What we believe
God’s grace calls to us first, it is free for all of us, and God’s grace is for everyone.
Our mission
To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Our vision
The United Methodist Church forms disciples of Jesus Christ who, empowered by the Holy Spirit, love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously in local communities and worldwide connections.
The basics
Christians in the Wesleyan tradition
We worship one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We hold Scripture as the authority for faith and life. And we take Jesus at his word when he says, “Come to me, all of you.”
United Methodists share the historic Christian faith set out in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. We say those creeds in worship, and we mean them. What is distinctly Methodist is not a different set of doctrines. It is an emphasis on grace, on growth, and on faith that shows up in how you treat people.
On Big Pine Key, that looks like
- Sunday worship, then food and fellowship in the Social Hall
- Showers for neighbors who have nowhere else to get clean
- Recovery meetings in our building
- A community health fair every spring
Faith and works are not two separate things here.
The Methodist emphasis
Grace, in three movements
John Wesley, the Anglican priest whose movement became Methodism, described grace as something that meets us in stages: before we ask, when we accept, and for the rest of our lives. It is why nobody here is keeping score on you.
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Before you ask
Prevenient grace
God is already at work in your life, whether or not you have noticed. You are not starting from zero. Something already brought you to this page.
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When you say yes
Justifying grace
The moment you trust that you are forgiven and loved, and start again. For some people it is a thunderclap. For most it is quieter, and it can happen more than once.
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For the rest of your life
Sanctifying grace
Faith is not a finish line. Grace keeps working on us, slowly making us more loving than we were. Wesley expected Christians to keep growing. We still do.
The sacraments
Two sacraments, practicing faithful hospitality
Holy Communion
In the United Methodist Church the Communion table is open to everyone, no exceptions. Christ invites all of us to the table, doubts and fears included, and nobody is turned away. You do not need to be a member of this church, or of any church.
We celebrate Communion on the first Sunday of each month, on Christmas Eve, and on Easter Sunday. The pastor will hand you a piece of bread, and you are invited to lightly dip it in a cup of non-alcoholic grape juice. We aim to have a gluten-free bread option every time.
Baptism
Baptism reminds us that God wants a relationship with us and calls us beloved children, and it also makes us part of the larger body of Christ around the world. We baptize infants, children, and adults because we believe God does the work in baptism, no matter the age.
We baptize once. If you were baptized in another Christian tradition in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we honor it. If you would like to be re-baptized, please talk with Pastor Rushing about remembering your baptism. Remembering our baptisms is also a tradition the church celebrates every January.
If you are thinking about baptism for yourself or a child, talk with Pastor Rushing. There is no rush and no pressure.
How we try to live
Wesley’s General Rules
John Wesley gave the early Methodists three General Rules. They still capture how we try to practice our faith.
Do no harm
Start by not making things worse, in what you do and in how you speak about people.
Do good
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, to all the people you can. Not only to the people who look like us or sound like us.
Stay in love with God
Worship, prayer, Scripture, Communion and the company of other Christians. Wesley called these the means of grace: the ordinary practices that keep faith alive when feelings come and go.
Everyone means everyone
Loving Jesus. Welcoming you. Exactly as you are.
We’re excited to share God’s love and welcome people into community, whoever you are, wherever you come from, and whatever you believe this morning.
You will find people here who disagree on many things, like politics or social issues, but we are a church for everyone, and this is what a church looks like when hospitality and God’s love are put into practice. People are not politicized here. We are here building a faithful community of people who love Jesus and have questions about Jesus. So, no matter who you are or where you are on the journey of faith, Big Pine UMC welcomes you.
Things we do not ask of you
- You do not have to be a member to participate.
- You do not have to agree with everything said from the pulpit. Ask questions instead. Methodists have always used reason alongside Scripture.
- If you are a guest, there is no pressure to give.
- You do not have to dress up. Shorts and sandals are the local uniform.
- You do not have to sing, stand, kneel, or come forward for Communion if you would rather not.
- You do not have to explain where you have been, why you stopped going to church, or how long it has been.
Our doctrinal standards
The Confession of Faith
The Confession of Faith is one of the doctrinal standards of The United Methodist Church. Select an article to read it.
Article IGod
We believe in the one true, holy and living God, Eternal Spirit, who is Creator, Sovereign and Preserver of all things visible and invisible. He is infinite in power, wisdom, justice, goodness and love, and rules with gracious regard for the well-being and salvation of all people, to the glory of his name. We believe the one God reveals himself as the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct but inseparable, eternally one in essence and power.
Article IIJesus Christ
We believe in Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man, in whom the divine and human natures are perfectly and inseparably united. He is the eternal Word made flesh, the only begotten Son of the Father, born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. As ministering Servant he lived, suffered and died on the cross. He was buried, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven to be with the Father, from whence he shall return. He is eternal Savior and Mediator, who intercedes for us, and by him all people will be judged.
Article IIIThe Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from and is one in being with the Father and the Son. He convinces the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He leads all people through faithful response to the gospel into the fellowship of the Church. He comforts, sustains and empowers the faithful and guides them into all truth.
Article IVThe Holy Bible
We believe the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, reveals the Word of God so far as it is necessary for our salvation. It is to be received through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice. Whatever is not revealed in or established by the Holy Scriptures is not to be made an article of faith nor is it to be taught as essential to salvation.
Article VThe Church
We believe the Christian Church is the community of all true believers under the Lordship of Christ. We believe it is one, holy, apostolic and catholic. It is the redemptive fellowship in which the Word of God is preached by men divinely called, and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christ’s own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit the Church exists for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers and the redemption of the world.
Article VIThe Sacraments
We believe the Sacraments, ordained by Christ, are symbols and pledges of the Christian’s profession and of God’s love toward us. They are means of grace by which God works invisibly in us, quickening, strengthening and confirming our faith in him. Two Sacraments are ordained by Christ our Lord, namely Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
We believe Baptism signifies entrance into the household of faith, and is a symbol of repentance and inner cleansing from sin, a representation of the new birth in Christ Jesus and a mark of Christian discipleship.
We believe children are under the atonement of Christ and as heirs of the Kingdom of God are acceptable subjects for Christian Baptism. Children of believing parents through Baptism become the special responsibility of the Church. They should be nurtured and led to personal acceptance of Christ, and by profession of faith confirm their Baptism.
We believe the Lord’s Supper is a representation of our redemption, a memorial of the sufferings and death of Christ, and a token of love and union which Christians have with Christ and with one another. Those who rightly, worthily and in faith eat the broken bread and drink the blessed cup partake of the body and blood of Christ in a spiritual manner until he comes.
Article VIISin and Free Will
We believe all people are fallen from righteousness and, apart from the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, are destitute of holiness and inclined to evil. Unless we are born again, we cannot see the Kingdom of God. In their own strength, without divine grace, no one can do good works pleasing and acceptable to God. We believe, however, all people influenced and empowered by the Holy Spirit are responsible in freedom to exercise their will for good.
Article VIIIReconciliation Through Christ
We believe God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The offering Christ freely made on the cross is the perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, redeeming all people from all sin, so that no other satisfaction is required.
Article IXJustification and Regeneration
We believe we are never accounted righteous before God through our works or merit, but that penitent sinners are justified or accounted righteous before God only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe regeneration is the renewal of all people in righteousness through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature and experience newness of life. By this new birth the believer becomes reconciled to God and is enabled to serve him with the will and the affections.
We believe, although we have experienced regeneration, it is possible to depart from grace and fall into sin; and we may even then, by the grace of God, be renewed in righteousness.
Article XGood Works
We believe good works are the necessary fruits of faith and follow regeneration but they do not have the virtue to remove our sins or to avert divine judgment. We believe good works, pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, spring from a true and living faith, for through and by them faith is made evident.
Article XISanctification and Christian Perfection
We believe sanctification is the work of God’s grace through the Word and the Spirit, by which those who have been born again are cleansed from sin in their thoughts, words and acts, and are enabled to live in accordance with God’s will, and to strive for holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
Entire sanctification is a state of perfect love, righteousness and true holiness which every regenerate believer may obtain by being delivered from the power of sin, by loving God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength, and by loving one’s neighbor as one’s self. Through faith in Jesus Christ this gracious gift may be received in this life both gradually and instantaneously, and should be sought earnestly by every child of God.
We believe this experience does not deliver us from the infirmities, ignorance, and mistakes common to all people, nor from the possibilities of further sin. The Christian must continue on guard against spiritual pride and seek to gain victory over every temptation to sin. He must respond wholly to the will of God so that sin will lose its power over him; and the world, the flesh, and the devil are put under his feet. Thus he rules over these enemies with watchfulness through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Article XIIThe Judgment and the Future State
We believe all people stand under the righteous judgment of Jesus Christ, both now and in the last day. We believe in the resurrection of the dead; the righteous to life eternal and the wicked to endless condemnation.
Article XIIIPublic Worship
We believe divine worship is the duty and privilege of all people who, in the presence of God, bow in adoration, humility and dedication. We believe divine worship is essential to the life of the Church, and that the assembling of the people of God for such worship is necessary to Christian fellowship and spiritual growth.
We believe the order of public worship need not be the same in all places but may be modified by the church according to circumstances and the needs of all people. It should be in a language and form understood by the people, consistent with the Holy Scriptures to the edification of all, and in accordance with the order and Discipline of the Church.
Article XIVThe Lord’s Day
We believe the Lord’s Day is divinely ordained for private and public worship, for rest from unnecessary work, and should be devoted to spiritual improvement, Christian fellowship and service. It is commemorative of our Lord’s resurrection and is an emblem of our eternal rest. It is essential to the permanence and growth of the Christian Church, and important to the welfare of the civil community.
Article XVThe Christian and Property
We believe God is the owner of all things and that the individual holding of property is lawful and is a sacred trust under God. Private property is to be used for the manifestation of Christian love and liberality, and to support the Church’s mission in the world. All forms of property, whether private, corporate or public, are to be held in solemn trust and used responsibly for human good under the sovereignty of God.
Article XVICivil Government
We believe civil government derives its just powers from the sovereign God. As Christians we recognize the governments under whose protection we reside and believe such governments should be based on, and be responsible for, the recognition of human rights under God. We believe war and bloodshed are contrary to the gospel and spirit of Christ. We believe it is the duty of Christian citizens to give moral strength and purpose to their respective governments through sober, righteous and godly living.
Have questions about faith?
Pastor Rushing is always glad to talk, whether you are curious, doubting or ready to take a next step.