Who are we?

Who are we?

Espoon Kotikirkko was founded in 2008. We are a group of people originally from very different life situations, regions, and even from several various nations. There are students, housewives and people working in different professions in our church family. However, we are united by at least one thing, the most important: we are God-created, deeply sinful and broken people who God has found and redeemed His own by bringing us from the bondage of sin and death to the light of God through life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Because of His accomplishment for us, we can now learn to live in a new way enabled by His grace and the hope of eternal resurrection. This Good News of the Gospel we want to share with other people as well.

Although we are a locally functioning and administratively independent church, we also belong to the broader Protestant and Baptist church family. Espoon Kotikirkko (“the home church of Espoo”) belongs to the Finnish Baptist Union and is connected with other evangelical Christians and congregations in our community and nationwide.

Currently, our church family consists of about 40 people, including a dozen children. The youngest in our congregation is one year old, and the most aged is turning eighty.  We are Finnish speaking church, but we warmly welcome all nationalities. There is a simultaneous translation provided via headphones on our Sunday services.

We are also a reformed church. At the heart of the Reformed tradition is total submission to the authority of the Bible. We embrace the traditional Christian doctrine, in which the Triune God is the center of all existence. Like creation, salvation comes solely from God and aims to magnify the glory of God. God is the Creator and conqueror of sin through His Son Jesus and by Him alone.

The ultimate purpose of man is found when we find satisfaction in Christ, our Creator and Redeemer. Human sinfulness is pervasive and very much real. God’s effectual calling pierces even the most rebellious heart and does not look at the recipient’s achievements. Christ’s atoning death achieves salvation in all those called by God, and Christ’s historical death and resurrection will not be in vain. God also demonstrates His power by holding on to these saved sinners, thus securing their salvation for the glory of His grace. Also, our understanding of the family and the roles between man and woman is traditional, regarding both creation and redemption.

Further, we are “reformed” in the sense that we believe God is constantly reforming, creating, us and the world anew. We want to get to know ourselves and each other and grow in faith, holiness, and freedom in Christ. In our lives, we are actively influencing many different areas of this world. Through this kind of participation, we encounter all sorts of people and communities created by God. The world as a whole is a good world created by God, even though it is still under the corruption of sin. God is the God of history and actively orchestrates events of the world. We want to take part in this grand narrative of His to the fullest!