Statement of Purpose
Ransom Fellowship exists to find creative ways to stimulate the people of God to deepen their discipleship by developing the art and skill of discernment. We believe that God’s calling requires us to live intentionally, so it is insufficient to simply react to the myriad choices that present themselves to us in our increasingly pluralistic world.
We wish to commend the gospel of Christ and the biblical story of scripture as essential to flourishing as human persons in a broken world. In Christ, and because of his life, death, and resurrection we can participate in and love reality more deeply because under his Lordship we can have our minds, hearts and imaginations renewed by his glory.
In learning to be faithful in the ordinary things and moments of daily life, it turns out that some of the simplest things are radically countercultural in our world: providing safe places for unhurried conversation; offering hospitality and welcome; asking questions and listening to people’s stories, dreams and fears; and finding ways to live in dependence on the Spirit of God and his grace. Because Jesus is Lord of all, we can allow conversations to take their course, trusting the Spirit and convinced that biblical faith speaks intelligently and creatively to every aspect of life and reality.
Statement of Faith
We believe in the one true infinite personal creator God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Triune God created humankind in his own image—with true knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and dominion over creation—as a moral, rational and significant being, and has called them to manifest and reflect holiness through obedience to his commandments, which are an expression of his holy character.
We believe in the historic Fall into sin, whereby humankind entered into a state of moral corruption and alienation from their Creator, and thus brought all of humanity under God’s just condemnation.
We believe that because of his profound love for his creation, God initiated a plan of redemption which he has accomplished on behalf of his people in space and time through the finished work of Jesus Christ. We confess Jesus to be the Christ of the Old Testament, being at the same time fully God and fully man, preexistent, born of a virgin, and without sin. Jesus Christ, through his historic death for our sins as a voluntary substitutionary sacrifice, and his bodily resurrection, has provided the sole basis for our justification, which is received as a free gift of God’s grace by faith alone.
We believe in the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit, whom the risen and ascended Christ has sent to dwell in the hearts of believers, effecting their regeneration, preserving them unto eternal life, and operating in their sanctification. The same Spirit has been given to the people of God to empower them for the service of bearing witness to the Kingdom of God. We confess Jesus Christ to be Lord of Lords and that there is therefore not one square inch of created reality over which He does not claim absolute Kingship.
We believe the Holy Spirit brings his people together to form a corporate community of believers, Christ having established a visible church which is called to live under the power of the Spirit, embrace biblical truth and doctrine, worship the true God, exercise discipline, administer the sacraments, adorn its profession with holiness and love, and proclaim the gospel of Christ. We receive the Bible in its entirety, and the Bible alone, as divine revelation, the inspired and inerrant word of God in written form. We submit to the authority of holy scripture, acknowledging that it carries the full weight of our Lord’s authority. We are committed to fleshing out Christ’s Lordship across all of life, seeking to implement the cultural and social implications of the truth of God’s word.
We believe our faith should be visible in concrete forms of personal and social behavior that brings glory to his Name. We seek to be faithful disciples of Christ, enduring in love and obedience until he comes again in glory to consummate his kingdom, at which time the unredeemed will be resurrected unto judgment and everlasting punishment, and the redeemed will be resurrected unto enjoyment of God forever in his presence.
