Our Mission
We at St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church are called by God’s grace to be a community of faith in Jesus Christ, supporting one another in love, and trusting in the transformative power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to bring hope and healing to a broken world.
Our Vision
Worship is central to our life as a Christian community, sustaining us, shaping us, and sending us out into the world. As we continue to grow in membership and giving, we will nurture a greater sense of inclusiveness and belonging within the congregation. We will actively encourage increased involvement in the ministries of the church. We will broaden and strengthen our lay leadership. We will be intentional in our spiritual formation, relying on the power of prayer to direct us. We will be a mission church, reaching out, in the name of Jesus Christ, to both the local and the global community.
What We Believe
Our identity is shaped by our faith in the Triune God, our reliance on Holy Scripture, our Reformed and Presbyterian heritage and our place in New Orleans. Our faith in Jesus Christ and reliance on Scripture is the foundation for the following beliefs:
• We believe worship is the central act of the people of God. Worship is highly participatory and is the hub from which prayer, study, service, stewardship, care for one another, fellowship, evangelism, and servant leadership emerge.
• We continually seek the will of God, believing that God is always offering people creative ways to serve in the church and in the world. We believe we must take risks as we respond to God’s challenges.
• Following the guidance of the Westminster Confession, we affirm that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience. We acknowledge that the Bible is a record of God’s continuing loving relationship with humanity, as well as a rich source of guidance for our lives.
• We believe that prayer is a dialogue with God that provides nourishment and strength for living. As we respond to God’s activity in the world and in our lives, we bring to God our deepest concerns and submit them to God’s sovereign will.
• We believe in a strong Christian Education program that will provide every child, youth and adult with a foundation in the basic doctrines of the Christian faith, by which they can apply the teachings of the Bible to the practical situations of their lives, growing towards Christian maturity.
• We believe that every Christian is called to worship God regularly, to discover God’s love and God’s will and to demonstrate God’s love to others.
Presbyterians are distinctive in two major ways: they adhere to a pattern of religious thought known as Reformed theology and a form of government that stresses the active, representational leadership of both ministers and church members. Presbyterians trace their history to the 16th century and the Protestant Reformation. Our heritage, and much of what we believe, began with the French lawyer John Calvin (1509-1564), whose writings crystallized much of the Reformed thinking that came before him. Some of the principles articulated by John Calvin remain at the core of Presbyterian beliefs. Among these beliefs are:
• The sovereignty of God
• The authority of scripture
• Justification by grace through faith
• The priesthood of all believers
Our knowledge of God and God’s purpose for humanity comes from the Bible, particularly what is revealed in the New Testament through the life of Jesus Christ. Click here to learn more about the theology of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
