All kinds of people in all kinds of cultures over thousands of years have come to the humbling conclusion that there really is a God who made us, who loves us, and who we can know right now. But we can't experience God on our own terms just as we can't truly experience another person on our own terms... we don't get to make up the God we want, but we can encounter the God who is. This God, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, is a disturbing God. Encountering this God will not leave you unchanged.

Christianity is about a way of living life in relationship with God. Like any relationship it includes believing and doing. I believe certain things about the people I love. The more accurate my perception of them, the better I am able to know them and love them. But real love is not just belief or empty words - it also involves action - doing real acts of love. So what I believe and what I do really matters. Could it be that just as there are physical principles (like the law of gravity) that govern the physical universe, so too there are basic spiritual principles which were meant to govern my soul? What if there was a path waiting for me, a path not of my own making, but made by the One who made me?!

Here are some stepping stones on the way to growing in a relationship with God. These steps are part of an ancient path - they are the essentials of what Christians have believed, across different centuries, cultures, denominations, and languages. They form Christianity 101. Think of them as a series of doorways to step through. If you can embrace the first principle, then you are ready to step through the door to the next principle.

Clicking on a principle will take you to a fuller explanation of it. See how far you are ready to go!

To download a printable version of the Christianity 101 text click here.

~ God loves me and knows me by name
But if that is true, Why is it that most people are not experiencing this relationship with God?

~I feel cut off from God
But if that is true, How can this gulf be bridged?

~ Jesus came to restore our relationships with God
But if that is true, Then why am I still separated from God?

~We must each individually receive Jesus Christ
But how do I do that?

~ I can have a new relationship with God right now
Now What?

~ I can begin to live like a follower of Jesus

Special thanks to First Presbyterian Church of Ambler, PA for the content of Christianity 101.