Vision & Values

Under the Lordship of Christ

Everything we do, we want to do it for the honour of Jesus and in obedience to his Word.

Loves

We want to love God, who first loved us, and we want to show that love in all our relationships

Engages

We want to engage with the community in which we live, so that we can share the Gospel of Christ and see people come into relationship with Him.

Grows

By the grace of God, we are confident that our church can grow spiritually, developing disciples of Jesus Christ. We would expect that as a consequence we would also grow numerically.

In our five year plan, we have identified these relationships as vital for us if we are to achieve our mission. We sought to define what we would need to do in each of these relationships

God

In five years God would be pleased with us if He sees that we have built up the body of Christians to be Christ-like, been good evangelists and been faithful to Biblical values.

Congregation

In five years we will have achieved our aims if we are growing spiritually and seeing increasing numbers coming to faith, that we are prayerful and developing loving nurturing relationships; and that we are prepared to support our vision with our time, abilities and resources.

Leadership

In five years we will have achieved our vision if the leadership of our church has been faithful to biblical values and developed the resources needed to have a growing church; and if our leaders have mobilised our members in Christian service in accordance with their gifts, and nurtured the next generation of leaders.

Local Community

In five years we will be on target if the local community see us as a ‘community church’ (that is, very closely linked with the local community) because we are engaged in reaching out to the needs there, and we are perceived as being relevant and challenging

Wider Church

In five years we will have done well if, in the Worldwide Church we are a sending and receiving church; with likeminded churches we are co-operative in worship and witness; and with other churches – we co-operate in local events and causes, and speak the truth in love; and we seek a constructive and supportive role within the wider Church of Ireland

What behaviours do we need to engage in to achieve our vision?

We want to:

• live under the Lordship of Christ, living all of life in an act of worship to Jesus.
• submit ourselves to the Bible, which is the Word of God.
• be prayerful in all things.
• be people who are authentic, honest and open in our dealings with one another and with the wider community.
• value other people by living in unity in our church community and by serving other people as the body of Christ.
• be people of grace, in the way we act in our relationships.
• support Godly leadership in our church community.
• demonstrate a concern for the lost by sharing the Good News of Jesus.
• be good stewards of the Lord’s money, and generous in sharing it with those in need.

We need to engage in the following activities to achieve our vision:

Worship

We are planned for God’s pleasure

We want to be a Christ-centred, Bible based, church with prayerful,
authentic and relevant worship both collectively and individually.

Fellowship

We were formed for God’s family

We want to be a Biblical, prayerful, loving and caring community.

Discipleship

We were created to become like Christ

We want to be a community in which Christ is Lord, where we are good stewards of Christ’s gifts (both spiritual and material), and we live consistently with Christ’s teaching.

Ministry

We were shaped for service

We want to be servants of Jesus and each other, using our gifts in love to encourage and serve each other.

Mission

We were made for mission

We want to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus in a way that is relevant, engaging, caring and radical, and to support the work of the Gospel in the wider world.