Vision statement

When the phenomenon called 'the church' first appeared on the earth it grew like a house on fire (1). A reading of The Acts of The Apostles quickly shows the church to have people being added to it (through confessing Christ and baptism), by the thousands.

The pastoral letters provide evidence that the church was growing in maturity with issues of Christian lifestyle and relationships frequently being addressed (2). A growing church will be growing in both numbers and "Christlikeness". It will be growing in its outreach, evangelism and areas of ministry; in its worship, leadership (3), spirituality, unity & ecumenism (4), contentment, peace and sense of purpose and belonging to God. A growing church will be planning (5) for growth - a bit like the planning parents do when they are about to start a family. A growing church will experience joys and sorrows and inevitably "growing pains". A growing church will be training and releasing its newly received 'children' to practise the ministries that brought them into the family of God both locally & beyond. A growing church will measure & evaluate its growth a bit like parents who have a giraffe-height-chart behind the bedroom door - monitoring growth.

A Christ-centred church has Jesus Christ the Son of God as its beginning, its middle, and its end (6). Jesus is the alpha and the omega (7), the foundation stone (8) and the capstone. The church is the people of Christ, those reconciled to God through the saving work of Christ. A Christ centred church is empowered by the Spirit of Christ who lives with and in all who open themselves to His control and empowering, through humble submission and personal pursuit of the holiness of Christ.

A Christ-centred people submit to Christ, follow Christ, love and forgive like Christ, model Christ, talk about Christ, proclaim Christ, work in the name of Christ, remember Christ, uphold Christ, invite and draw others to Christ.

In a Christ-centred church, Jesus Christ will be at the centre of our worship, He will be at the centre of our fellowship, He is the purpose and goal of our evangelism, He is the one we aspire to become like as disciples, and He is the one whom we serve as we care for one another with the love of Christ.

The Church is people, all the people of God in Christ Jesus. It is all the people of every age whose leader and head is Jesus Christ (9). Jesus Christ is the one who is building His Church (10). He does it by empowering its members with His power - the Holy Spirit(11). In every member gifts are released for the further building up, unity and growth of the Church (12). Those who are the people of God through Christ Jesus are members of the one Church, the body of Christ or "the Church of Christ". This Church - sometimes called the "holy, apostolic, catholic" church, is the universal church which every Christian belongs to. Its beginnings are recorded in the New Testament scriptures (13) and this is the primary source for all that we understand the church to be. That is why sometimes churches of Christ describe themselves as "a New Testament church" . There has only ever been one Church. (The capital letter is deliberate). But all members of the Church, through faith and baptism (14), belong to a local church (the small 'c' is deliberate) , where they worship, fellowship, witness to Christ, grow like Christ and care for the world in which we have been put in charge.

Christ's Church has a covenant (15) relationship with God who is our Creator, sustainer and redeemer. He says, "I will be their God and they will be my people". This binding covenant relationship means that God's commitment to his people never falters. The only way we can become disconnected from God is by our own doing if we forget or disregard the truth that we are "His" people. Families and local congregations are charged with the responsibility to teach and admonish our children, loved-ones, neighbours, visitors and friends in the ways of God. We do this both by word and deed but especially by our deeds (or lifestyle) (16) which demonstrates the love, compassion, forgiveness, humility and holiness of God to some degree or other. The Scriptures teach that appropriate modelling (17) of the Christian lifestyle will lead children to adopt that model eventually.

The covenant nature of the church means that our children, young people, middle aged people, older people and infirm, handicapped or immobilised are all called to be part of the people of God in Christ - the Church (18).

A church for all ages will plan to accommodate people of all ages and levels of understanding. It will deliberately seek to be aware of the needs of special age groups e.g. the very young or the very old. It will recognise that different age groups and stages of life have different experiences, different perceptions, needs and priorities. It should maximise the encouragement and tolerance of different ages and learning from one another. This may include children's' ministry teams, seniors' ministry, mentoring, family worship, prayer partnerships, 'adoption' programs, spiritual 'parenting'. A church for all ages should aim to be relevant to all it ts practice and to include all ages.

God has always desired that those who hear his voice and recognise that they are His chosen people e.g. the children of Abraham in the Old Testament, should be a means of all people of all nations receiving the Good news that they too, are the people of God. All can come into a relationship with God through faith. God said through the prophet Isaiah (19), "I will make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth". Simon recognised this of the Christ child "With my own eyes I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples: a light to reveal your will to the Gentiles..." (20). The gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ has the power to unite all who in His mercy receive it, into a unity of identity as the people of God (21), called out of darkness into His wonderful light that we might declare His praises." (22) In a church of all nationalities the salvation, love and unity of Christ and our response to Him in loving worship and service transcend race, language and culture so that although there may be great ethnic and cultural diversity, we are one in Christ. While our worship and major meetings will be conducted in English, there may be occasions when other language groups may be engaged for small groups, prayer or witnessing. Likewise with literature. All will be engaged in a journey of co-assimmilation as we seek to bring all the wealth of the nations to the throne of God for the glory of God.