We believe in Jesus
We know He’s part of the Trinity and all the other important stuff we also believe, but if we’re honest, we’re partial to Jesus. Don’t get us wrong. God is like a father - no, God IS the Father - and the buck stops with Him. (If you are going to have the buck stop somewhere, it might as well stop with Someone who is...well...all about love with a capital L. Of course, He is also about justice with a capital J, but we’ll take our chances that, in the end, justice will feel like love.) And then there is the Holy Spirit - mysterious, windy, seems to like fire a lot, whispering, and always pointing to...you guessed it...Jesus. We not only like Jesus a lot, He likes us a lot. Enough to die for us! We know that when life gets tough (and it always does) He’ll be there for us.
 
We believe in the Church
We know – it’s flawed, inconsistent, institutional, bureaucratic, even embarrassing sometimes. Yet it is also incredibly heroic at times. Whether we like it or not, want to attend it or not, we’re stuck with it. The Church is not optional, it’s not up for discussion, it’s been around ever since Jesus, and it’s still here. That’s good enough for us.

We believe in the Bible
We’re awed by it, inspired by it, and believe it is the Truth. We’re also terrified of it... We don’t understand all of it, but we believe it. ALL of it. That’s the important part, because if you only believe in some of it if you try to edit out the parts you don’t like, then you don’t believe in “IT.” Of course, believing it all doesn’t mean we perfectly LIVE it all. It doesn’t even mean we have it all figured out. Mostly we’re scared of it, scared in a good way because whenever we read it and try to live by it, God shows up and that’s pretty terrifying...and also pretty amazing, and pretty assuring at the same time!
 
That’s kind of it. The “biggies"
We know that there is other important stuff out there...actually, a lot of other stuff, theology, doctrine, homosexuality, abortion, war, drinking, smoking, moral issues, and...well, like we said, LOTS OF STUFF!
 
All that stuff is important, and certainly, people should try to figure out what to believe about all those things, but that’s exactly the point. We believe that if the “biggies” are sorted out, then all the other stuff will eventually fall into place too. It might not fall into the same place as the person next to you, but that is what makes the Kingdom of God so interesting. Right?
 

Thanks for reading this... oh, there is one more “biggie” that we believe in...

St. John Neumann Catholic Church's Youth Ministry believes in YOU!
You are awesome! You are loved!