Westminster Presbyterian Church

Pastor: The Rev. David C. Mauldin 2921 Airport Boulevard 36606 : Phone: (251) 471 5451 Westminster Presbyterian Church

We believe in One True and Living God. Yet this One God is Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God created the world in love and made it good. The evil we see in the world is not God’s design but the result of the Fall (i.e., we humans messed up creation). The world is broken, and so are we humans. [By the way, for our pastor’s best shot at the problem of evil, see the sermon on that topic on the sermons page.]

So why doesn’t God do something about it? He has! Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. He became a human being, announced God’s coming kingdom, then gave his life for our sake on the cross. On the third day, God the Father raised him from the dead in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is alive today, and through the Holy Spirit, he is at work in the world and in us! Through Jesus, God gives us … forgiveness of our sins, freedom from what others have done to us, a new life right now, the promise of eternal life with God, and makes us his partners in healing the world. God has promised all this and more to everyone who belongs to Christ.

Only God can set the world right, and we know that he will keep his promise to do so because we know Jesus is alive. Along the way, God sets us right, too. It is a life-long process. He has given us many wonderful gifts: his Word (the Bible), the church, the sacraments (see below), and above all the empowering presence of his Spirit.

1. Hear the Good News about Jesus.
    God loves you.
    You, however, are not right with God because you have evil in your heart.     Sometimes it comes out in the things you think, do, and say. (Isn’t that
     more polite than calling you a sinner? Don’t take it as an insult—we are
    all sinners.) Jesus died for you, and through him you can be forgiven
    and adopted as God’s own child.Jesus is alive and promises you new
    life.
2. Believe the Good News!
3. Repent of the evil you have done.
4. Accept Jesus as your Savior and acknowledge him as your Lord.
     You can pray this simple prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for what you
     have done for me. I need a Savior, and there is none but you. I am
    sorry for the bad that I have done. I want the forgiveness and new life
    you promise. Come into my life. I give myself to you and look forward
     to the day you will make all things new! Amen.
5. Seek baptism if you are not already baptized.

A Christian lives and grows through regular prayer, Bible study, and worship. Every Christian needs a church. If you live in or around Mobile, Alabama, we can suggest a good one near you!

Presbyterians believe in grace! Nothing you can do makes you worthy of God’s love. God loves you and offers you new life through Jesus for no other reason than God simply wants to! We believe that before we even recognize our need for God, God has reached out to us and called us.

Tragically, one of the main divisions among Christian denominations is their understanding and practice of the sacraments. So it may be helpful to define where we stand. We recognize two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And they are sacraments, which means that through them God does something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. Sacraments are not just something we do. God acts in them!

Baptism is the beginning of the Christian life. Through Baptism God unites a person to Jesus Christ. Think of it this way: You might take a seal and emboss a book to show it is yours, “From the library of [your name here].” God does that to us in baptism. Of course, baptism is not effective apart from faith. That faith, however, may come before or after baptism. That is one reason why we baptize infants. It is a powerful testimony to God’s grace. Every denomination seems to have a hang up about baptism, and ours is, we believe it should only be done once. To do it again would amount to telling God he didn’t get it right the first time! For this reason, we recognize the baptism of every Christian denomination. If you have received Christian baptism, you can become Presbyterian without being re-baptized.

Similarly, we invite all who believe in Jesus Christ and have received baptism to share our celebrations of the Lord’s Supper. It doesn’t matter to us what kind of Christian you are. Children who have been baptized and are being instructed in the meaning of the Lord’s Supper may participate at their parents’ discretion. For more about baptism and the Lord’s Supper, see the sermons on those topics on the sermons page!

The word Presbyterian comes from the Greek word for “elders.” It means our church is governed by a group of elders (known as the session). The congregation elects elders to the session for three-year terms. Our system of government is a representative democracy.

The Presbyterian Church goes back to the Protestant Reformation and has its roots especially in the work of John Calvin. John Knox applied Calvin’s theology of the church to Scotland, and from there it came to America. In fact, the American system of checks and balances is modeled on Presbyterian polity. (We have always thought the best way to keep power from corrupting the church is to spread it around and provide checks and balances.) Many of the Founding Fathers were Presbyterian, including John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who signed the Declaration of Independence.

We still cling to the old Reformation ideals: We are saved by grace alone, through Christ alone. We strive to be “a church reformed, and always being reformed, according to the Word of God.”

PCUSA
What does that mean? A lot, but in practical terms, you’ll notice a couple of things right off:
We ordain women to every office in the church. This goes back to always being reformed according to the Word of God. We find strong evidence in scripture (women leaders of Israel and in the church, Jesus’ practice, Paul’s co-workers, Galatians 3:28, and more) to support this practice.
We’re not overly concerned how you interpret Genesis 1, so long as you know it is true.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States with about 2.3 million members.

Some of you who know about churches and the various denominations might be thinking, “Wait a minute, isn’t that the branch of Presbyterianism that is hopelessly corrupted by cultural accommodation?” We could argue that, but a simpler answer is: Maybe so, but we’re not that way!

In fact, Westminster in Mobile is a member congregation of the Confessing Church Movement.   The Confessing Church Movement

Confessing Churches within the PC(USA) hold fast to these important truths:

1. Jesus Christ alone is Lord of all and the way of salvation.

2. That holy Scripture is the Triune God’s revealed Word, the Church’s only     infallible rule of faith and life.

3. That God’s people are called to holiness in all aspects of life. This     includes honoring the sanctity of marriage between a man and a
    woman, the only relationship within which sexual activity is appropriate.

In worship, we regularly recite the Apostles’ Creed, which contains some of the beliefs important to most Christians:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell.* The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic** church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

* He descended into hell not in order to suffer, but rather … well, Christians have taken this two ways. The ancient church said Christ descended into hell to free the righteous of the Old Testament (kind of a cosmic jail-break). The Reformers thought he suffered hell (a complete separation from God the Father) on the cross.

** catholic (with a small “c”) means “universal”