ABOUT US

WELCOME!

Who is SVPC?
A warm and hospitable community of people just like you trying to figure out how to live the full and flourishing life God has created for us. We are an increasingly diverse and inclusive community. You can expect to find people here who are not sure about what they believe to many who have a deep and abiding faith. No matter where you are on your journey, know you are welcome—doubts and all!


What is SVPC all about?
We lead full lives that sometimes get bogged down in distractions and therefore need more meaningful connections in life. We believe those connections begin in the God who loves us in Jesus. At SVPC, we are on a mission to be Rooted in Christ and Reaching Out in Love. This means we center ourselves in God so that we might better serve the world.

What We Believe

The Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church is a Reformed Protestant congregation affiliated with the Presbyterian Church USA, which has more than 2.4 million members, 10,000 congregations, and 14,000 active and ordained ministers.  Worldwide, Reformed churches exist in 100 countries and have more than 75 million members.

 

Presbyterians trace their history to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Today, the Presbyterian Church remains true to its early roots while being relevant to today’s world.

 

Some basic Presbyterian tenets are summed up in the ideas below. As a Reformed congregation, we:

• Affirm the sovereignty of God.

• Believe we are created in God’s image, yet in freedom are prone to sin and rebellion.

• Trust in Jesus Christ as Lord.

• Find identity and nourishment in the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

• Place a high priority on the Holy Bible as God’s word.

• Place a high priority on the life of the mind, stressing both order and ardor.

• Are mission-minded, after the example of Jesus Christ, and feel called to be good stewards of God’s resources.

• Celebrate and affirm community.

• Are ecumenical, reaching out to other Christian faith traditions as a way of better knowing and honoring God.

• Are a connectional church that practices shared leadership.

• Are a church reformed, always reforming.

To read more about the Presbyterian Church USA and its beliefs and understanding, visit:

PC(USA) website

Our Vision

Our vision is to be a growing church that is spiritually alive to God and actively caring for others. This vision sets us on a journey, calling us:


• To worship Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior

• To respond to the needs of people through caring ministries of healing and hope

• To celebrate our diversity of perspective while affirming our unity in Christ

• And, through the Holy Spirit, to grow in our discovery of God and our mission in the world.

Our Statement of Faith

General Assembly approved in 1991

In life and death we belong to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, The love of God, And the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel,whom alone we worship and serve. We trust in Jesus Christ, Fully human, fully God.

Jesus proclaimed the reign of God: preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives, teaching by word and deed and blessing the children, healing the sick and binding up the brokenhearted, eating with outcasts, forgiving sinners, and calling all to repent and believe the gospel. Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition, Jesus was crucified, suffering the depths of human pain and giving his life for the sins of the world. God raised Jesus from the dead, vindicating his sinless life, breaking the power of sin and evil, delivering us from death to life eternal.

We trust in God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father. In sovereign love God created the world good and makes everyone equally in God's image male and female, of every race and people, to live as one community. But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator. Ignoring God's commandments, we violate the image of God in others and ourselves, accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor and nature, and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.

We deserve God's condemnation. Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation. In everlasting love, the God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant people to bless all families of the earth. Hearing their cry, God delivered the children of israel from the house of bondage. Loving us still, God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant. Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child, like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is faithful still.

We trust in God the Holy Spirit, everywhere the giver and renewer of life. The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor, and binds us together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the church. The same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture, engages us through the Word proclaimed, claims us in the waters of baptism, feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation, and calls women and men to all ministries of the church.

In a broken and fearful world the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.

In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit, we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks and to live holy and joyful lives, even as we watch for God's new heaven and new earth, praying, Come, Lord Jesus! With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

ROOTED IN CHRIST, REACHING OUT IN LOVE