What we believe
About the Bible
We believe there is no other way to know God except that he reveals himself to us. The Bible is God’s revelation to us. The words of the Bible are divinely inspired and infallible, as originally given, and have supreme authority in all matters of faith, conduct and experience. The Bible is sufficient for knowing God. It is not only central to the wellbeing of the church but is able to thoroughly equip the Christian community for life and godliness.
About God
We believe there is one unique and eternal God, who exists in an everlasting loving relationship of Father, Son and Spirit—one God in three persons. God is sovereign in all things: including creation, revelation, redemption, judgement and the establishing of his kingdom. As sovereign loving creator and redeemer, he is worthy of all glory, honour, and praise.
About humanity
We believe that all people are created in the image of God and have intrinsic dignity, worth and purpose. God created us male and female—equal in value, yet distinct in role. Tragically, as a result of the fall, humanity is by nature and choice, universally sinful, guilty, and under God’s righteous condemnation. Without the regenerative work of God’s Spirit, we are utterly incapable of recovering a right relationship with God.
About Jesus Christ
We believe Jesus Christ is the son of God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.He is both fully God and truly human. He entered fully into human experience. He endured temptation and he suffered and died. He was perfectly obedient to God his Father. Jesus took on himself the consequences of human sin. He died and was buried. On the third day he rose from the dead bodily. He ascended to the right hand of God the Father and is now exalted as ruler over all. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
About salvation
We believe there is only one name under heaven by which people can be brought into relationship with God: the name ‘Jesus Christ’. It is only through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, that the guilt, penalty, and power of sin can be removed. In that death, God demonstrates his love to us most perfectly and establishes his victory over Satan and all his foes.
The work of the Holy Spirit is necessary to make the death of Jesus effective in an individual's life. This work is only applied to those ‘appointed to eternal life’ by the Father; an appointment that occurred before the creation of the world and not based on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in those appointed. The Spirit irresistibly enables the sinner to repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ, and persevere in that faith, so that salvation is entirely of God's grace and not of human merit or works. We enjoy now the blessing of union with Christ and secure relationship with God, while we await the final consummation of our hope with the return of Christ, the resurrection of our bodies and life with him eternally.
About the Spirit in the believer's life
We believe the Holy Spirit is also God, co-equal with the Father and the Son. He indwells all true believers and His role is to bring glory to Jesus Christ, making Jesus Christ central in all things. The Spirit works to illuminate believers’ minds to grasp the truth of the Bible, producing in them his fruit, granting them his gifts, and empowering them for service.
About the church
We believe that the visible church is the gathering of believers around Christ in his word. It is a community of people intended by God to bear witness to him and actively seek the extension of his rule. We do this through the proclamation of the gospel and the teaching of God’s word, prayer, fellowship and exercising of our gifts for the building up of body, and by observing the ordinances gifted to the church by Christ—water baptism and the Lord’s Supper.