What We Believe

What We Believe
It’s really important for you to know what our church believes. As someone once said, "If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything." We agree. So you should know that we stand for Jesus, the son of God, our Lord and yours.

In order to protect the truth about Jesus we fellowship with all Christians who are Biblical, Apostolic & Reforming.

1. Biblical Christianity
We believe that the bible is the fundamental basis of what all churches should believe, be and do. It leads us to the true knowledge of God, to His plan for salvation, and it guides us in the matter of living God-glorifying lives. So we are a bible-believing church.

"…from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…"
2 Timothy 3:15-16

2. Apostolic Christianity
We believe, as the bible teaches, that Jesus handed the task of witnessing to his truth to the circle of His apostles (or ‘sent ones’). Their teaching makes up much of the New Testament, and is usefully summarised for us in statements of belief like The Apostles Creed.

"…Jesus said to the apostles he had chosen: you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth…"
Acts 1:8

So we are a church who stands in line with all who confess the historic creeds of Christian orthodoxy: the Apostles, Athanasian, and Nicene Creeds. The Apostles Creed follows:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
who was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
On the third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
and sits at the right hand of the Father.
From there He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic* Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

*catholic here means universal: the church Jesus has united in Himself.

3. Reforming Christianity
Following on from the last basic beliefs, we believe that we must keep reforming. The bible would call this repenting (or ‘turning back’) to reform our beliefs and practices to what the bible teaches. Jesus preached this, the apostles practised it, and what’s good enough for Jesus and His first followers is good enough for us.

So any traditions we have as a church – they are all to be changed if the bible shows them to be unhelpful. Any strong experiences we have – they are all interpreted by the bible and secondary in importance to the bible. Any reasonable argument we can think – we count it reasonable only as far as it is true to scripture.

We will change, and change again, whenever we find we have moved away from Jesus and his Word.

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