We want the words “Mom Heart” to mean some very specific things, but we also want them to not mean some other things. Our “Ministry Beliefs Statement” is not a detailed and comprehensive document for a reason: We want to include mothers from as many church and theological traditions as we possibly can. However, that creates doctrinal gaps that others can fill in with their own theological beliefs. If you want to be a Mom Heart group leader, we simply ask that you affirm and embrace the things that make us Mom Heart, as expressed in the Beliefs and Values Statements.What Is Our “Ministry Beliefs Statement”? “If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.” The early church might not have produced such a pithy and clever maxim, but they certainly believed its proverbial truth, as witnessed and preserved in statements of faith such as the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds. Following the Protestant Reformation in 1517, every subsequent expression of the church needed its own statement of faith to differentiate itself from all the other expressions of the church. Today, a typical statement of faith serves two general purposes: (1) to affirm orthodox biblical beliefs, and (2) to express distinctive biblical beliefs. In the denominational era, it’s less about standing for something so you don’t fall into error, and more about, “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard.” Our “Ministry Beliefs Statement” aims at two goals: (1) to align with historic Christian belief, and (2) to express core beliefs that shape the Mom Heart vision and message.MINISTRY BELIEFS STATEMENT What Mom Heart BelievesMom Heart Ministry is a small groups and teaching initiative of Whole Heart Ministries, a nonprofit (501c3) Christian organization. Whole Heart Ministries adheres to the Statement of Faith of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). The “Ministry Beliefs Statement” that follows is a summarized and narrative expression of the core biblical beliefs that define and direct the Mom Heart Ministry initiative. We affirm and embrace the beliefs in this document:Mom Heart Ministry Beliefs StatementWORD: We affirm the entire Bible, both the Old and New Testaments as they have been faithfully transmitted and accurately translated, as God's complete, true, and trustworthy Word—His finished and inspired revelation to all people, our sole authority in matters of spiritual truth concerning God and mankind, and our trustworthy guide in all matters of salvation, life, faith, and godliness.JESUS: We affirm the essential doctrines of God's Word recognized and accepted as the historic and orthodox Christian faith, and the centrality of the person and work of Jesus Christ to that faith—His divine-human nature, virgin birth, sinless life, attesting miracles, atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven, present spiritual kingdom rule and reign, and future return in glory.CROSS: We affirm that Christ died on the cross as a vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice to atone for the sin of all mankind, and that the life in His blood removed our guilt and reconciled us to God by satisfying God’s justice and appeasing His wrath—the mystery of the cross demonstrates the grace that “God so loved the world” and the victory that Christ won over the powers of evil for mankind.GRACE: We affirm for all who come to Jesus in faith that “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” because “grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” to set us free from the demands of the Law and of works so that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”—faith alone is the way to God’s salvation by grace.MARRIAGE: We affirm the biblical design for marriage as one man and one woman, united spiritually and physically for life, becoming as one for the purposes of fulfilling God’s creation mandate to bear children and to subdue and rule over creation, and for presenting to the world a living picture of the relationship of Christ and His church by serving God together with mutual love and respect.FAMILY: We affirm the biblical design for the family, blessed by God “in the beginning,” for passing faith from one generation to the next, for training and instructing children in the Lord who will honor their parents and fear and follow God, for affirming that every child is a blessing and gift of God to be welcomed and desired, and for picturing the nature and character of the invisible God.
CHURCH: We affirm the biblical priority of the church, which is the visible body of Christ in both its local and universal expressions, in defending and extending the faith entrusted to it, and the absolute necessity of the work of God's Holy Spirit, both in the world and in the believer, for enabling individual Christians to live according to that faith and to grow in godly character and obedience.Printable version here.An excerpt from Taking Motherhood to Hearts.