Beliefs
We are Reformed.
WHAT DOES ‘REFORMED’ MEAN?
By "Reformed" we mean that we embrace the fundamental teachings of the Protestant Reformation: Christ alone, faith alone, and Scripture alone. This means we believe that salvation can only be found in Christ, can only be received by faith, and is only revealed in the Bible. We joyfully believe and confidently embrace biblical and historic Christianity communicated in the Old and New Testaments.
We value our roots. We think churches should honor and learn from the best of their history, while always seeking reform. The word "Reformed" may be new to you, or it may not be, either way we're a family made up of many backgrounds and traditions that call El Camino home.
OUR DENOMINATION
We are Presbyterian. We believe God appoints elders to shepherd the Church. El Camino is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), to which we hold ourselves accountable. Within the PCA denomination, we belong to the South Coast Presbytery.
Our denomination confesses the particular expression of Christian doctrine found in the Westminster Confession of Faith.
You don't have to be Reformed or a Presbyterian to join us at El Camino. We celebrate the many diverse and faithful denominations within Christ's body.
We are Orthodox.
“the faith once for all delivered to the saints”
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY ‘ORTHODOX’?
We hold to the historic Christian faith. By ‘orthodox’ we mean that we affirm the essential beliefs of Christianity that have survived for two thousand years and have remained common across denominational boundaries. This is an important value because the Scriptures call for unity among believers, which means we need to appreciate traditions outside our own and establish boundaries for what constitutes the Church.
Together with our sister Christian churches around the world and throughout history, we confess the Apostles’ Creed as a concise expression of the core beliefs that unite the true Church of every time and place. Given the call for unity in the Scriptures, we want to major in the majors and minor in the minors. We consider the Apostle’s Creed to contain “the majors”, or the "basics", of the faith that unite the one Church of God throughout history.
The Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord:
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
he descended into hell.
the third day He arose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting
We are Doxological.
We exist for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor.
WE EXIST TO PROCLAIM AND ENJOY THE EXCELLENCIES OF CHRIST
We are a vertically-directed church. Doxology is all about glorying and savoring in all that the Triune God is and has done in creation and redemption.
We believe that the church’s primary work is the worship of the Holy Trinity in Word and Sacrament. We’ve been set free by Jesus to serve the Living God as a royal priesthood. In our worship, God calls, cleanses, consecrates, communes with, and commissions us to give foretastes and pointers to the life everlasting.
The drama of worship transforms us and doxology propels us as disciples to bring Jesus and blessing to the world.