In February 2023, Grandview voted to welcome individuals for membership and leadership regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, and to affirm our pastors to officiate marriages in that same spirit (see Grandview's statements below). While Grandview is currently associated with the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada (CBWC), we are in tension between our membership practices and CBWC's recent Identity Statement. If you have any questions about this, feel free to contact our Lead Pastor, Monica McKinlay.
GRANDVIEW'S THREE STATEMENTS
These three Statements are intended to be beacons in the life of Grandview church. They are a reflection of where we have been and guideposts to where we are being called to journey onward in Christ’s light. Together, the Statements of Faith, Welcome and Diversity remind us of who we are, what we believe and how we live together within God’s Story.
Statement of Faith
At Grandview Church, we are formed by God’s Story of love, creation, redemption and renewal as revealed through scripture. We believe in the centrality of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and trust in the work of the Holy Spirit to draw us ever deeper into God’s Story. As such, we are committed to the core values of the Christian faith such as the authority of scripture, the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and the Apostles Creed. Our life as a community of faith is sustained through the sacraments of Baptism and Communion. Sacraments are visible, embodied signs of God’s presence with us in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. At Grandview Church we practice a believer’s Baptism of those who desire to follow Jesus, responding to God’s invitation to repent from sin and turn toward God, receiving the gift of forgiveness and renewal in Jesus Christ. Our worship together is embodied weekly in the sacrament of Communion. At the Communion table there is enough and more than enough; all who desire to be part of the story of Christ and his kingdom are invited to partake of this meal. Through the body and blood of Christ we are forgiven and reconciled to our Creator and empowered to enter into reconciliation with one another.
Statement of Welcome
In the spirit of God’s generous welcome in Jesus Christ, we rejoice when those from any culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity are drawn by the Holy Spirit to God’s table. We welcome into membership those who have been baptized and profess faith in Jesus and we welcome people into leadership based on the recognition of their gifting, calling and orientation toward the Spirit, regardless of sexual orientation or gender. Where members hold a diversity of theological convictions, we seek to engage with one another in love and respect, all the while holding policies and practices of inclusion. We affirm all believers to be equal partners in the gospel of Jesus.
Statement of Diversity
We believe that God’s welcome draws us by invitation and not by coercion, and we seek to hold our beliefs in ways that are rooted in this invitational welcome. We seek to be a community that journeys together deeper into the story of God while maintaining a diversity of understandings about the full meanings and implications of that story. In the Trinitarian faith of the Apostles Creed, we find both the clarity and spaciousness to orient ourselves as a community of diversity within unity.