OUR PASTOR'S FAITH STATEMENT:
The Truth of God, our creator and lover
I trust in God the creator of all that exists, that God declared all of creation good, that God forgives, and that God saves. Because it is God who saves, we do not need the law for our salvation...read more below

OUR PASTOR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY:
I grew up in the Episcopalian tradition in Donelson, was introduced to Reformed theology in the Dutch Reformed Church in NYC in 1980, and have been a Presbyterian (PCUSA) since 1982. I have been an elder since 1986, and have served on three sessions.... read more next page

FAITH STATEMENT, THE REVEREND MICHAEL J. MAGEE, MD -

The Truth of God, our Creator Who Loves Us.
I trust in God the creator of all that exists, that God declared all of creation good, that God forgives, and that God saves. Because it is God who saves, we do not need the law for our salvation. In the mission field of Guatemala, and in our own backyard, we do not focus on making people believe, as if belief is the new law. We do not save souls: it is God who saves. Instead of focusing on saving souls, we focus on embodying Christ’s ministries toward others. No matter how we answer God’s call to ministry and mission, God forgives, and we all have a place at God’s table.

I believe that before we were conceived, God our creator loved us. God would have loved us no matter what country or the faith tradition of our families’ heritage. "Is God the God of the Jews only? Is God not also the God of the gentiles? Yes, of the gentiles also” (Ro 3:29). Since the world from Paul’s point of view is composed only of Jews and gentiles, I believe he writes of God’s radically inclusive sovereignty. "God desires all to be saved” (1 Ti 2:4). This scripture confirms God’s radically inclusive love. God’s sovereignty is sovereign love. The authority and truth of scripture is this: "God is love.”

The Way of God in Jesus, Who Reconciles Us Into Wholeness.
I trust in Jesus, God wrapped in human flesh, who reconciles us to each other and to himself. I believe God has always loved us, but we ignore and reject God’s love. We are born within our culturally and biologically erected walls of judgmentalism, competition, self-promotion, survival of the fittest, and violence. We are born within separating walls of dualism. Our own inability to break down the walls which divide us is the result of our idolatrous confidence in humankind and its princes, rather than trust in God (Ps 118:8-9). Many times we are as blind to these walls which divide us as fish are to the water in which they swim. But whether we see the walls which divide us or not, living within these walls keeps us from the wholeness we could experience living in full community with God and with each other. We need a savior.

So God reconciles us to himself and to each other, by God's action in the world. God himself comes to us, wrapped in human flesh, God in Jesus. And Jesus’ "foolish” way of redeeming humanity is wiser than the false but more apparent way of our culture, and the false but more apparent biological emotion of fight or flight. God reconciles us to each other, and to himself, by wrapping himself in human flesh in a way we dimly understand, and by Jesus' teachings, ministries, and painful sacrifice under the Roman and religious authorities of his day, and his resurrection by God. Jesus bridges the gap between humanity and God, breaking down our culturally and biologically erected walls, by showing us a new reality, which releases us into once again experiencing God’s love. A love which the parable of the Prodigal Son tells us has always been and still is available for our claiming.

I believe God chooses all of humanity for wholeness – what the Hebrew Bible calls shalom – what the Gospels (Greek for "Good News") calls peace. We all have an unearned place at God’s table. God foreknows all, justifies all, and calls all (Ro 8:29-30). But I believe not all respond to God’s call. I believe our God-given free will can interfere with God’s plan. Otherwise it would not be free will. Despite our irrevocable place at God’s table, I believe the full flowering of God’s plan for our wholeness requires a response from us as free moral agents. By responding to God’s call, we water the seed of wholeness God implanted within each of us. I believe that though all are chosen and called, the flower of wholeness does not come into full bloom until we embody the way of Christ’s ministries and the Great Ends of the Church. All are entitled to sit at God’s table, but the meal is more satisfying when we answer the call to embody and continue Christ’s ministries. And I believe regardless how we respond to God’s call to service, Christ’s judgment is always mercy.

The Life of God’s Holy Spirit, Who Comforts and Inspires Us.
I trust in God’s Holy Spirit, who sighs with us in prayer too deep for words (Ro 8:26), and encourages the flourishing of all of creation into the life abundant. It is God's Spirit who comforts us in anxiety, loneliness, and despair, and encourages us in times of discernment and sin. I believe that as the Word is proclaimed and heard, and as the Sacraments are administered, we receive and understand Jesus with all our senses, and God’s Spirit transforms the assembled into the body of Christ.