We are a church of many experiences and beliefs. We share life, ask questions, and seek deeper faith day by day.

Ancient Christians were described as followers of the Way.* We are pilgrims on the Way, traveling together, seeking to follow Jesus. As we follow, we move through stages and phases of belief.

At the center is Jesus who uniquely reveals the presence of God and in doing so saves our lives. Underneath it all is the great Love we call God. God is creator and source of all life. And through it all the Spirit surrounds us and breathes within each of us and all of us. Trusting in this understanding of God, guided by scripture, we believe that goodness is planted in each and every person deeper than anything else. Our source is love and our end is love.

Beyond this core, we are a community of many understandings. There is no doctrinal litmus test to be part of BPC. We are formed by the two-fold commandment to love God with body, heart, soul and mind, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

How We Interpret Scripture

We take the Bible seriously, not literally. We believe that the Spirit is alive and still speaking through the ancient words of our ancestors in the faith. We believe the Spirit “blows where it wills” and is impossible to pin down. The authority of the Bible is not dependent on it being free from “errors” or true in some literal sense. Rather, the authority of the Bible comes from a community reading it together, listening for how it speaks today.

These are some of our principles for how we read this ancient text:

  1. We keep Jesus at the center. When interpreting Scripture, keeping Christ in the center aids in evaluating the significance of the problems and controversies that always persist in the vigorous, historical life of the church.

  2. We rely upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit in interpreting and applying God's message.

  3. We seek to be guided by the historical creeds, confessions, and catechisms of the church that reflect the Spirit’s presence throughout different times and circumstances.

  4. We seek to have all interpretations be in accord with the rule of love: the two-fold commandment to love God and to love our neighbor.

  5. We focus on the plain text, in its grammatical and historical context.

  6. We are humble, remembering that all interpretation requires earnest study.

  7. We try not to pull passages out of context and instead to interpret a particular passage in light of the whole Bible.

About the Presbyterian Church (USA)

BPC is part of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Presbyterians have historically focused on grace above all and place high value on thoughtful engagement with questions of faith.

The PC(USA) does not have a single statement of belief. How could any one statement capture all there is to say about God? Instead, we are shaped by multiple confessions that have been formulated throughout the history of the church reflecting different circumstances and concerns.

The PC(USA) is committed to engaging situations of injustice in our world and seeking thoughtful solutions to the challenges of our time.