Beliefs & Practice

We affirm the historic confessional reformed evangelical Christian faith taught in the Bible – the word of God to us. We want to live under the rule of Jesus Christ and show we love him by our eager worship and obedient lives.

We want to explain and express our faith in a language and style that is appropriate to our culture without being ruled by trends, especially those which might appear to contradict God’s word.

We plan our public worship to be Christ-exalting in a reverent, thoughtful and contemporary style.

Core Beliefs

There is one God, who made everything. He has spoken, telling us everything we really need to know, in the Bible. We learn there that all of us have rebelled against God and will not live as he intended and deserve God’s righteous judgement.

Because of his great love, God sent his only son Jesus, to bear our punishment on the cross so we may go free. Through his resurrection from the dead, Jesus is declared to be God’s chosen king.

Anyone who trusts in and submits to Jesus is forgiven and starts a new life by the Holy Spirit’s help. Jesus Christ will return in glory. He will raise the dead and judge the world in righteousness. The wicked will be sent to eternal punishment and the righteous will be welcomed into a life of eternal joy in fellowship with God. God will make all things new and will be glorified forever.

Distinctives

We believe in baptism for Christians, but we warmly welcome to our meetings and to church membership those who in good conscience believe that scripture teaches infant baptism to be right.

Our conviction and practice would be complementarian in agreement with the FIEC statement on women in ministry.

We would be “open but cautious” when it comes to the “miraculous” spiritual gifts described in parts of the New Testament: i.e. predictive prophecy, speaking in tongues and a distinct gift of healing. The practice of these gifts would not form part of our main public meetings.

We would also be in line with the FIEC statement on same sex marriage. We believe that sexual intimacy is a gift from God and is to be enjoyed exclusively within the context of marriage. Marriage is, by definition, heterosexual and between one man and one woman. Marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and his Church.

We would emphasise the sovereignty of God, particularly in salvation – God ordains all history using ordinary means even using evil for his good purposes. We teach that God saves and keeps his people by His word and Spirit. However, we recognise that there are a variety of views amongst those seeking to be faithful to scripture and we welcome ongoing discussion on these issues. The goal of God working his sovereign will is for his glory (Eph 1:11-12)

Finding out more

If you want to read more then feel free to download our full Handbook – How we do things as a church.