About us
our
ViSion
To see lives that are changed by the transforming power of God’s Spirit as people come to know, experience, love and follow Jesus
our
Mission
Making Jesus known, in our communities and networks, to the disadvantaged and in the wider world, through words and by action
our
strategy
Our Values
We try to gather our whole life together, and organise our whole community and what we do around these 7 principles....
Community
by being together we know that we can build hope, which we find in Jesus, not only in our own lives but also in the lives of those around us. We accept and respect one another for who we are, as we live out our lives in the community of the Church.
Discipleship
following in the footsteps of Jesus so that we can hear what He is saying to us and live out His teaching.
Outward focused
we have been entrusted with the Good News of Christ and we realise that we must share that Good News with others.
Intimacy
in relationship with God, in our worship, in the appropriate closeness of our relationships with, and support for, one another.
Integrity
in our actions, in our openness, in our honesty about ourselves and others, in our pursuit of making Jesus known and seeing God’s transforming presence at work in our lives and those around us
Courage
to follow God wherever He leads, making faith based decisions in all areas of our individual lives and the life of the Church.
Generosity
we realise that for those to whom much is given, much will be expected and we always seek to use our time, talents and resources in serving Christ and others.
Our Strategy
explained
Gather
(Worship, Prayer, the Word & Community)
We recognise that ‘the chief end of [humankind] is to worship God and enjoy Him forever’. We realise that worship is a matter of giving our lives as living sacrifices, and as such encompasses all our activity. Yet we know that time given in praise and intimacy with God is time when we are transformed into God’s likeness. We aim to give priority, privately and corporately, to being before God and giving Him worship.
Jesus cleansed the temple and called for His house to be a house of prayer for all nations. We recognise that we are living in a time of worldwide awakening for intercession on behalf of the whole creation which is groaning. We want to join in with this as a church and as individuals. We want our individual lives, our homes and our church to be places where priority is given to seeking God in prayer.
We recognise the authority of the Bible as the Word of God and seek to read it, meditate on it, and for our lives to be transformed according to its teachings. We seek to expound and teach the Scriptures publicly and from house to house. We seek to develop a hunger for the Word of God and to become a people who know their God through its teachings. We seek to teach the principles discovered in the Word of God in training courses to ‘equip the saints for the work of ministry’.
We believe that we, as the church, are called into community. We believe that we are saved, by Jesus, to be with His people. We believe the bible teaches us that churches; regularly gather (1 Cor 11:18. 14-23), strive to continue meeting together (Heb 10:25), meet in large gatherings (Acts 6) and in people’s homes (Acts 2). We believe that as the community of faith gathers together God is present, by His Spirit and lavishes spiritual gifts (Rom 12:6-8, Eph 4:7-16, 1 Cor 12:8-10) on his children.
Grow
(Ministry & Maturity)
To follow Jesus is to be involved in a lifelong journey of learning from Him and striving to be more like Him. We learn principally from His Word, the bible, but we also learn from each other. We are called, as the people of God, to ministry and maturity. We believe that Christ will return for His church who has ‘made herself ready’ (Rev 19). We seek to prepare the church by creating a community that is transformed by His love; we seek to love one another, serve one another, living transparent lives.
We want to be a family of God, committed to unity, loyalty and trust, encouraging one another and being ready to be led on further to live sacrificial lives in conformity to the Word of God.
The church is a body in which every member has a part to play. We are called to minister to one another through acts of service and also through spiritual gifts which God pours out on the Church. Whenever we meet, we are expectant that the Kingdom of God will come as people are healed and helped as we pray for one another. We encourage every member to be involved in ministry both within and outside the church. We believe ministry is pursued and exercised on our frontline whether at work, in our neighbourhood or at home.
We are called to grow and become mature.
Maturity can come through teaching and training, exercising faith, suffering, obedience and consistent service. Evidence of growth includes fruitfulness in witness, growth in holiness, healing of past hurts, Christ-like character and the fruits of the Spirit. There are a number of important tools that lead to this process of growth. Engagement with, and practise of, spiritual disciplines and a developed opportunity to give and receive personal prayer ministry will always be a key principle running alongside any programming used to facilitate this.
Go
(Unity, Service & Mission)
Jesus prayed that we may be ‘one so that the world might believe’. We know that our unity will persuade, convince and convict people of the divinity of Jesus. We therefore seek within the church to keep the unity in the bond of peace. We also know that no single church has the authority to begin to convince Bishop’s Stortford of the Lordship of Jesus. Therefore, we work for unity with the other churches of Bishop’s Stortford, seeking to complete each other’s work (and never to compete), to honour, to serve and promote the interests of each other.
The bible repeatedly calls us to seek justice, to serve the poor and care for creation which is groaning. We seek to have open hearts and hands to the poor of our parish, the town and to the disadvantaged and the developing world. We seek to do this through holistic mission, outreach and caring for our planet. We look for God-given projects which can give a face to this so that we can be an influence for good, making a difference in our town, and the wider world. Above all we look to our hearts that they may not be hardened, but overflow in acts of compassion to the poor and the poor in spirit.
We believe that our calling is, with others, to bring the Kingdom of God to our parish, our town, our region, our nation, to the ends of the earth and to all creation. We are aware of the extraordinary opportunity and responsibility represented by our hyper-connectedness. We long to see a move of God through our whole town. We aim, under God, to win, train and send labourers into this world-wide harvest field. We own our call, and that of our wider church family, to ‘proclaim the Gospel afresh in each generation.’
