Who We Are
Milford United Methodist Church is part of the Skylands District in the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Our connection with the larger church lends support to our local church efforts and allows us to combine our resources with people around the world in such things as mission and disaster relief.
Who We Welcome
We welcome those who seek Christ and a transformed life!
We welcome You!
We welcome All.
We extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced; those with 18 kids or none; whether you call yourself gay, straight, queer, transgender, filthy rich, dirt poor, living paycheck-to-paycheck or possess a hefty trust fund. We extend a special welcome to those holding crying newborns, those who are as old as Methuselah, and everyone in between.
We welcome you if you can sing like Josh Groban or Fergie, or if you can't. You’re welcome here if you’re “just browsing."
It is okay if you do not have the whole Bible memorized and if you can’t spell “Deuteronomy” without Googling it first.
We extend our welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who may be growing up too fast. . We always welcome those who could use a prayer right now. We welcome tourists, seekers and doubters … and YOU!
What We Believe
In everything we do at Milford UMC, we are guided by John Wesley's Three General Rules:
Do Good
Do No Harm
Stay in Love with God
United Methodist preaching and teaching is grounded in Scripture, informed by Christian tradition, enlivened in personal experience, and tested by reason. United Methodists are part of the larger Christian faith and affirm all of the historic beliefs of the faith as articulated in the historic creeds of the church.
We affirm the God of Israel who has been decisively revealed in Jesus of Nazareth and continues to be present and at work in our lives in the form of the Holy Spirit. This understanding of God is known as the Trinity. We believe that God has been revealed through the Bible, and especially through the witness of the New Testament.
Scripture – The Holy Bible is our primary source for Christian doctrine. Biblical authors testify to God’s self-disclosure in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as well as in God’s work of creation, in the pilgrimage of Israel, and in the Holy Spirit’s ongoing activity in human history.
Tradition – Our attempt to understand God does not start anew with each generation or each person. Our faith also does not leap from New Testament times to the present as though nothing could be learned from all Christian thinkers and preachers in between. We learn from traditions found in many cultures, but Scripture remains the norm by which all traditions are judged.
Reason – Although we recognize that God’s revelation and our experiences of God’s grace continually surpass the scope of reason, we also believe that disciplined theological work calls for the careful use of reason. By reason we read and interpret Scripture. By reason we determine whether our Christian witness is clear. By reason we ask questions of faith and seek to understand God’s action and will.
Experience – In our theological task, we examine experience, both personal and church-wide, to confirm the realities of God’s grace attested in Scripture. Experience is the personal appropriation of God’s forgiving and empowering grace. Experience authenticates in our own lives the truths revealed in Scripture and preserved in tradition.
For more detailed information about what the United Methodist Church believes, click here.