We Are Followers
​of Jesus Christ

A ‘disciple’ is an apprentice – a student who learns the craft of the teacher. Jesus is our teacher and love is his craft. As disciples of Jesus, we want to learn his craft of self-giving love and live it out in every corner of our lives.

What does that mean

It means we pay attention to Jesus everyday. We ask him to teach us his way of love and show us the ‘the good life.’ Then we listen.

What does that look like

Of course, Jesus is not present with us in bodily form. (Not yet, anyways.) But we still believe he is present with us through his Spirit. (We call this the Holy Spirit.) So we pay attention to him by studying the written word, which is all about him. (We call this the Bible.) We ask him questions by learning how to talk with him—and listen to him—as we would a close friend. (We call this prayer.) And we discover ‘the good life’ by orienting our entire lives around his mission, which we believe is nothing short of the restoration of all things.

We are a ministry of the Reformed Church in America

We believe Christians of all stripes speak the same language of faith: confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior, worshiping the Triune God of grace, and accepting the Bible as our guide for faith and life.  Because of this, our membership consists of those raised Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists, non-denominational, and so on. But to some extent, different traditions speak with different accents. Since Heartland is rooted in the history of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), we have some noticeable accents. Here they are.

1. Sovereignty of God - God Rules, We Submit
“The Lord…is awesome, a great king all over the earth.” Psalm 47:2

2. Primacy of Grace - God Acts, We Respond
“We loved because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

3. High View of Scripture - God Speaks, We Listen
“For the Word of God is living and active…” Hebrews 4:12

4. Disciplined Holiness - God Sanctifies, We Mature
“Remain in me…and you will bear much fruit.” John 15:5

5. Kingdom and Mission - God Establishes, We Witness
“I must proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom.” Luke 4:43

We don’t claim that the Reformed tradition holds a monopoly on all Christian truth. But we really do believe that the Reformed vision of faith is a faithful way to live out the gospel of Jesus. For this reason, we are in unity with the RCA’s confessions of faith, mission and vision. If you’re new to the RCA (which you probably are!), we invite you explore this small but vibrant community of believers.