The First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Ottawa Kansas is a part of a denomination called the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the USA and Canada. Our denomination is a movement to bring wholeness in a fragmented world. As part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table as God welcomed us. Our denominational Mission is to be and share the Good News of Jesus Christ; witnessing, loving and serving from our doorsteps “to the ends of the earth”, Acts 1:8. We were the first and only denomination founded in America.
The Christian Church means that members have a common bond with the church universal.
Being a Disciples of Christ identifies members as a distinctive body within the church universal and that we are always learning, as Jesus Christ’s disciples, His work and will for our lives.
As a denomination we stand for:
To become a member of our church is to believe that Jesus Christ is the son of the living God and take him as our Lord and Savior. To transfer in you are invited to rededicate your faith at that time.
Freedom and diversity
Christian faith is a personal relationship with Christ whose life and ministry reveals God’s will for us.
Christian Unity is important. Being unified in Christ’s love, no doctrine or human differences should be allowed to divide believers from each other. We do not believe in creeds as a test of faith.
The Bible is central to growing our faith and our guide for Christian living. Each person is free to explore and interpret the Scriptures according to his or her own experience, and is encouraged to do so with the nurture of the Holy Spirit and faith community.
God is revealed in the Bible and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God; part of God’s divinity, yet fully human; our Savior, with us always.
The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to help us to learn what God wants us to learn and know from the Bible, reminds us how to live our faith in our daily lives and helps to give us those moments with God that can bring healing and presence to our lives.
Lord’s Supper/Communion is open to everybody who takes Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and is one of our two ordinances. It is offered every Sunday.
Baptism is our second ordinance. Baptism is for mature individuals by immersion, public confession and symbolic of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection and of faith in eternal life to come. We dedicate babies not baptize them.
Our symbol is the deep red chalice with the St. Andrews Cross. The chalice symbolizes how central the Lord’s Supper is to the life of our denomination and the St. Andrew’s cross symbolizes our founding father’s connection to Scotland and coming out of the Presbyterian Church. It is deep red to signify vitality, spirit and sacrifice.
Statements of the church:
“In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, love.”
“No creed but Christ”
