and inviting place for children to attend our Christian day school. Many of our adults seek deeper knowledge of the Bible through Sunday School and other small group Bible studies. This knowledge provides confidence to help them share their Christian faith with others. Every aspect of our mission and ministry is performed in the name of the living Word of God, Jesus Christ.
• Hebron Church is a congregation that believes in and lives out the value of mission beyond our own church community. From local, hands-on work and giving at ministries like GoochlandCares, to generous support for Christian education in the African country of Niger, we seek to use the resources God has given us to effect lasting help and change where there is human need.
• Christian fellowship is a crucial aspect of life together in the church community. Sharing times of enjoyment with other believers both strengthens us as individual Christians and helps to build up the life and ministry of the congregation.
• Preaching at Hebron Church is rooted each Sunday in a passage from the Bible. We understand the Scriptures to be the unique and authoritative witness to the Person of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Our pastor’s sermons are both expositional – seeking to help us understand a passage in its historical context – and topical and relevant in describing how these ancient, living words apply to our lives, today.
• While we are largely a conservative congregation, we strive to keep our focus on our shared faith in Jesus Christ, rather than on theological or political differences we may have. We want Hebron Church to be a place where the love of Christ sits at the head of the table, and where each believer is respected as an authentic member of the Body of Christ; even as each of us is being challenged to a more faithful walk with our Savior.

The Foundations of the Presbyterian Church are:

1. God's Mission

The good news of the Gospel is that the Triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit creates, redeems, sustains, rules, and transforms all things and all people.  By the power of the Spirit, this one living God is incarnate in Jesus Christ, who came to live in the world, die for the world, and be raised again to new life. The Gospel of  Jesus Christ announces the nearness of God’s kingdom, bringing good news to all.  The Church participates in God's Mission by making disciples of all nations.  We respect and love all people and desire that all people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection.

2. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church

Jesus Christ is the sole foundation, authority, and hope of the church.   In Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Christ God reconciles all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross (Col. 1:19–20). Without faith in Jesus Christ, there is no salvation. In Christ’s name, therefore, the Church is sent out to bear witness to the good news of reconciliation with God, with others, and with all creation. In Christ the Church receives its truth and appeal, its holiness¸ and its unity.  Without faith in Jesus Christ, there is no salvation.

3. The Calling of the Church

The Church is the body of Christ. Christ gives to the Church all the gifts necessary to be his body. The Church strives to demonstrate these gifts in its life as a community in the world (1 Cor. 12:27–28):

• The Church is to be a community of faith, entrusting itself to God alone, even at the risk of losing its life.
   
• The Church is to be a community of hope, rejoicing in the sure and certain knowledge that, in Christ, God is making a new creation. This new creation is a new beginning for human life and for all things. The Church lives in the present on the strength of that promised new creation.
   
• The Church is to be a community of love, where sin is forgiven, reconciliation is accomplished, and the dividing walls of hostility are torn down.
   
• The Church is to be a community of witness, pointing beyond itself through word and work to the good news of God’s transforming grace in Christ Jesus its Lord.

4. The Guidance of the Holy Spirit

In the power of the Spirit, Jesus Christ draws the Church and individual believers into the sovereign activity of the Triune God at all times and places.  With changing times and technological innovations we are all called to evaluate our beliefs according to the Word of God, led by the Holy Spirit. God is unchanging, His Word in Christ is sufficient and authoritative, and His Truth is true for all people, at all times, and in all places. As the Church seeks reform and fresh direction, it looks to Jesus Christ who goes ahead of us and calls us to follow him. The Church is reformed and always reforming according to the Word of God.   United with Christ in the power of the Spirit, the Church seeks to “not be conformed to this world, but [to] be transformed by the renewing of [our] minds, so that [we] may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2).

We affirm that “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship.” -The Westminster Confession of Faith (The PC(USA) Book of Confessions, 6.109).