We believe that in the Bible we have a record of both who God is, particularly as revealed in Jesus Christ, and how he relates to his people. We also believe that it is relevant today as the main way in which God continues to speak to us. Therefore, we seek to ensure that everything that we do is consistent with the Bible and use it to check on everything that God is saying to us.
It's been a heartfelt desire to come together to pray to see God do something after His own heart here on the Isle of Dogs. Every Monday night we pray as a church, a desire that grew out of a vision of one of the members of the church to pray for, and be available to pray for, everyone in the area who does not know Christ. Needs for prayer are texted or emailed or phoned through to the people meeting for prayer.
Our desire is to see God-given leadership in place in our church, leaders with a faith that is worth imitating (Hebrews 13 v7). Leaders with a humility that grows from a dependence on God, leaders with accountability to the church for the way they live and the decisions they make.
We also encourage 'career development' within church, the opportunity to see new leaders trained up. They meet regularly with Terry our senior pastor to explore church life and the part they can play.
We seek to recognise that the early church were filled and needed to be re-filled with Holy Spirit in order to live for Jesus. In Ephesians 5 v18 the command is to "...go on being filled with the Spirit... from that filling flows singing, music and giving thanks to God... for everything..."
At the heart of our approach is John 3 v 14, 15 and 12 v 32 that as the Son of Man (Jesus) is lifted up so he will draw all people to himself. Our desire is to keep on lifting up the name of Jesus and to see Him draw all sorts of people to himself.
We are a church who have a vision to grow numerically and in depth in order to impact the communities around us for Jesus.
a) We want to increase our care and concern for one another, to make sure others are doing OK rather than focusing on how we're doing.
b) Worship through praise, music, song and prayer are important to us as we have so much to sing about! We want to be a church of celebration of who our God is, what he has done for us and what he will do. Israel knew their God and sang, clapped, danced and shouted for their God.
c) Under this heading we include our children who have special time on a Sunday and who we're trying to include in church in every way we can.
We want to develop a heart for mission that starts here in the Isle of Dogs but spreads out to include the rest of the world. We have yet to make a lot of progress on this area but our senior pastor and his wife are ex-missionaries so there is an encouragement to go for it! We are also finding that God is bringing the nations to us as we become increasingly international as church.