Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, which is his body (see G-1.0100).
The Church is called the body of Christ because the faithful are living members of
Christ under Christ the Head (see the Second Helvetic Confession, XVII).
Christ calls the Church into being, giving it all that is necessary for its mission to the
world, for its building up and for its service to God (G-1.0100).
Christ is present with the Church in both Spirit and Word (G-1.0100).
It belongs to Christ alone to rule, to teach, to call, and to use the Church as he wills,
exercising his authority by the ministry of women and men for the establishment and
extension of his Kingdom (G-1.0100).
Christ gives to his Church its faith and life, its unity and mission, its officers and
ordinances. Insofar as Christ's will for the Church is set forth in Scripture, it is to be
obeyed (G-1.0100).
There is one Church. As the Bible speaks of one body which is the Church living
under the one Spirit of God known through Christ, it reminds us that we have "one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all" (see G-4.0202).
The Church universal consists of all persons in every nation, together with their
children, who profess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and commit themselves to
live in a fellowship under his rule (G-4.0101).
The one universal church comes to expression in every local community where
individuals together profess their faith in God and in which they are reconciled to God
and to one another, where through Christ they worship and obey him together, and
where through the Holy Spirit they serve him in the church and in the world.
Particular churches are local expressions of the universal Church (see G-4.0102).
A particular church consists of those persons in a particular place, along with their
children, who profess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and who have been
gathered for the service of God as set forth in Scripture, subject to a particular
government (G-4.0103).
The church is a community of persons gathered and redeemed by the triune God to
worship and serve him by faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior through the power
and fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
The church is a company of pardoned sinners, which testifies in the midst of a sinful
world, with its faith as with its obedience, that it is solely the property of Jesus Christ,
that it lives solely from his comfort and power and by his directions in the expectation of
his appearance (see the Theological Declaration of Barmen, II.2).
The church is one, living in communion with God and with the people of God
throughout human history, both the living and the dead who, nonetheless, live with and
for God.
The church is a people called by God, who, in continuity with ancient Israel, seek
the fulfillment of God's covenant promises in Jesus Christ for themselves and their
children.
The church has been equipped by Christ with his Word and Spirit, with persons
called and qualified for ministry, and with gifts and graces distributed to all for the
worship of God, for the building up of the body, and for mission in the world.
The Church is called to tell the good news of salvation by the grace of God through
faith in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Lord; to present the claims of Jesus Christ,
leading persons to repentance, acceptance of him as Savior and Lord, and new life as
his disciples; to be Christ's faithful evangelist; and to undertake mission, sharing the
gospel, and doing those deeds in the world that point beyond themselves to the new
reality in Christ (see G-3.0300 & 3.0400).
The great ends of the church are the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of
humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the
maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of the truth; the promotion of social
righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world (G-1.200).
The church in human history is a mixed and fallible company whose faith and life
are founded upon and reformed by the Word of God, confirmed and nourished by
worship and the sacraments, and corrected by discipline.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) states its faith and bears witness to God's grace
in Jesus Christ in the creeds and confessions in the Book of Confessions. In its
confessions, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gives witness to the Church catholic,
identifies with the affirmations of the Protestant Reformation, and expresses the faith of
the Reformed tradition (see G-2.0000).
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) reaffirms, within the context of its commitment to
the Church universal, a special commitment to basic principles of Presbyterian polity
(G-4.0301).
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is governed by presbyters (elders and ministers
of the Word and Sacrament), who are ordained only by the authority of a governing
body, who come together and make decisions in governing bodies in regular gradation,
and who seek together to find and represent the will of Christ (G-4.0301).
The government of the church is representative, and it is the right of the people of
God to elect the officers whom they recognize to be called and qualified by God and by
whom they will be served and governed (see G-6.0107).
The Presbyterian system of government calls for continuity with and faithfulness to
the heritage which lies behind the contemporary Church. It calls equally for openness
and faithfulness to the renewing activity of the God of history (G-4.0303).
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), affirming its historical continuity with the whole
Church of Jesus Christ, is willing to seek and maintain communion and community with
all other branches of the one, catholic Church (G-4.0203).
