Click the image  to watch a video of Rev. Nathan Malone discussing Wesleyan Theology and what the Methodist Church believes.

• We see Christ Church reaching out in Christian love to invite, welcome, include, and engage all who seek a new or deeper relationship with Jesus Christ; and this passion drives all our decisions, our ministries, and our actions.
• Each of us, from new believer to mature Christian, is on a spiritual journey; and Christ Church will provide the guidance, knowledge, support, and accountability required for each of us to grow and mature in our faith. 
• This growth equips persons for ministry, and our vision is that all persons who are part of Christ Church will share their faith, utilize their God-given gifts, and serve others in life-changing ways our community, our region, and the world.
• We see our church growing to become as diverse in every way as the people who live in the communities around us 
• We will remember that the fruit we bear, our growth, and our ministries are all the result of God’s work and wisdom and not our own.  

• Worship is the most important thing we do. It is the foundation on which everything else we do rests. We value worship that is engaging, relevant to real life, and centered upon God.
• We love and care for one another, but reaching out to invite, welcome, and incorporate new persons into the church is equally important to us.
• Children and youth are a vital part of the church, and we place high priority on our ministries for them.
• We believe that life is better lived when we are connected to others, and our small groups provide the best opportunities for study, care, community, and service.
• We have become a large church because God has blessed us with dramatic growth, but we love it when new persons tell us we feel like a small church.
• While we take our ministries to serve God and our neighbors very seriously, we do not take ourselves so seriously; so we are playful and have lots of fun as a church.

We are a United Methodist church and are therefore part of the second largest Protestant denomination in the United States.  United Methodists share many basic beliefs with other Christians.  These include our belief in the Bible as God’s inspired Scripture, our belief in God our Creator as existing in three parts or persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – known as the Trinity.  We believe that humanity depends entirely upon God for our salvation, which is given to us freely by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  In one of the distinctions from some other Christian denominations, we believe that God has given us free will by which we can choose to accept or reject God’s gift of salvation through Christ, which is available to each and all persons.  

From its roots as a movement in the Church of England, the United Methodist Church has placed particular emphasis upon grace – the unearned, undeserved love of God for humans.  We see God’s grace as given to us in three distinct ways:

1. Prevenient (“going before”) – grace that reaches out to us even before we are aware of our own sinfulness and our great need for God’s love.

2. Justifying – grace that pardons us of our sins, saves us, and treats us as if we had never sinned.

3. Sanctifying – grace that helps us as believers to grow more like Christ and mature in our spiritual journey for the rest of our lives.  

Read more: Our Beliefs

Christ Church formed in 1984 as a merger of two United Methodist churches with the vision and passion to reach new persons for Jesus Christ. The newly merged church sold the two separate properties and bought the 32-acre Wilson dairy farm at the corner of East Brainerd Road and Morris Hill Drive, right in the center of booming residential growth. The first building was a multipurpose facility with a gym for worship, fellowship, and meals. The church has grown from less than 400 members at its beginning to 5,000 members! And between thirty and forty percent of the persons joining the church each year come on professions of faith – new disciples of Jesus Christ! Christ Church’s desire to reach new persons who are not part of any church, has driven its architecture, its styles of worship, its staffing, and its ministries. Contemporary worship is common now, but we raised eyebrows when we added a contemporary service in the 1990’s! Now we have four worship services, each of which has a unique worship style and music. We completed our sanctuary in 1999 and our new Commons in 2011. In 2011 we began a major focus on missions and increased our service to others locally, nationally, and internationally. This included both serving hands-on and providing financial resources. Examples of this are building an orphanage in South Sudan, sending out hurricane and tornado recovery teams, and providing homework help and support to financially needy families in our community. Christ Church’s story is a brief but powerful one, and the best is yet to be!  If you are interested in reading more of the Christ Church story, you can purchase our printed history booklet for a nominal cost in the church office or at the information desks.