Mission & Values

Our mission is

“To be a spiritual home where everyone can belong and fulfil their potential in Jesus”.

We’re big on the small – Our priority context is Home Church where people will experience fellowship; sharing life; transparency; teaching; worship; prayer ministry; discipling; developing gifts & leadership and pastoral support, within a group of generally up to 12 people.

We are family – Church should feel like the best family ever. We go the extra mile for each other because we’re blood-related in Jesus.

Making disciples who make disciples – While conversions are obviously fantastic (and a great excuse for a party), conversion is where the work starts to ensure that each person fulfils their potential in Jesus. We don’t want anyone to feel that they are in a “stuck” place. We mine for gold, and take risks on releasing people into leadership (with coaching support) wherever possible. Every leader’s first responsibility is to be asking the question “Who’s replacing me?” and to start work training those people.

Prayer is the engine room – We want God ideas not good ideas. Prayer is where every idea starts, and prayer maintains us on the journey, especially when times are hard. Every revival in history started with extraordinary prayer, and we want to contend for the next great awakening in the UK. We will engage with materials from 24-7 Prayer to equip us in our prayer journey.

Unleash creativity – We want to recognize the transformative effect that all forms of Christian art can have on culture and our own souls. We will seek to gather a creative community and create spaces where we can express creativity as a form of worship.

Any excuse for a party – Jesus spent a lot of time teaching over food, and we will be a social church who eats together and invites those outside to share our table. We will find reasons to celebrate, feast and connect socially, as this is just as important as the more traditional spiritual elements to the model we want to create.

Radical hospitality – We welcome everyone, recognising that all are made in God’s image and equally loved by Him. We’re not in the judgement business,  that’s above our pay grade, and we don’t expect people who don’t know God to behave like those of us who do.

“Have a go” heroes – The concept of the culture of “Try” originated with pastor Jordan Seng (Hawaii – tough parish – we’ll look to visit…) We will break through the normal hesitancy to share our faith by creating a culture that celebrates the effort of “having a go”, even when it ends in abject failure (Seng has annual awards including most spectacular fail). The more we try the more likely we are to find the “person of peace”.

Joyfully or not at all – If there’s no one who can implement a good idea joyfully, then it’s either not a good idea, or its time has not yet come. Serving the church should be a joyous and satisfying experience, not a burden – life is hard enough without creating more heavy yokes for people to bear.

Telling the story – Everyone will be able to tell God’s great story of redemption, and their story of joining God’s story. We will publicly celebrate the day to day stories, big and small, of God’s goodness at work in our lives.

If it’s not growing, it’s dying – In nature all living things grow and multiply to stay alive. Jesus used many analogies for the Kingdom, all pointing to growth. We will be continually focused on how any ministry or individual can grow, and what barriers need to be addressed to enable this. We will encourage ministries and people to set themselves spiritual growth goals and be accountable about their development towards them. We will also recognise that some ideas have a shelf life and there is a “time to die” beyond which they will tend to create burden and not joy for those involved.

Counter-culturally relevant – We will not shy away from the gospel being an offense to modern culture, but will work hard theologically and practically to make the Christian faith relevant to that culture nonetheless.

Accessible accountability – With the many recent leadership scandals in the news we want to make sure that everyone in positions of influence can be held accountable by anyone in the community through well communicated; easily understood and accessible processes. Best practice in areas relating to legal and regulatory obligations, through trusteeship, will be a priority.

Resilience in redundancy – As far as possible, no one should be indispensable, including the Senior Pastors. We always look for team, not star players. Church life should be able to carry on as normal if anyone is temporarily or permanently absent.

Foundational Bible Verses

“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.”

Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47 NLT

Father to the fatherless, defender of widows — this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.

Psalm 68:5-6a NLT