The Ward Hill Church of Christ the King
A Christ-Centered Community
of Faith, Hope and Love
Our Mission – The Ward Hill Church of Christ the King exists to love God, serve others and proclaim the good news of the Crucified and Risen Lord Jesus Christ.
The Ward Hill Church of Christ the King exists to hear and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, baptize and make disciples, commune in the Lord’s Supper, pray, and love each other and our neighbors. Our hope is to introduce people to the joy of following Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”(Romans 3:23-24, ESV). We believe the Crucrified and Risen Christ is the answer to our own sin and to evil and injustice of this world. To belong to Jesus Christ is to be adopted into a wonderful family (Romans 8:15-17; 2 Corinthians 6:18). Yes, being a disciple of Jesus is challenging. But it is also a life filled with discovering the richness of God’s love for us and the world. Come and experience the love of God in Christ Jesus with our community of faith.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. - 1 John 4:7-11
Our Covenant - I. Having been led by the Holy Spirit to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and to confess him as Lord, and having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we do hereby, in the presence of God and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully covenant with one another, as one body of Christ, to lead a life worthy of the Lord and fully pleasing to Him.
II. We promise that we will watch over and counsel one another in the spirit of brotherly love; that we will remember one another in our prayers and aid each other in sickness and distress; and that we will cooperate in the total mission of winning others to Jesus Christ.
III. We further agree by the aid of the Holy Spirit to strive for the advancement and purity of this church; to support and promote its work, spiritually and materially; to attend its worship services and unite in its ordinances, always giving it a sacred priority over all institutions of human origin.
IV. We will endeavor to live exemplary Christian lives to study and grow in the knowledge and practice of our faith, and to promote the Christian education of our children in the home and in the fellowship of this church. We also agree that when we move from this place, we will as soon as possible unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of the Word of God.Ward Hill Church is an interdenominational Christian community that is biblical, liturgical and evangelical in that we affirm Scriptural authoriy, God-centered worship and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Ward Hill Church of Christ the King is an interdenominational Christian community affiliated with the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference. We are biblical, liturgical and evangelical in that we affirm Scriptural authority, God-centered worship and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What do we mean by Biblical?
By Biblical we mean that the Bible of the Old and New Testaments is our supreme infallible authority for faith and practice. The Bible is God’s written revelation to human beings, and its primary purpose is to bear clear witness to God’s personal revelation in Jesus Christ.
While the Bible is our supreme authority, we also believe that the historic church creeds faithfully express the biblical and apostolic faith. As an orthodox and catholic church, we confess the ancient, ecumenical confessions, such as the Nicene Creed. As a Protestant and Congregational church, the affirm the essence of the major Reformational creeds.
What do we mean by Liturgical?
By Liturgical we mean that our worship services are full of Scripture, hymns and prayers.
Worship is a conversation between us and God. By the Holy Spirit, God speaks to us in Word and Sacrament, and we respond with praise, repentance, thanksgiving, and petitions. We intend for the music in our worship to assist, not overwhelm, this conversation.
Our prayer in every worship service is that the Holy Spirit would help us meet the Risen Lord Jesus Christ. It is through Christ our Mediator that we have an eternal relationship, or covenant, with God.
We aim to follow the Holy Spirit’s guiding and shaping of worship in the Bible and throughout the history of the Church. We use tools such as the Revised Common Lectionary (a schedule of Scripture readings) and the church calendar to keep our worship centered on Jesus.
There may be some elements of our worship service that you are not familiar with. If you have trouble following along, please don’t be concerned. As a neighbor for help, or simply do the best you can. You can still worship God even if you don’t catch on to everything right away.
What do we mean by Evangelical?
By Evangelical we mean that we proclaim the good news of grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ to all who will hear. We believe that the Crucified and Risen Christ is the answer to our own sin and to all this world’s evil and injustice.
Our hope is to introduce people to the joy of following Jesus Christ. The Bible says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; but they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24).
What do we mean by Congregational?
By Congregational we mean that the one and universal Church is found in every gathering of people confessing Jesus as Lord and bound together as a community of faith.
Ward Hill Church identifies itself as part of the catholic, or universal, Church. Therefore, we value our close relationships with churches of various traditions in Haverhill and the Merrimack Valley. As a church in the Congregational tradition, WHC also belongs to the New England Congregational Christian Fellowship (NECF) and the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (CCCC), a fellowship of Congregational Christian and Evangelical Reformed churches committed to the historic Christian faith. The CCCC is a member of the World Evangelical Congregational Fellowship (WECF).
Our Beliefs – We believe the biblical and traditional Christian faith.
We worship God in his Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Son is Jesus Christ, who is both fully God and fully Man. He is our Lord and Savior.
We proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ: that he is the complete revelation of God in human flesh and that he has established his Kingdom among us. Christ offers us forgiveness of sins and everlasting life through his passion and death, resurrection and ascension. This same Jesus Christ is coming again and will judge the living the dead.
We adhere to the authority of the Holy Bible, which bears clear witness to God’s redemption of his people in history and culminates in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Bible is the infallible standard of our faith and practice. We believe that the Holy Spirit’s guidance of the Church is absolutely necessary for a proper interpretation of the Scriptures.
We, as the body of Christ, truly receive Christ through Word and Sacrament.
We, as disciples of Christ, desire a community of faith, hope, love and understanding. We seek to advance God’s kingdom by demonstrating his love, confessing his truth and praying that the world be reconciled to God in peace and justice.
Our Standards for Faith
The Holy Bible - The Old and New Testaments (or Hebrew and Greek Scriptures) are inspired by God and are the supreme infallible authority for our faith and practice. The law, the prophets and the other writings of the Old Testament point the way forward to the person and work of Christ. The gospels, epistles and other writings of the New Testament bear clear witness to Christ’s person and work in his life, death, resurrection, ascension and future return. As a whole, the Bible is unified in its revelation of God’s redemptive work and his will for our lives. The Holy Spirit guides the Church in its understanding of the Scriptures. Although individual Christians may err in their interpretations, we trust the Holy Spirit to guard us as a faithful community from serious misunderstandings.
The Ecumenical Creeds - Christians of the historic, orthodox faith accept the creeds of the ancient Church as biblical and apostolic explanations concerning the nature of the Trinity, the person and work of Jesus Christ, and other other basic affirmations of Christian doctrine. In this tradition, Ward Hill Church affirms the Apostles’ Creed (AD 215 – first form, AD 542 – final form), the Nicene (-Constantinopolitan) Creed (AD 381), and the Definition of Chalcedon (AD 451).
The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism - Ward Hill Church’s understanding of Christian faith and practice is understood within the Reformed and Congregational tradition. Our Congregational heritage is shaped by such confessions as the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1562), the Westminster Confession and Catechisms (1647), the Cambridge Platorm of Church Discipline (1648) and the Savoy Delaration of Faith and Order (1658). These creeds, however, are not tests of faith for our members.
The Statement of Faith of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference – As a member congregation of the CCCC since 1989, Ward Hill Church affirms the CCCC Statement of Faith. The purpose of this faith statement is to affirm particular historic Christian beliefs that have been questioned or doubted in modern times.
