Our Beliefs

The essentials of our faith can be summed up in these affirmations, which are shared by all Covenanters:

1. Winnetka Covenant Church embraces the historic faith of the Church as expressed in its creeds and in Holy Scripture. We accept the Scriptures, the Old and New Testament, as the word of God and the final authority for our life. In the Scriptures God’s word is revealed to us. Just as the Holy Spirit was at work in the writing and collecting of the Scriptures, so the Spirit is at work in the Church today as we read, discern and interpret the text together. The Bible is “not a casket for dead dogmas,” David Nyvall, an early Covenanter once said. It is instead the place where we meet the living God. In the Evangelical Covenant Church, we declare the Holy Scriptures to be the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct.

2. We believe in the necessity of the new birth, something Jesus called being “born from above” and what the Apostle Paul called being born all over again. In a word, we are born all over again as we die to what is old and dead and are raised to new life in Christ. The sacrament of baptism is the visible promise and the tangible expression of this new life. In Christ, all things are made new. There are no dead ends, only beginnings without end. By the miracle of God’s grace, we are given our life to live over again as if for the first time. Dag Hammarskjöld once described forgiveness as “the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again…” (Markings, 1968) So it is for those who receive God’s gift with open hands and heart. For some, this experience of new life may come in a dramatic moment, while for others it may be more of a process than a moment.

3. We believe the Church is a fellowship and priesthood of all believers. The Apostle Peter spoke of the people of God as “a royal priesthood” and “living stones.” Winnetka Covenant Church is not a building of dead stone and brick. It is the people who gather to worship, stones of flesh and blood and spirit. No one stands alone in our fellowship of believers. We are a church that works at relationships. Membership in Winnetka Covenant Church is by confession of personal faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. It is open to all.

4. We believe in a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit, who is among us and within us. It is the Spirit who first awakened faith within us. It is the Spirit who makes us one and has blessed us with gifts that are God’s unique imprint on our lives, gifts that build up the Church. It is the Spirit who breaks us open to the word of God and who prays from the depths when we have no words. We believe that the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to all who acknowledge Jesus as Lord. This same Spirit pushes us beyond the walls of the church into the world to be a witness for justice and hope and peace.

5. We believe in the reality of freedom in Christ. Freedom in Christ is a basic principal in the Evangelical Covenant Church. No less so at Winnetka Covenant Church. In Christ, God has set us free not only from sin and death, but from rules and rigid dogmas that would bind us and divide us. In the Covenant Church we are free to agree on the essentials of our faith and disagree on matters of interpretation that are not critical to our salvation. Our freedom, however, is a freedom in obedience. It is a freedom that stands under the authority of the Scriptures and is lived in relationship to others. If we are truly free, we are free not only to do what we want to do – we are also free not to do the same things for the sake of others.