About us

The following are the core beliefs of First Presbyterian Church - OH based on the Essential Tenets of our denomination: ECO. All of our teaching and ministry is rooted in and flows out of these biblical doctrines.

We glorify God by recognizing and receiving His authoritative self-revelation, both in the infallible Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and also in the incarnation of God the Son.

With Christians everywhere, we worship the only true God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - who is both one essence and three persons.

Jesus Christ is both truly God and truly human. The divinity of the Son is in no way impaired, limited, or changed by His gracious act of assuming a human nature, and that His true humanity is in no way undermined by His continued divinity. Jesus, who was sent from the Father, has now ascended to the Father in His resurrected body and remains truly human. We are able to confess Jesus as Lord and God only through the work of the Holy Spirit.

The present disordered state of the world, in which we and all things are subject to misery and evil, is not God's doing, but is rather a result of humanity's free, sinful rebellion against God's will. No part of human life is untouched by sin. Our desires are no longer trustworthy guides to goodness, and what seems natural to us no longer corresponds to God's design. In union with Christ through the power of the Spirit we are brought into right relation with the Father, who receives us as His adopted children. Jesus Christ is the only Way to this adoption, the sole path by which sinners become children of God.

Having lost true freedom of will in the fall, we are incapable of turning toward God of our own volition. God chooses us for Himself in grace before the foundation of the world, not because of any merit on our part, but only because of His love and mercy. Through His regenerating and sanctifying work, the Holy Spirit grants us faith and enables holiness, so that we may be witnesses of God's gracious presence to those who are lost.

In Christ, we are adopted into the family of God and find our new identity as brothers and sisters of one another, since we now share one Father. Within the covenant community of the church, God's grace is extended through the preaching of the Word, the administration of the Sacraments, and the faithful practice of mutual discipline.

The ministries of the church reflect the three-fold office of Christ as prophet, priest, and king - reflected in the church's ordained ministries of teaching elders, ruling elders, and deacons. Jesus teaches us that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. There is no part of the human life that is off limits to the sanctifying claims of God.

Progress in holiness is an expected response of gratitude to the grace of God, which is initiated, sustained, and fulfilled by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. As we practice the discipline of regular self-examination and confession, we are especially guided by the Ten Commandments.