Reformed. Confessional. Presbyterian.
Shearer is a Reformed congregation in the Presbyterian Church in America, holding to the Westminster Confession of Faith. We believe the Bible is the final authority on faith and life, that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and that the church's purpose is to glorify God by making disciples who treasure Him above all.
The Bible is our final authority.
We believe the Old and New Testaments are the inspired, inerrant, and sufficient Word of God. The Bible is the final rule for what we believe and how we live. Our teaching, counseling, parenting, work, and politics are all meant to be shaped by it.
Practically: our pastor preaches through books of the Bible verse by verse. We don't pick topics and hunt for proof-texts. We let the whole counsel of God shape us by walking through it together, one passage at a time.
Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Human beings are made in the image of God but have fallen into sin, cutting themselves off from God and under His just judgment. We cannot save ourselves by our own effort, moral performance, religious devotion, or sincerity.
God the Son, Jesus Christ, took on human nature, lived a sinless life, died on the cross as a substitute bearing the penalty our sin deserved, and rose from the dead on the third day. Everyone who repents of their sin and trusts in Christ alone is forgiven, reconciled to God, and brought into His family.
This is not something we earn. It is given freely. Our response is faith, which is a gift from God worked by the Holy Spirit through the hearing of the Word.
Our confessional standards.
Shearer subscribes to the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Shorter and Larger Catechisms, written in the 1640s and still the clearest expression of Reformed Protestant theology we know.
These documents don't replace the Bible. They summarize what the Bible teaches, so a congregation can know what it believes, teach it to the next generation, and spot departures from biblical faith.
Every one of our elders and pastors has formally vowed to uphold these standards. If you want to know what Shearer teaches on any theological question, the Westminster Standards are the first answer.
Why we gather, baptize, and share communion.
The church is the family of God's people, called out of the world to worship, hear His Word, and encourage one another. We gather every Sunday because the Lord's Day belongs to Him, and because we need each other more than our culture tells us we do.
We practice infant baptism as a sign and seal of God's covenant with believers and their children. We practice weekly Lord's Supper because the risen Christ feeds his people at his own table.
Both are means of grace: tangible ways God strengthens the faith of those who trust in Him.
Specific topics explained.
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The best way to understand what we believe is to see it in practice on a Sunday morning. Everyone is welcome.
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