What We Believe
About the Holy Trinity
There is one eternal God who is lovingly revealed in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each member of the Trinity has a different role but each is fully God.
About God the Father
The Father is love and creator of all that is and ever will be: He is all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, unchanging, completely worthy of our trust, and he is holy. It is in him that we live, move, and exist. God is good: He is our Father. He is loving, compassionate, and faithful to his people and his promises.
About Jesus
God the Son has existed for eternity with the Father and became a man because God wanted to restore humanity. Jesus Christ is completely human, but at the same time completely God. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection we find faith, fulness of life and are welcomed into God’s family as loved children. Through His sinless life, he showed us what it means to live as people of God: living in loving obedience and dependence with God, lovingly empowering one another, and nurturing creation. Through his death on the cross, he paid the price for our sin, (the practices and beliefs that separate us from God and corrupt His will for our lives, communities, and societies). Through his resurrection on the third day, Jesus defeated death and ensured everyone who believes in Him will live forever.
About the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is fully God, the third person of the Trinity, assuring us of our relationship with God through Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the power of God at work in the world today, transforming lives, communities, and societies to resemble God’s kingdom here on earth. The Holy Spirit is active in the lives of all who believe through Christ. The Spirit reveals our individual and communal sin, transforming us into image bearers of God, uniting us in our differences, and empowering us as individuals and communities to join God’s plan for humanity and creation. It comforts us, gives us spiritual gifts, and makes us more like Jesus. Anyone who believes in Jesus may be given spiritual gifts given by the Spirit just as Jesus’s disciples were.
About Humanity
Humans were created by God to be bear his image within creation. This means our fundamental purpose is to live in relationship with God, to mutually empower community with each other, and to nurture and look after creation. Humanity has become separated from God because we have corrupted His intended purpose in many ways; As humans we have worshipped what was made, rather than the maker. We have established systems that elevate one community over the other leading to prejudice, discrimination, oppression and exploitation. We have given some social groups status and power over others, and we have spoiled and exploited our created world. As a result, it is only through Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and our whole-life commitment to God through Jesus that we can recapture our created purpose. We believe that we need to respond to God’s call in faith, repentance, and life changing action.
About the Church
The Church is not a building, it is the people of God, called and united by God the Father, won by Jesus the Son, and empowered into God’s plan by the Holy Spirit. The Church consists of all followers of Jesus from every age, race, ethnicity, culture, socio-economic background, sexual orientation, and neurological and physical ability. Our church is a diverse regional community of followers of Jesus, attempting to serve within God’s plan for their individual, communal, and societal lives. We are committed to seeking to know more about and growing in worship of God, growing together as individuals and as a community as we seek to become more like Jesus, and faithfully live out our collective role within God’s plan of individual, community, and societal transformation. The church works together in love and unity, intent on the ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ through diverse expressions of worship and faith: regularly celebrating the sacraments of baptism and communion, and living out God’s intended purpose for all of humanity: empowering everyone to know God: dismantling the systems that perpetuate disunity, oppression, exploitation, and the elevation of one group over the other: and protecting and nurturing creation.
About the Bible
While Jesus is the only way back to God, the Bible is essential to knowing more about God and what it means to follow Jesus in the 21st Century. It was written by human authors under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. Because it is inspired by God, the Bible is truth and is completely relevant to our daily lives. However, because our modern world is so different to the contexts in which the bible was written, the study, contextualisation, and interpretation of the modern application of biblical principles is fundamental to the way that we operate, engage with God, and exist as followers of Jesus.