Overall Aim: This church is a community of Christian Disciples who seek to love the God shown to them in Jesus and share his generous and forgiving love with others in word and deed through the power of the Holy Spirit. We seek to rely on God to enable us to understand how this is to be expressed in our particular context. For this we seek both to be obedient to scripture and to rely on the ongoing revelation of God to us through the Holy Spirit. Our hope is that our community gathering for worship on a Sunday and our smaller group gatherings for prayer and Bible study are carried out in a way that is authentic, inspiring, challenging and encouraging. The life of the church is also currently expressed in a variety of community groups like Community Choir, Messy Play, Grace Cafe, Youth Group, Friday Friends and Holiday Club.
Inclusive: While baptised formal members have particular roles and responsibilities, we aim to include all people at any stage of faith in our church family and we aim to have a particular bias towards the most vulnerable whether socially, economically, physically or educationally.
Values: We aim to be authentic and relational in all that we do by exhibiting: faithfulness, truthfulness, humility; hope, contentment, thankfulness, love, generosity, creativity; mercy, justice and repentance. By authentic we mean that we seek to put what we believe into practice, and are honest about how we fall short.
Oversight: is undertaken by the Deacons and more widely by the formal Church Members who seek to maintain functional efficient structures with low control and high accountability thus empowering those serving. We seek to maintain a balance of upward, inward and outward looking activities and seek to discern God’s calling on our church. We aim for all our physical and on-line publicity to be clear and accurate, and for our finances and buildings to be well managed.
Caring Community: We aim to be a community where practical, emotional and spiritual support is received and given and real friendships are encouraged. We aim for the quality of relationships to be an expression of being part of the family of God. We understand the important place of eating and drinking (and washing up) together; and also the value of telling stories from our experiences. We have a particular bias towards the needs of the most vulnerable and seek to do all this as an integral part of our proclamation of the Good News.
Serving Community: We seek to encourage people to serve others, whether or not they profess a Christian faith. We seek to encourage people to serve in families, workplaces, in the wider community and inside the church community. All those who serve in each of the church’s groups seek to ensure that the group does what it sets out to achieve in the details both small and large, listening carefully to those who attend, discerning what the needs are and discerning which needs can be met. Group coordinators seek to facilitate this discernment process.
Praying and Worshipping Community: We seek to be a community in which we have space to pray and worship in way that is authentic and inspiring.
Learning Community: We seek to be a community where members grow, develop and are transformed in Christ; where we learn about the Kingdom of Heaven and allow it to break into our hopes and dreams for all aspects of our lives. We hope that this underpins both our evangelism and discipleship. Each group seeks to proclaim the Good News in a way that is authentic and pertinent to the particular group.
Social and environmental Justice: We seek to be involved in social and environmental justice through Hope House, Refugee Aid Hub, EcoChurch, Fair Trade, Tear Fund and BMS World Mission.