What is the Wesleyan Church? The Wesleyan Church is an evangelical, Protestant, holiness denomination organized to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. The technical name for our church's theological heritage is Arminian-Wesleyan. This refers to the teachings of James Arminian and John Wesley. Arminius (1560-1609), a Dutch theologian, stressed that God had predestined all who believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life and those who reject Him for eternal seperation from God; that he has given us as human beings true freedom to accept or reject this salvation; that He offers grace to enable all persons to repent and believe; and that believers are secure spiritually in Christ based on continued faith and obedience to God. Wesley was a priest in the Church of England in the 1700's and the founder of the Methodist movement. He added Arminius' insights as emphasis on the assurance of salvation believers can enjoy through the inner "witness of the Spirit." He also taught about the entire sanctification of believers by which their hearts are made perfect in love for God and other persons. Wesleyans are convinced that the Bible is God's written Word and the final authority for all christian beliefs and practices. The Discipline, the book containing the constitution and bylaws of The Wesleyan Church, includes twenty-one "Articles of Religion." The following is a brief summary of those articles and our denominational beliefs: We believe in the one living and true God, both holy and loving, eternal, unlimited in power, wisdom, and goodness, the Creator and Preserver of all things. We believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. We believe in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and is the same essential nature, majesty, and glory as the Father and the Son, truly eternally God. We believe that man's creation in the image of God included the ability to choose between right and wrong. We believe that Christ's offering of himself, once and for all through His sufferings and meritorious death on the cross provides the perfect redemption and atonement for the sins of the whole world, both original and actual. We believe that for man to receive what God's prevenient grace has made possible, he must voluntarily respond in repentance and faith. We believe that when man repents of his sin and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, he in the same moment is justified, regenerated, adopted into the family of God, and assured of his salvation through the witness of the Spirit. We believe that although good works cannot save us from God's judgement, they are the fruit of faith and follow after regeneration. We believe that after we have experienced regeneration, it is possible to fall into sin, for in this life there are no such height or strength of holines from which it is impossible to fall. We believe that sanctification is that work of the Holy Spirit by which the child of God is seperated from sin unto God and is able to love God with all his heart and to walk in all His holy commandments blameless. We believe that the Gift of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit himself, and he is to be desired more than the gifts of the Spirit which He in His wise counsel bestows upon individual members of the Church to enable them properly to fulfill their function as members of the body of Christ. We believe that water baptism and the Lord's Supper are the sacraments of the church commanded by Christ and ordained as a means of grace when received through faith. We believe that the certainty of the personal and imminent return of Christ inspires holy living and zeal for the evangelization of the world. For further information on our Beliefs and Denominational structure see The International Center of the Wesleyan Church, contact Pastor Tim or see the following Wesleyan beliefs.