​

​

Who We Are

Restore the Way is a Christian community formed to share the experience of living with&in the triune relationship of God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, God(F,S,S)—and to invite all people into that same communion. See John 17:20-23.

 

We believe that our identity and purpose are revealed in Jesus, the fullness of the F,S,S incarnate. In Jesus, we experience who the F,S,S is and who we are.

 

The Triune God

We believe in one God in three Persons—the Relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—infinite, and perfect in love, holiness, goodness, wisdom, and power.

 

The F,S,S is Infinite, and God’s love and mercy are greater than all human sin and brokenness. Our sin is finite, yet toxic; the F,S,S’s life, grace, and faithfulness are infinite.

 

The Incarnation, Salvation, and Our Identity

We believe that the eternal Son of God became human in Jesus, the Christ. In Jesus, the fullness of God(F,S,S) is revealed in human form. His incarnation, life, teaching, death, resurrection, and ascension:

 

• Reveal who God is—whose nature was revealed in the incarnation that included the suffering of the cross, a revelation of the F,S,S’s nature that is not about retribution, but healing and restoration through victory over sin, death and the grave.

• Reveal who we are—our identity as beloved image-bearers and children of the F,S,S.

• Are the faithful works of the F,S,S on our behalf: salvation rests on the F,S,S’s faithfulness in Jesus, not on the strength of our faith or our works. Our faith finds life in our participation in the invitation of the F,S,S.

 

Jesus did not come to change the F,S,S’s mind about us, but to change our minds about the F,S,S and to restore us to our identity and communion in Him.

 

Sin and God’s Restoration

We understand sin as “missing the mark” of God(F,S,S)’s design. Sin wounds us, distorts our identity, and alienates us from our awareness of the F,S,S’s presence, but it does not change the F,S,S’s heart toward us, nor the F,S,S’s presence with&in us.

 

We confess that the F,S,S’s justice is not about us getting what we deserve, good or bad, as reward or punishment.

God’s justice is the F,S,S getting what God desires, which is our healing and restoration. We see the F,S,S’s unchanging heart towards us found in:

 

• The F,S,S’s restoration, seen throughout Scripture—such as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, where the father’s joy is in the son’s return and restoration, not in repayment or retribution.

• It is also pictured (foreshadowed) in God’s covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15:8–17), where God passes through the covenant “sacrifice” (gift) alone while Abraham sleeps—signifying that the F,S,S bears all of the suffering and remains faithful even when we are not.

 

Many have been taught to see God as one who must be appeased (a false belief about God propagated in part by the translation “propitiation” in Romans 3:25 – this word should be translated as Mercy Seat). Such a belief about God as conditional love makes God’s covenant a quid pro quo contract. But in Genesis 15, the parable of the prodigal son, and Jesus on the cross, we see unconditional, self-giving love without strings attached.

 

The F,S,S says in Genesis 15:8-17 (a foreshadowing of Jesus on the cross) in effect:

• Even if you break your side of the agreement, I Myself will bear the consequences and suffering of your sin (missing the mark).

 

Thus, God in Jesus came to save us from our sins and alienation, not from God’s “justice.”

God’s justice and judgment are expressions of love, compassion, and restoration—not retribution.

 

The Way

The name “Restore the Way” points to:

 

• Restore – God(F,S,S) heals, reconciles, and restores humanity and creation to right relationship with Himself and with one another.

• The Way – The First Century Church was known as “the Way” (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 24:14, 22). We seek to embody this Way (the life of the Logos) by listening carefully to the Holy Spirit’s guidance in Scripture and to the Church Fathers in their own words, learning how they understood and lived the Way of Christ.

 

Scripture and the Early Church

We believe the Holy Spirit invites us and leads us to what is being communicated in the Holy Scriptures. We believe the Old and New Testaments are the inspired written word of God by which we are invited to experience and encounter the Logos of God(F,S,S), the Living Word of God.

We affirm the Nicene Creed (A.D. 325–381) as a faithful summary of the apostolic faith and listen to the Early Church and Church Fathers as important witnesses to “the Way.”

 

Participation in God’s Life

We believe that through the faithfulness of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives:

 

• We are reconciled and invited to embrace our gift of union with&in the relationship of the F,S,S.

• We are invited to become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4)—sharing by grace in God’s life and love, not becoming God in essence.

• We learn to live from our the F,S,S created identity, as F,S,S has declared our identity in Jesus.

• We learn to see each other as the F,S,S sees us!

 

The Church and Its Mission Find Its Purpose and Rest in God(F,S,S)’s Presence

We believe in one sacred apostolic Church, the Body and Bride of Christ. Restore the Way is a local expression of this Church, devoted to:

• Walking in the relationship of the Triune God(F,S,S) through being made ONE with God by the fullness of God in human form (Jesus).

• Sharing the invitation to walk in “the Way” of Jesus and live from our true identity in Him.

• Participation in the F,S,S’s restoration—helping people move from “missing the mark” into hearing and experiencing the F,S,S’s presence, healing, freedom, communion, and identity in Jesus, the Christ.

• Love of neighbor, care for the poor and oppressed, and the pursuit of healing and restoration, not retributive judgment and condemnation.

 

We affirm that the F,S,S is omnipresent and has revealed us as God’s temple (dwelling place). God(F,S,S) does not merely “show up” when we ask; rather, the F,S,S never leaves us nor forsakes us. It is our own alienation and woundedness that block us from seeing and experiencing the F,S,S’s constant presence.

 

Hope

We believe Jesus, the Christ, will come again in glory to bring all things of this creation to fulfillment. Evil, sin, and death have been defeated and overcome, and God(F,S,S)’s creation and restoration will be completed in this world.

 

The faithful will dwell forever in the unveiled presence of the Triune F,S,S, living fully and freely in the identity F,S,S has revealed about us in Jesus, the Christ.

 

Statement of Faith Concerning Marriage, Sexuality, and Sanctity of Life

In addition, as part of its Statement of Faith, the Church affirms the following Statement of Faith Concerning Marriage, Sexuality, and Sanctity of Life:

 

We believe the Bible teaches that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female. These two distinct, complementary sexes together reflect the image and nature of God. (Genesis 1:26-27) Rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person. We believe that the revelation of the fullness of God in human form (Jesus the Logos) as represented in Scripture calls us to speak what we understand to be the truth of God's character and nature in love at all times. (Ephesians 4:15)

 

Therefore, we believe we are to avoid speech that misrepresents what God(F,S,S) has designed for us as F,S,S's image-bearers as male and female. We do not believe that referring to a person as a pronoun that is inconsistent with that person’s biological sex honors neither the F,S,S nor the person being referred to. We believe that every person remains of great value to God, regardless of their beliefs or behaviors—even those inconsistent with His identity. Therefore, in accordance with God’s character and nature, every individual must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. (Mark 12:28- 31; Luke 6:31) Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with F,S,S's character and nature as revealed in the revelation of Jesus and Scripture.

 

We believe that the term “marriage” has only one meaning: the uniting of one biological man and one biological woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture. (Genesis 2:18-25) We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a biological man and a biological woman who are married to each other. (1 Corinthians 6:18; 7:2-5; Hebrews 13:4) We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in, outside of a marriage, between one biological man and one biological woman.

 

We believe that any form of sexual immorality (including without limitation adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, sex with minors, and use of pornography) is a missing of the mark (our identity with&in Jesus). (Matthew15:18-20;1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

 

We believe that F,S,S invites us to receive and embrace the healing and restoration that the F,S,S has provided for us from before the foundations of this world to all who are willing to accept who Jesus has revealed them to be. (Acts 3:19-21; Romans 10:9-10; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

 

We believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. (Mark 12:28- 31; Luke 6:31) Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with God's character and nature.

 

We believe that the F,S,S has created mankind in F,S,S's image and that physical, human life begins at conception. It is the F,S,S who uniquely forms every human being and gives special dignity, personal freedom, and individual accountability among all the works of His creation.  The F,S,S created each person’s inmost being, knitting each person together in the womb of that person’s mother. (Psalm 139:13). As God’s individualized and personal creation, each person is fearfully and wonderfully made.   (Psalm 139:14). God has ordained all the days of each person’s life before they came to be. (Psalm 139:16).

 

Based on the Logos (Jesus), the Living Word of God and the written word of God, Scripture, we therefore believe that from the moment of conception until natural death, every human life is sacred and has value because every human life has been created by the F,S,S, in the F,S,S's image and likeness. We believe that from the moment of conception every human life must be recognized, respected, and protected as having the rights of a person and the inviolable right to life. Because human life begins at the moment of conception, it is against our convictions to formally or materially cooperate in the abortion or other termination of unborn human life, including without limitation by surgical abortion or use of drugs, or services that have the intent, design, effect, or risk of terminating unborn human life or preventing its implantation and growth post-fertilization.

We embrace all who have experienced abortion as a mother or a father. We harbor (nor communicate) no condemnation, but offer our sincere heart towards all who are seeking healing and restoration through the F,S,S's empathy and compassion.

Political Philosophies

We do not require anyone to adopt a specific political philosophy. We trust that, as each person grows in their relationship with God(F,S,S), this will lead to healthier perspectives on how we practice governance in our communities at every level—local, national, and beyond. Because of this, we extend grace to one another when we do not share the same political views.

How do we do this? By believing that our unity in Jesus is infinitely greater than the finite realities of sin, death, evil, and darkness—which alienate us from God and from one another—we are empowered to see other people, even those who choose to be our enemies, as God sees them, rather than only as they may choose to see us.

​

We believe that humans sometimes choose to see one another as enemies, but that Jesus has freed us from needing to make that choice. We believe that, from the F,S,S’s perspective, the F,S,S has no enemies; the reality of “an enemy” exists only from the viewpoint of those who choose the F,S,S or others as their enemy.

​

We believe that all life is sacred, and that the living of this life is sacred as well.

​

Theological Perspectives

Theology is similar to politics in sensitivity; it is easy to be misunderstood. Things are not always what they seem at first glance. To be theologically conservative should mean to hold as close to the origins of the faith as much as that is reasonably possible. In other words, it means to embrace what the Early Church understood within the context of their understanding, and that our culture and context are not the same as theirs. In a sense, Jesus would have been considered "liberal" by the religious leaders with his revelations of God(F,S,S) in light of the context of what the Jews believed. The reality is that Jesus was being conservatively true to the F,S,S's nature and character; in that sense, this dysfunctional paradigm we have is not conservative regarding what is true of the F,S,S's character and nature. In this, you can see how our modern-day paradigm of labeling people as one versus the other struggles to be accurate and true to Jesus' revealing the fullness of the F,S,S to us. 

So, instead of us getting caught up in debating "conservative" versus "liberal" labels. We might better serve ourselves and each other by allowing room for grace. This statement is not meant to say we should be "politically correct." Heaven forbid we fall into that trap. There is something much bigger at stake. It is us learning from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit how to see each other as the F,S,S sees us. In this sense, we can understand the words "conservative" and "liberal" in a different way. Let the F,S,S change how we see ourselves and each other in light of what we have come to believe these words to mean. Let the F,S,S lead us to embrace a liberty and freedom to recognize the F,S,S's presence that is with&in us, so that we might value and conserve this treasure and celebrate the infinite presence of the F,S,S that continually invites us to see this world differently, as the F,S,S sees it!

"Conservative" and "liberal" can be two different ways to look at the same coin. Being conservatively close to God(F,S,S)'s heart is to be liberally free and mpowered to share the F,S,S's love. We cannot give what we do not have. If we are not conservative in this sense, we cannot share the F,S,S's love, because we don't recognize and value its proximity and nature as a gift. We can only receive and experience what is before us. So, to remain conservative to God's presence is also to freely and liberally share it with others.

To be liberal (in a negative sense) could mean to dismiss the proimity, gifting and value of the presence of the F,S,S's. To be conservative (in a negative sense) can mean that we think God is limited and opperates out of a fear of hording or scarcity. 

Ebracing the negative senses of both sides can fascilitate our alientation, which creates distraction by the things of this world in a way that we cannot appreciate and value tne F,S,S's presence. The feeling of God being distant is not because the F,S,S's presence leaves us. There is never any separation between us and the F,S,S, only our own alienation from the indwelling presence of tne F,S,S.

I am making an argument for us to redefine how we understand what it means to be "conservative" or "liberal." In doing so, it does not mean that we no longer hold political perspectives or let go of all things that are finite. It does mean that we experientially learn to hold onto something offered to us from the F,S,S from before the foundations of this world, which is infinite and beautiful. 

The incarnate Jesus is both a reality of the infinite and the finite. We are dual citizens of this broken world and the Kingdom of the F,S,S that indwells us. Jesus has revealed, is revealing and will continue to reveal to us how to live in both realms. We don't throw away the parts of this finite broken world that we have inherited; we instead learn how to bring to bear more of the infinite, indwelling Kingdom of the F,S,S to this finite world!

Holy Scripture
We understand that throughout the history of Christianity, many have failed to differentiate between Jesus as the Logos (the living word of God-F,S,S) and Holy Scripture (the inspired written word of God-F,S,S). This failure has resulted in the idolization of Holy Scripture. If anyone finds curiosity in this statement, you can trust it is an invitation from F,S,S to explore further the dark fruit of this idolization. Holy Scripture was never intended by F,S,S to become an idol. Most of the "Church" language centers on the dogma of Holy Scripture as "inerrant." If, in reading this statement, a need is felt to defind Holy Scripture as being "inerrant," consider the following historical facts among other arguments as to why it is not inerrant, at least not in the way many mislead Christians are defining "inerrant."

Holy means sacred, not perfect. inerrant or infallible.

Consider: The infallibility of the Pope & Inerrancy of Scripture

• Catholicism - the First Ecumenical Council of the Vatican of 1869–1870

• Protestantism - the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, held in Chicago in October 1978Both idols under whose authority you are expected to submit

— Scripture Is: Insired in the purpose God(F,S,S) gave it, best understood in its original languages. Inspired to reveal both the nature of man and God... both good and evil. Religion tries to claim the evil to be the good. Religion tries to convince us that the evil presented in the Scriptures is attributable to God instead of man. Scripture is a collection of inspired, ancient writings by different authors and in various literary forms that reveal man's errancy about God and man's misinterpretation of the F,S,S's long-suffering in that errancy. It is a mirror.
— Scripture Is Not: an Inerrant work, as in carrying an authority that should not be a source of questions, just as the Pope is not infallible. Holy Scripture is the opposite; it is inerrant in its intended purpose to create questions.
 

Hebrews 4:12–13

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two‑edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight…”

Here:

• The “word of God” is described as active, piercing, and discerning.

• It is not portrayed as a list of propositions to be mentally filed, but as something that cuts into us and exposes us.

Implication:
This “word” doesn’t just answer our questions; it questions us, uncovering motives, desires, and intentions we did not fully see. The text itself presents “the word” as an instrument that puts man under examination.

 

Parables – Jesus’ teaching as deliberately puzzling

Jesus’ parables are preserved in Scripture as teaching that forces hearers to ask, “What does this mean?”

Matthew 13:10–11

“Then the disciples came and said to him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’
And he answered them, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.’”

The disciples themselves are confused and must ask questions.

The parables as written Scripture:

• don’t resolve everything immediately,

• require interpretation, wrestling, and further explanation.

Examples:

• The sower (Mark 4:1–20; Matthew 13:1–23)

• The weeds among the wheat (Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43)

• The unjust steward (Luke 16:1–8 – famously perplexing)

By canonizing these parables without a tidy systematic explanation, Scripture institutionalizes puzzling speech that pushes the reader into inquiry.

Holy, what does this word mean?

• Hebrew/Aramaic “holy” = qādôš / qōdeš / qādiš (all from the same root ק־ד־ש meaning “to be holy / set apart”

• Greek “holy” most often = hagios, with related nouns for “holiness” and sometimes hosios translated “holy” or “devout. Meaning "set apart, consecrated."

​​​​