Our Beliefs

The foundation of our central beliefs is the Bible — the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe Scripture originated with God and He revealed it to us through chosen authors, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Scripture speaks with God’s authority, while reflecting the backgrounds, styles, and vocabularies of the authors. We hold the Bible to be completely trustworthy and believe that it is relevant and applicable to our contemporary lives. Therefore, it is to be believed in what it teaches, obeyed in what it requires and trusted in what it promises.

We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus — the promised Messiah — was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus lived a sinless life, was crucified, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. He now sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate. We believe that Jesus will return again, at a time known only to God, to fulfil the purposes of God. He will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to those who genuinely put their trust and faith in Him and establish a new heaven and new earth.

We believe that the Holy Spirit lives in every person who has made a genuine commitment to follow Jesus. He is our teacher and counsellor and therefore helps us to understand God’s word and God’s ways, empowering us to live lives that become increasingly like Jesus. The Holy Spirit empowers our discipleship, enables our witness and equips us with gifts and talents to build up God’s Kingdom here on earth.

KEY SCRIPTURES: Romans 3:23 | Romans 10:9-10 | John 14:6 | 1 John 1:9 | Acts 3:19-20 

We believe that the Holy Spirit lives in every person who has made a genuine commitment to follow Jesus. He is our teacher and counsellor and therefore helps us to understand God’s word and God’s ways, empowering us to live lives that become increasingly like Jesus. The Holy Spirit empowers our discipleship, enables our witness and equips us with gifts and talents to build up God’s Kingdom here on earth.

KEY REFERENCES: John 6:13-14 | John 16:11 | Matthew 18:3 | 1 Corinthians 14

We believe that the church is the community of Christ’s followers all over the world. It is made up of everyone who has been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. Although there are many expressions of the Church, there is One Church with One Head: Jesus Himself. Jesus established His church so that we would serve one another, hold each other accountable, encourage and grow together and actively serve the world in practical ways to express the ‘agape’ love of God. The Church is Christ’s ‘outpost of grace’ and it is our role to bring hope and healing and to share the gospel of Jesus.The Church meets regularly to encourage one another through teaching, connections, prayer, worship and communion.

KEY REFERENCES: Romans 12:4-5 | Matthew 18:18 & 28:19 | 1 Corinthians 11 | | Acts 2:38, 41 | Ephesians 1:22-23

The Bible describes how God took the initiative to restore the broken relationship between the Creator and His Creation. The Bible is the ultimate love story and explains how we were created primarily to glorify God and then enjoy Him forever. Our purpose plays out as we love God supremely and other people sacrificially. This ‘agape’ love of God is intensely practical in its nature, causing us to live out our faith with care for one another; with compassion towards the poor and with justice for the oppressed. In obedience to the ‘Great Commission’, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in what we say and what we do.

KEY REFERENCES: 1 Corinthians 10:31 | Colossians 1:16 | Matthew 7:17-18 | Deuteronomy 6:5 | Romans 12:10 | Psalm 73:24 

We believe that water baptism is an outward expression of an inward change. Faith in God precedes baptism. It is a public witness that demonstrates a personal response in faith, to the gospel of Jesus. However, it is important to note that we do not believe that baptism is necessary for salvation - this is the work of faith and trust in the saving grace of Jesus and nothing else. Believer’s baptism by full immersion is an action following a personal commitment of faith in Christ which we encourage and enjoy celebrating together. For these reasons, we do not practise infant baptism but prefer to dedicate young children to the Lord until such time as they are able to make a decision to follow Christ for themselves.

Communion is an opportunity for those who follow Jesus to share the symbolic meal elements of bread and juice as an act of worship. When we take communion together, we remember the sacrifice made by jesus to reconcile us to Himself.

According to scripture, we believe the term “marriage” has only one meaning: the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture. According to the Bible, marriage between one man and one woman, uniquely reflects Christ’s relationship with His Church. We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other.