We are believers in Jesus Christ, as the Son of God; one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, triune Godhead. We are people who seek to follow the Lord each day and grow in faith, hope and love and extend that to others in Jesus name. We are God’s people and we are claimed by God through faith in Jesus Christ and therefore have hope and joy; knowing that God is in charge and over and above all things and will one day make all things new! We draw strength from the Lord through prayer, worship, service to others, studying God's word and supporting and encouraging one another.
We belong to a denomination known as the Presbyterian Church (USA) [for more info, click HERE]. One of the foundations of our biblical understanding of the Church of Jesus Christ, is that we are interconnected as one body. Paul tells the Christians in Rome: “For as in one body we
have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who
are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of
another” (Romans 12: 4–5). Paul expands this theme in his letter to the Corinthians: “Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of
many. If the foot would say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the
body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body….” (1 Corinthians
12:14–20). As one body of Christ, we are not a church "all by ourselves" here in Brownstown Indiana, but we are connected to the larger Church so that we can support one another and share in the work of the gospel together!
We have a representative form of government led by men and women called by God to use their gifts to be leaders in Christ's church. Our denomination has regional governing bodies called Synods (our Presbytery belongs to the Synod of Lincoln Trails; click HERE for more information). Beneath the 'Synod' governing body is a smaller more local governing body, called the Presbytery (we belong to the Presbytery of Ohio Valley; click HERE for more information). Individual churches (like Brownstown Presbyterian Church [BPC]) are part of Presbyteries. We believe in representative government and are not run by one person but by groups of ruling elders (made up of equal numbers of women and men of strong faith and feel called by God to serve as leaders). Click HERE for a very brief overview of how Presbyterians lead through biblically based representative government.
From the way we worship, to the design of the worship space, to how the church is governed, we seek to be faithful to Christ and to the scriptures. Presbyterians believe that other expressions of Christianity are part of God's diverse creation. In other words, we do not believe that there is only one way to be the Church of Jesus Christ.
