WHAT WE BELIEVE
Our church is built on a set of beliefs that we hold to and hold out together. To learn more about any section of our statement of faith you can find our sermon series on it here.
STATEMENT OF FAITH
GOD
We believe there is one God, who exists in three persons; Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. These three persons are co-equal and co-eternal, yet distinct in their roles in God’s work. This triune God is sovereign in all things including creation, salvation and judgment and works all things to His own glory. He is perfect and good in all He is and all He does and so deserves all glory, honour and praise.
THE BIBLE
The Bible is God’s word through which He has revealed Himself and His grace. The Bible’s original manuscripts were inspired by God as He wrote them through people. Because God is the ultimate author of the Bible it is free from error and reliable in its truth. In the life of our church we believe and enjoy these truths about God’s
word. That it is
- Sufficient, it contains all we need to know about God and how to live for Him.
- Clear, whilst not all Scripture might be plain or clear to all, the saving work of Christ can be clearly understood and God and his ways can be known.
- Authoritative, it is the final guide on all matters of faith and conduct.
- Necessary, we need to hear from God to know Him, His grace and how to live for Him.
MANKIND
God made mankind in His Image, male and female. As those made in His image we were designed for relationship with God, knowing and enjoying Him. We were made to honour God by enjoying Him and by serving Him in the relationships He gave us with each other, and the creation He set us to rule over. Though this is what mankind was made for we rebelled against God and His design and have fallen into sin. Since that fall everyone is born with a sinful nature, meaning we are set against God and His ways and so are deserving of His just judgment. We believe that all human life is precious but that all people are unable to rescue themselves from their sin and are in desperate need of salvation from God.
JESUS CHRIST
The Lord Jesus Christ is God the Son who has been born of the virgin Mary. He is truly God and truly man, sent into the world by the Father to fulfil God’s promised salvation plan. This He did through:
- His sinless life as a real person in the real world, enabling Him to save others.
- His substitutionary death on the cross in the place of sinners through which we can be forgiven.
- His resurrection from the dead, bringing the hope of eternal life.
This same Jesus is now sitting at God’s right hand as the risen, reigning and returning Lord.
SALVATION
The only way that anyone can be saved from their sin and the death and judgment it deserves, is through repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ. He alone has lived the life we haven’t, died the death that we deserved and been raised to eternal life that we might share it with Him forever. Salvation cannot be earned from God by our own good works but comes only through God’s grace. We hold the traditional Protestant view, that sinners can be saved through faith alone, in Christ alone, through God’s grace alone. Those who come to faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord experience the forgiveness of their sin, the cleansing of their conscience from guilt, freedom from the fear of death and the promise of eternal life with God, including the resurrection of our bodies when Jesus returns. In this way Jesus restores us to the relationship we were made for with God and the joy we were made to find in Him.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit works in the world to bring people under the saving work of Jesus. Without the work of the Spirit we are unable to see our need for Jesus and the glory of what He offers us. The Spirit works to open our eyes and soften our hearts to know and believe the gospel. He works to unite us to Jesus, so that Jesus’ righteousness is ours, His death is ours and His new life is ours. The Spirit then dwells in Christians for the rest of their lives. The work of the Spirit is key to living the Christian life. He enables us to understand and apply God’s word and helps us to pray. He empowers us with gifts to be used for the good of the church and to share the gospel with the world. The Spirit works to make Christians more and more like Jesus by continuing to unite us to Him and applying the gospel to our heads, hearts and lives.
THE CHURCH
God’s plan for Christians to grow and to share the good news of the Lord Jesus with the world is worked out through His people, the church. Churches are local gatherings of believers who are committed to worshiping God and hearing from His word. In church families Christians are to love and serve one another, helping each other be more and more like Jesus. In that way local churches display the power of the gospel as we work together to declare the gospel. Local churches give a taste of belonging to the universal Church, all God’s saved people with whom we will be gathered when Jesus returns.
BAPTISM AND THE LORD'S SUPPER
In the life of the church we look to remind ourselves of the gospel and to apply God’s grace through many things like prayer, singing, being with other Christians and hearing from the Bible. Alongside these means of grace God has also gifted the Church with two physical reminders of the gospel, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (sometimes called communion). Both of these things serve to remind us of what Jesus has done, and that we have come to share in it through faith. In Baptism, Christians are immersed in water and then lifted back up, to symbolise Jesus’ death and resurrection through which they have died to sin and been raised to new spiritual life. In the Lord’s Supper we share in broken bread, a symbol of Jesus’ broken body on the cross, and wine, a symbol of His blood poured out for us, the basis of our relationship with God. The blessing of these reminders is received through faith.
THE FUTURE
We believe that Jesus will physically return to the world to bring about its end. The time of His return is known only to God, but at Christ’s return He will bring about the bodily resurrection of the dead and the transformation of the living. Then He will judge all people according to His own perfect righteousness and justice. Those who have not trusted in Jesus, but remained in their sin against God, will be condemned to eternal punishment in hell apart from God’s new creation. Those who have trusted in Him and have already received new spiritual life will go on to live forever with Jesus in the new creation, a world free from sin, sickness, sadness and death.