believe

We believe that the stories found in the Bible, tell one big story about God and his plan for the world. He was and always will be in a communal relationship with himself – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The beginning of the story starts with the beginning of all things… God creates everything… time, space, animals, people… the entire physical reality. And He created all things good.  God created us to be relational like him, and made us his children bearing his identity and sharing in his desire to serve, care and prosper for this physical world.

The Enemy tempted the first humans, and darkness and evil entered the story through human disobedience from God. They are now a part of the world. This devastating event resulted in our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation being fractured and in desperate need of being healed and put right.

God chose a people, Abraham and his descendants, the nation of Israel, to represent Him in the world. God promised to bless them as a nation so that through them all nations would be blessed.

Israel’s relationship with God was a two-way partnership. They lived in a state of blessing, of protection and provision, of God always being available, but in return they were called to reveal and demonstrate the character of God to other nations. But before long Israel had lost sight of reality and what sort of relationship they were in. They overlooked the poor, and mistreated the foreigner. They disobeyed God. Yet a hopeful remnant was always looking ahead with longing and hope to a time when God’s  peace and justice would prevail and healing and restoration could take place.

We believe that time was realised in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Born to a virgin called Mary, mysteriously, amazingly, God became human and began life in Israel. Jesus came to restore our fractured world. He came to do what Israel had failed to do, to demonstrate God to everyone. He demonstrated the arrival of a new reality, a different way of living, of Life. He called it the Kingdom of God, a reality where broken hearts are mended, where freedom from captivity is possible, where God is with us.

He and his message were rejected by many as he confronted the oppressive nature of the religious elite and the empire of Rome. Yet his path of suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection has brought hope to all creation. Jesus is our only hope for bringing peace and reconciliation between God and humanity. Through Jesus we are offered grace and brought into right relationship with God. God is now reconciling us to each other, ourselves, and creation. The Spirit of God affirms as children of God all those who trust Jesus. The Spirit empowers us with gifts, convicts, guides, comforts, counsels, and leads us into truth through a communal life of worship and an extrovert expression of our faith.

We now partner with God in blessing the world until the day comes when Jesus returns to judge the world, bringing an end to injustice and restoring all things to God’s original intent.