A Community of believers in Jesus Christ
Our Mission is to be a community of believers in Jesus Christ, devoted to loving God, loving others and making disciples.
How does this work out in everyday life?
First, we seek to be a Community. What does that look like?
What is a Community anyway? One definition is ‘a group of people who share common interests, characteristics or culture’.
The early church, as recorded in the book of Acts, “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship.”
At the heart of Community is ‘Fellowship’, a translation of the Greek word ‘koinonia’, which expresses our Christian life: what we share as Christian believers.
The well-known Christian writer John Stott puts it this way:
It bears witness to two complementary truths, namely what we share in and what we share out.
First, koinonia expresses what we share in together, especially the grace of God. Authentic fellowship is trinitarian fellowship, our common participation in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Many factors separate us – ethnicity, nationality, culture, gender and age – but we are united in having the same Heavenly Father, the same Saviour and Lord, and the same indwelling Spirit. It is our common share in Him and in His grace that makes us one.
Secondly, koinonia expresses what we share out together. Koinonia is the word Paul uses to refer to the collection he was organising among the Greek churches for the benefit of the poverty-stricken churches in Judea.
And the adjective koinonikos means ‘generous’.