What we believe

We believe that what the Bible says is true. But what does the Bible actually say, and what relevance could a load of books written thousands of years ago have to us in the 21st century? Well when it comes down to it, quite a lot.

It's not a big old book full of 'thou's and 'thy's telling mythical tales of people long ago (although if you're reading an old translation, it's going to have old language). Nope, actually it's a piece of communication from God to us, telling us what He's done for people in the past, guidelines on how to get the best out of life, and most importantly describing to us how He made us out of love, longs for us to experience the joy of a relationship with him and the life that He intended for us, and made it possible for us to know Him by giving up His own son to die in our place, taking the punishment that we deserve.

Statement of Faith

As a more official statement of what we believe, we’ve adopted the Evangelical Alliance statement of faith as being compatible with our basis of faith; it’s set out here. Evangelical Christians accept the revelation of the triune God given in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and confess the historic faith of the Gospel therein set forth. They here assert doctrines that they regard as crucial to the understanding of the faith, and which should issue in mutual love, practical Christian service and evangelistic concern.

We believe in...

1. The one true God who lives eternally in three persons—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
2. The love, grace and sovereignty of God in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming and judging the world.
3. The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God—fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.
4. The dignity of all people, made male and female in God's image to love, be holy and care for creation, yet corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement.
5. The incarnation of God’s eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ—born of the virgin Mary, truly divine and truly human, yet without sin.
6. The atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross: dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, so reconciling us with God.
7. The bodily resurrection of Christ, the firstfruit of our resurrection; his ascension to the Father, and his reign and mediation as the only Saviour of the world.
8. The justification of sinners solely by the grace of God through faith in Christ.
9. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit, who leads us to repentance, unites us with Christ through new birth, empowers our discipleship and enables our witness.
10. The Church, the body of Christ both local and universal, the priesthood of all believers—given life by the Spirit and endowed with the Spirit's gifts to worship God and proclaim the gospel, promoting justice and love.
11. The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven and new earth.

We are also committed to a statement of purpose which is set out on the ‘Statement of Purpose’ page.