About Pathway
In the middle of nowhere, and close to everywhere
At Pathway, we want everyone to encounter the love of Jesus Christ. We're a church family of all ages from Saranac, Clarksville, Ionia, Lake Odessa, Lowell and the countryside in between. We meet in the Ebenezer Center on Portland Road, and we're part of The Wesleyan Church.
Our core principles
The way of Jesus
Learn
Jesus Christ alone saves us from sin. So we study his life, his attitude and the patterns he set, and learn to see the world the way he does.
Philippians 2:5 · John 14:6
Love
Knowledge alone puffs up, but love builds up. We want to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves.
1 Corinthians 8:1 · Mark 12:30–31
Live
Hearing the Word isn't enough. We try to put it into practice, trusting that Christ lives in us and gives us the power to live like him.
Galatians 2:20 · James 1:22
Lead
Jesus sent his followers to make disciples. We share our faith so others can know him, and we raise up the next generation of leaders.
Matthew 28:18–20
What we believe
Historic Christian faith, in the Wesleyan tradition
Pathway is a local church of The Wesleyan Church. We hold to the historic Christian faith summarized in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, as The Wesleyan Church expresses it in its Articles of Religion. Here it is in brief.
God
There is one living and true God, eternally existing as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He created all things, he sustains them, and he loves the world he made.
Jesus Christ
Jesus is God the Son, fully God and fully human. He lived without sin, died on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins, rose bodily from the dead, ascended to the Father, and will return to judge the living and the dead.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is fully God. He convicts the world of sin, gives new life to those who believe, lives in them, and makes them holy, guiding and empowering the church for its mission.
The Bible
The Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God, fully trustworthy, and our final authority for what we believe and how we live.
Salvation
Every person is made in God's image and every person has sinned. God's grace reaches out to all of us first. Anyone who repents and trusts in Christ is forgiven, made new, and adopted into God's family. We're saved by grace through faith, not by our good works; good works are the fruit of a changed life.
A holy life
God doesn't only forgive us; he changes us. We believe the Holy Spirit can cleanse the heart and fill a believer with perfect love for God and neighbor, and that we keep growing in grace for the rest of our lives. This hope of holiness, of becoming like Jesus, is at the heart of the Wesleyan tradition.
The church and the sacraments
The church is the body of Christ, made up of all true believers. Christ gave the church two sacraments: baptism and the Lord's Supper. They are signs of God's grace and means through which he works in those who receive them in faith.
The future
Jesus will come again. The dead will be raised, everyone will give account to God, and those who belong to Christ will live with him forever in a renewed creation.