Core Values

1. This is God’s church. The church is birthed by the Father, founded by the Son, empowered and led by the Spirit, and given expression through the priesthood of all believers in the congregation.

2. We exist to know God, glorify Him, grow in Him, and make Him known. Our prime purpose is to please God so that our agenda is God’s agenda revealed through God’s Word. We glorify God when we focus on growing to become more like Jesus Christ and expressing our gratitude to Him through joyful ‘all-of-life’ worship.

3. Love is to be the context of all we do. Our motivation for service is the unconditional love of God.

4. Grace and truth are to characterise all our relationships. We want to relate to others the way Jesus does and we believe that real transformation takes place best through authentic community. The Christian faith is not a solo journey but best experienced by sharing life together in small groups.

5. All people matter and reaching them for Christ is not optional. We are called to go into all the world and make disciples of Jesus Christ baptising them into the community of faith, based on the teaching of the Christian gospel. We will seek to be sensitive to the cultures we live in yet always remain true to Christ’s teachings.

6. We value our heritage but church structure must submit to Spirit. We hold lightly to everything but Christ and His word, and we will not build personal empires but seek to remain fluid in our structures so that we can remain open to God-directed change.

7. Creativity is the natural outcome of spirituality. We want to experience and express God in mind, body and spirit using the gifts God has given His church.

8. Everyone has a place here and a story to share. We celebrate the dignity inherent in all humanity offering people inclusive love, acceptance and forgiveness. We seek to provide a safe place for everyone to belong, to believe and to become.

9. Full devotion to Christ and His work is normal for every believer. We encourage everyone to wholeheartedly worship God with our whole lives and use the gifts He gives to serve Him and others.

10. All that we have belongs to God and He is glorified when we offer Him our best. We are stewards of our resources, not owners, and so we will offer God from the best we have to support the ministry of His church through our time, abilities and finances.

Prepared by the Pastoral Team, August 2004.