What We Believe As Congregational Christians

"You can be a Christian without being a member of a Congregational Church,  but you cannot be a member of a Congregational Church without being a Christian. When you join the Church as a member you have to profess a faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour."

What makes you a Christian?

Literally a Christian is a follower of Jesus!  That means;-
All the time in our Christian life we must consider Jesus - who He is and His place in our life
He is not just an interest, but a way of life.
Not someone just for Sundays
or just while we are at Church
but every day. Jesus needs to be our No.1.

Jesus’ death

• Removed the barrier of sin between God and man.
• Put us right with Him.
• Saved us from His anger.
• Made us His friends.
• Jesus rose again, death was defeated!

Why did Jesus have to die?
He had to die because all people have sinned. We see this in Romans Ch3 v23-24 
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."
And in Romans Ch 6 v23  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The wage or the cost is high, the result is death. Jesus paid this price or we would have to.

What is sin?   It is disobedience to God.
Read Genesis Ch 2 v16-17 " And the Lord God commanded the man, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
for when you eat of it you will surely die."

What is the Church?
The New Testament Greek word 'ekklesia' is translated as church but it means a 'called out' group. When applied to Christians it is those who have been 'called out' to be like Jesus Christ.
It is applied to people and never a building.
There isalso the New Testament concept of the Church - as seen in Ephesians 1 v 22.  Both the local and the universal church have people in mind.