The Church of the Brethren:

1. Is founded upon the faith that there is but one God who is a personal God who in holy love creates, sustains and orders all.

2. Confesses Jesus Christ as the Lord of the church and of all life.

3. Believes that the Holy Spirit is at work in the hearts and minds of believers, creating and sustaining the church though the gospel, giving guidance and comfort, and uniting believers with their Lord and with one another.

4. Maintains the New Testament as its only creed and rule of faith. In the Holy Scriptures is recorded God's search for all persons which is climaxed in God's redemptive act in and through Christ. Through the Bible God still speaks and continues to accomplish God's redemptive purpose.

5. Believes that the gospel is the good news that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Through the gospel God's sovereign will and Christ's redeeming grace are revealed.

6. Holds that the church is the body of Christ and is under the Lord's mandate to be faithful in accepting and transmitting the gospel by word and deed.

7. Considers that all members of the congregation, of the body of believers, are responsible for the total ministry of the church.

8. Accepts the ministry of the church to be the proclamation and fulfillment of the gospel for all people both near and far, and the nurture of individual believers in the Christian faith and life.

*-Church of the Brethren

Manual of Organization and Polity, 1979, pp. D-1, D-2