God is, has been, and always will be. The primary attribute of God rests, resides, and flows through love.
What I Believe
Love is the power of God.
At the center of my theology is amipotence: the conviction that love defines the nature and exercise of God’s power.
Amipotent love
God’s power is not control.
Amipotence is a term coined by theologian Thomas Jay Oord to describe the power of God’s uncontrolling love. God’s love does not coerce, manipulate, or demand conformity. It invites, draws, awakens, reconciles, and creates.
Doctrine can help us speak about God. Scripture can guide us toward God. Education can deepen our understanding. But none of them can contain God or replace an authentic encounter with divine love.
Who am I to place limits on the reach of God’s love or insist that God must work only through the categories I understand?
Jesus is the Word made flesh, revealing the character of God and opening direct access to divine love.
The Spirit resides within and beyond us, empowering conscious choices to embody God’s goodness.
Human beings bear the image of God, possess genuine freedom, and participate as creators in the world.
Salvation is for all humanity. Grace is not earned; awakening allows us to recognize the love already given.
Scripture carries divine authority and points to Christ, while the living Spirit continues to illuminate and guide.
Why Congregationalism
Covenant rather than imposed conformity.
The Congregational Way trusts the direct headship of Christ in the local church, the priesthood of all believers, local autonomy, and communal discernment.
Covenant is not a doctrinal checklist. It is a living, voluntary commitment to God and one another—a statement about how a community intends to be together, even when individual understandings differ.
My home association is the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches (NACCC), a voluntary fellowship of autonomous churches. It is distinct from the UCC and the CCCC.
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