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OBJECTS
The objects of the church shall be:
- To provide for regular united worship of God.
- To provide balanced teaching from scriptures and consistent with them.
- To strengthen and encourage members through fellowship and pastoral care.
- To foster individual and corporate prayer in all matters and especially for fellow Christians.
- To encourage obedience in baptism and observance of the Lord's supper.
- To evangelise the neighbourhood; receiving, helping and nurturing those who are searching for God, in order to lead them into a personal relationship with Him through Christ; and maintaining an interest in evangelism elsewhere.
- To bear witness to God's standards of righteousness and love and to show compassion to the needy.
- To maintain at all times active fellowship and shared objectives with like-minded churches and other bodies.
DECLARATION OF BELIEF
The Scriptures
We believe in the plenary inspiration by the Holy Spirit of the Old and New Testaments and accept them as the entirely trustworthy, supreme and final authority for faith and life. e.g. iiTim 3:16, 17
God - His Nature
We believe in one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, sovereign in creation, providence, revelation, redemption and final judgement. Each of the Three Persons of the Godhead has distinct personal attributes, without division of nature, essence or being.
God the Father
We believe in God the Father, who sent the Son to be propitiation for sin and who is the Father of all believers.
Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God, being of one substance with the Father. Being born of the Virgin Mary, he became man, perfectly fulfilled the law of God and in the will of God suffered and died on the cross shedding His blood for the salvation of mankind. He rose again from the dead on the third day and ascended to the Father. He ever lives to make intercession for us; He is the only Mediator between God and man and is Head of the Church. He will come again personally, visibly and in glory at the end of this age to judge the living and the dead.
The Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, being of one substance with the Father and the Son. He works in us to convict of sin, to awaken faith and regenerate us by the merits of the work of Christ. He indwells all believers and His ministry is to sanctify us and conform us to the likeness of Christ, to teach, guide and empower for life and service, and to glorify Christ.
Man - His Fallen Nature
We believe that God created man in His own image that by his sin and disobedience man fell and thereby incurred the penalty of death, physical and spiritual. In this way sin entered the world, and death and a corrupt nature became the inheritance of all mankind.
Man - His Redemption
We believe that God, out of His great love, has acted in Jesus Christ His Son to redeem mankind by His sacrificial death. This redemption is the possession of those who by faith receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
Justification
We believe that justification is an act of God's grace in which He forgives us, accounts us as righteous and receives us into His family. This act is based not on anything we have done or promise to do, but on the atonement made by Christ and received by us through faith alone.
Sanctification
We believe that sanctification consists in the progressive conformation of believers to the likeness of Christ by the Holy Spirit and takes place amid a constant struggle between the flesh and the spirit. Sanctification has its starting point in justification and while the two concepts are distinguishable they are inseparable.
The Church
We believe that the church is the body of Christ and is composed of all true believers in every age. It finds visible expression in the local church in which public worship, praise and prayer are offered, the Scriptures are taught and the ordinances of Christ regularly observed.
The Ordinances
We believe that there are two ordinances given by Christ to His church, not as essential to salvation but as acts of worship and obedience: - The Lord's supper and baptism.
The Hereafter
We believe that at death the believer is received into the presence of Christ. We believe in the final resurrection of all, the eternal happiness of the believer in the presence of God; and the eternal punishment of the unbeliever in banishment from the presence of God.
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