As an employee, you will need to know that College Hill Presbyterian Church is a member of A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO). This means it is a member of a network of other churches in the United States who have an integral and essential spiritual and organizational connection. 

Ministers, program staff and all church officers are expected to have an understanding of, and a commitment to abide by, these tenets. Other employees of CHPC are expected to be aware of what the essential tenets are and to be comfortable working in an environment that is shaped and defined by them. 

Our confessional statements are subordinate standards of the church, subject to the authority of Jesus Christ, as the Scriptures bear witness to Him.

1. God’s Word: The Authority for Our Confession - We glorify God by recognizing and receiving His authoritative self-revelation, both in the infallible Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and in the incarnation of God the Son. 
2. Trinity - With Christians everywhere, we worship the only true God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – who is both one essence and three persons.
3. Incarnation - Jesus Christ is both truly God and truly human. The divinity of the Son is in no way impaired, limited or changed by His gracious act of assuming a human nature, and that His true humanity is in no way undermined by His continued divinity. The risen Jesus, who was sent from the Father, has now ascended to the Father in His resurrection body, and remains truly human. We can confess Jesus Christ as Lord and God only through the work of the Holy Spirit. 
4. God’s Grace in Christ  - The present disordered state of the world, in which we and all things are subject to misery and to evil, is not God’s doing, but is rather a result of humanity’s free, sinful rebellion against God’s will. No part of human life is untouched by sin. Our desires are no longer trustworthy guides to goodness, and what seems natural to us no longer corresponds to God’s design. In union with Christ through the power of the Spirit we are brought into right relation with the Father, who receives us as His adopted children. Jesus Christ is the only Way to this adoption, the sole path by which sinners become children of God. 
5. Election for Salvation and Service - Having lost true freedom of will in the fall, we are incapable of turning toward God at our own volition. God chooses us for Himself in grace before the foundation of the world, not because of any merit on our part, but only because of His love and mercy. Through His regenerating and sanctifying work, the Holy Spirit grants us faith and enables holiness, so that we may be witnesses of God’s gracious presence to those who are lost. 
6. Covenant Life in the Church - In Christ, we are adopted into the family of God and find our new identity as brothers and sisters of one another, since we now share one Father. Within the covenant community of the church, God’s grace is extended through the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, and the faithful practice of mutual discipline. 
7. Faithful Stewardship of All of Life - The ministries of the church reflect the three-fold office of Christ as prophet, priest, and king – reflected in the church’s ordered ministries of teaching elders, deacons, and ruling elders. Jesus teaches that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. There is no part of human life that is off limits to the sanctifying claims of God. 
8. Living in Obedience to the Word of God - Progress in holiness is an expected response of gratitude to the grace of God, which is initiated, sustained, and fulfilled by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. As we practice the discipline of regular self-examination and confession, we are especially guided by the Ten Commandments. 

We therefore hold one another accountable to: 

1. Worship God alone, living all of life to His glory, renouncing all idolatry and all inordinate loves that might lead us to trust in any other help 
2. Worship God in humility, being reticent in either describing or picturing God, recognizing that right worship is best supported not by our own innovative practices, but through the living preaching of the Word and the faithful administration of the Sacraments 
3. Eliminate from both speech and thought any blasphemy, irreverence, or impurity 
4. Observe the Sabbath as a day of worship and rest, being faithful in gathering with the people of God 
5. Give honor toward those placed in authority over us and practice mutual submission within the community of the church 
6. Eradicate a spirit of anger, resentment, callousness, violence, or bitterness, and instead cultivate a spirit of gentleness, kindness, peace, and love; recognize and honor the image of God in every human being from conception to natural death. 
7. Maintain chastity in thought and deed, being faithful within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman as established by God at the creation or embracing a celibate life as established by Jesus in the new covenant. 
8. Practice right stewardship of the goods we have been given, showing charity to those in need and offering generous support of the Church and its ministries 
9. Pursue truth, even when such pursuit is costly, and defend truth when it is challenged, recognizing that truth is in order to goodness and that its preservation matters. 
10. Resist the pull of envy, greed, and acquisition, and instead cultivate a spirit of contentment with the gifts God has given us. 

In Jesus Christ we see the perfect expression of God’s holy will for human beings offered to God in our place. His holy life must now become our holy life. In Christ, God’s will is now written on our hearts, and we look forward to the day when we will be so confirmed in holiness that we will no longer be able to sin. As the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, Jesus leads us along the path of life toward that goal, bringing us into ever deeper intimacy with the Triune God, in whose presence is fullness of joy.