MY BELIEFS

I believe that in relationship with God, we come to understand who we are. Relationship with God is at his invitation through Jesus who calls us into a living relationship through his Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit brings us to repentance, this churchy word doesn't quite capture what is actually a metanoia (which is the original Bible language!)- a "turning around" or realisation/confession that we lived before only for ourselves. The Holy Spirit gives us a new desire to surrender to God's good plans for our lives and for us to impact for good, the lives of others.

God has worked already through Christ on our behalf through his work on the cross. It is as if the cross acted like a giant Etch-a-sketch. Christ's sacrifice there shook down all the rubbish in our lives and wiped it out of God's imagination -  all the messy scribbles of our life, where we weren't loving him or our neighbours, got erased from God's imagination (he forgives) and sees us through the perfect life and death and resurrection of his Son (imagine Christ's cloak transferred to your shoulders).

I believe that the church is a community of fallible human beings all on this journey into God. I believe that we should co-work with God to bring in his kingdom: his plan, right rule, imagination, his vision for the cosmos. This always begins with engaging right where we are in the communities God has placed us.

Fuelled by the Holy Spirit we work in the church and the world for its transformation. 

Like iron sharpening iron, as Christians together in the church, we love one another and wrestle with one another as we work out together how best to serve and worship God.

This can be messy.

In the world, our relationship with Jesus is lived out amongst people who do not yet know Him. God's mission is fulfilled through us, a weighty and joy-filled responsibility. The groan is for God's love to so impact people that they are set free from all the things that hold them back from becoming the people God has always intended them to be.

I believe that we should live in the blessings and the struggles of this life with a Kingdom that is breaking in, whilst working together to relieve the places where the Kingdom is frustrated by sin. With an expansive definition of sin, not just about our personal transgressions but about everything that is less than what God would have it be, sin is cosmic. God's desire is to reconcile the entire cosmos to himself. God brings his shalom to people, community and nation. Relationships, minds and bodies can be impacted by God's Spirit and towards wholeness.

I believe ministry should be characterised by affirmation and accountability. God can see the heart and his Spirit will convict and encourage. Our churches have to be welcoming places, freer of programs and formulas and open to the Holy Spirit. This means the Church will find itself catching up with what the Spirit is doing.

I believe that the Holy Spirit gifts God's people for roles in the church. I hold a theological integrity in common with the Church of England who ordained women since the last decade of the last century. I believe that the church made this decision based on what it finds in the scriptures.

I believe in prayer and community, reaching up and out. I believe that prayer can change communities, nations and the world and that if we all engage in mission on our own doorsteps, proclaiming the gospel in words and actions, that God will use us to bring heaven to earth.

I believe that in a postmodern world we will find that we more often have to present the gospel in ways that speak readily to our contemporary culture, whilst not compromising the message. I am open to engaging with God across different worship styles, asking God to grant me the discernment to judge where he is at work in his people. At the centre of worship should be our engagement with the God of the Bible, in community across the generations and in expectation that God will indeed be present with us.