Our key aims

Our key aims

 
To be a Christ-centred church with the following characteristics:
  • Love that creates a vibrant community
  • Worship that is passionate and intimate
  • Discipleship that transforms andequips us for kingdom living
  • Serving as a lifestyle for all our members within and beyond St Bs
  • Sending out people and resources including planting churches
 

What is important to us

One God

At St Bs we have chosen not to write a new statement of faith. We fully subscribe to the historic catholic creeds of the church that expound the truth that God is one revealed to us in three persons. And we also agree with the statement of faith of the Evangelical Alliance. These are the fundamentals of our faith which have been eloquently elucidated by others for us, whose tradition we share.
 

Two emphases

We want to emphasise both word and spirit. Jesus, when criticising the Sadducees, said “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). Over the years we have seen a false dichotomy between those who think of themselves as evangelical (Bible) Christians and charismatic (spirit-filled) Christians. We see no conflict between these two but aim to emphasise both word and spirit fully.
 
We trust in the Bible as the word of God revealing the truth to us, so that we are not blown around by every new wind of teaching. It is important to us that we are made in God’s image, rather than God being made in our image, dreamed up from our own imagination. So it is essential to have an objective bench mark of truth that remains unchanged and independent to the circumstances of the age in which we live.
 
We also know our inadequacy to live out the life God calls us to and so urgently pursue an outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit to empower us. We long to see all the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5) grow in our lives. And we also seek to experience the power of God through the operation of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit both in our church meetings and in our daily lives.
 

Three orientations

We understand that the church needs to be facing in three directions at all times.

Upinout picture

Upwards towards God:
The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Matthew 22:37). Our ministry to God is our highest calling. Each of us is called to a personal relationship with God as Father. Our own personal devotions should form the linchpin of our lives. When we meet together, worship is our highest priority with a longing to come into an experience of God’s presence.

Inwards towards each other:
The new command that Jesus gave us is to love each other as he loved us (John 13:34). This is expressed in close open and accountable relationships within our community as a church. In a society where rampant individualism is almost universal, we aim to live counter-culturally by forming a loving community where we welcome the involvement of others in our personal lives. For most practical purposes this is principally lived out through our network of small groups.

Outwards into the world:
The second great command of Jesus is to love our neighbours as ourselves (Matthew 22:39) and the final great commission of Jesus is to go into all the world (Matthew 28:19). As a church we long to be constantly going out both to serve our local community and to spread the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ across the globe. We see this as part of every disciple’s life and we seek to enable all our members to live out this calling.