What We Believe

Bethany Christian Reformed Church was established in 1943. Since then, the church has grown and changed in many ways but what has not changed is our desire to see Bellflower, Southeast LA, and the world transformed by the love of Jesus Christ.

As a community committed to connecting people to Jesus, the natural outpouring should be a people joyfully learning, worshiping, and serving Him, while inviting everyone we encounter to do the same. Furthermore, as a community committed to connecting those same people to one another, the natural outpouring should be a people joyfully creating and fostering God-honoring, life-giving, and loving relationships, both in and outside of the church.

We exist to connect people to Jesus and to one another. Plain and simple. We believe that there is no greater experience in all of life than knowing and being known by Jesus, and likewise, knowing and being known by His people, so as a church community, we focus all of our energy and attention toward that end.

There is one eternally existing God who has three distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is the creator of all that exists, both visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy of all glory and praise.  God is perfect in love, power, holiness, goodness, knowledge, wisdom,  justice, and mercy. He is unchangeable and therefore is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

God has revealed himself to us through his son, Jesus Christ, who is the visible image of the invisible God, the holy scriptures, and through all of creation itself.

Humans, both male and female, were created in God's image for His glory. The first humans, Adam and Eve, were created without sin and appointed as caretakers of the rest of God's creations.

When Adam and Eve chose not to obey God, they ceased to be what they were made to be and became distorted images of God. This caused them to fall out of fellowship with God, and fractured all of creation ever since that time.

Jesus Christ came to reconcile us with God. He lived a life without sin and willingly died on the cross to pay the penalty for our transgressions. God raised him from the dead and now, by grace, offers as a free gift eternal life to all who follow Christ, by faith, as their Lord and Savior. That is why salvation can be found in Christ alone.

The Church is meant to be the visible body of Christ, sent into the world to glorify God and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is returning one day to judge both the living and the dead and to usher in the fullness of God's kingdom on earth. 

We at Bethany Christian Reformed Church call ourselves Christian because we confess that we belong to Jesus Christ and want to be his disciples. Furthermore, we call ourselves Reformed because we’re part of this historic branch of Christ’s church. The distinctive teachings of the Reformed community emphasize that our God reigns over everything, yet he calls us into relationship with Him to show the world who He is and what His kingdom is like.  As you can imagine, there are a lot of unique convictions that accompany that, so below you will find a link to the New City Catechism, which while lengthy, best outlines from the Bible a summary of what we believe.

The New City Catechism is based on and adapted from Calvin’s Geneva Catechism, the Westminster Shorter and Larger catechisms, and especially the Heidelberg Catechism. If this seems foreign or strange to you, don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds.
Today many churches and Christian organizations publish “statements of faith” that outline their beliefs. But in the past, it was expected that documents of this nature would be less informative and more developmental. Thus they were written in the form of questions and answers and were called catechisms (from the Greek katechein, which means “to teach orally or to instruct by word of mouth”).

In the case of our catechism, it is separated into three distinct parts so as to give you the clearest understanding of where it's headed:
Part 1: God, creation and fall, law (twenty questions)
Part 2: Christ, redemption, grace (fifteen questions)
Part 3: Spirit, restoration, growing in grace (seventeen questions)
Take a look and let us know if you have any questions along the way.