Discipleship
We want to build an authentic community of believers by encouraging open, honest and accountable relationships to enable each other to grow in our relationship with Christ.
We want to be welcoming to everyone who wants to be part of our church family. We want to develop and encourage small groups and their leaders to pray, learn, grow and share.
We want to be a prayerful community of believers who expect God to move when we pray.
We want to develop and use a variety of tools and resources to help believers learn and develop in their relationship with God and in wholeness.
We want to care for those in need through pastoral and practical support.
We want to develop a discipleship culture within the life of the church and we want to be creative with how that is out-worked in our lives.
Our Gatherings
We love meeting together regularly and we are happy to try new styles and be creative with how our Sunday morning meetings and other gatherings are put together… but some things won’t change:
We want to exuberantly, wholeheartedly, passionately worship God with everything we have.
We want to be a praying church, hungry for God’s power to work in and through us.
We want to equip the church through sound, creative teaching which encourages further study and small group discussion.
We want the Holy Spirit to be consistently welcomed and to expect and pray for Him to move with freedom.
We want to be a welcoming, friendly, inclusive and hospitable church.
The Next Generation
We love our children and young people and we want our church to be a positive, safe and fun place for them to be.
We want to encourage, challenge, teach, release and equip our kids and youth to impact their schools, colleges, friends and families with God’s love. We want to encourage our kids and youth to serve in the life of the church and therefore we want to give them opportunities to get involved right at the heart of church life.
Unity
We believe it is important to speak well of other congregations and we will seek to promote and support the vision and work of other churches in the town.
We want to continue to work and invest in town-wide initiatives through our involvement with the Church in Burton. We also want to continue our links and accountability with the Pioneer Network of churches.
Family
The church is God’s family… and God’s family includes kids and adults, old and young, married and single and people from different cultures and backgrounds. We believe that everyone has an important part to play in God’s family, the church.
We want everyone to be able to identify their passions and giftings and to encourage each other in areas where we can use these passions inside and outside the church family, to be everything that God has called us to be.
We want to encourage a culture of grace and belonging in church where we love each other by:
• Speaking well of each other
• Accepting each other
• Forgiving each other
• Having fun together
• Caring for each other
• Encouraging each other
Outreach
We want our love for Jesus to impact the people we meet, work with and live near and for His love to make a difference to the communities around us.
We want to encourage and empower everyone to actively love, disciple and reach their sphere of influence so that the Good News of Jesus impacts workplaces, schools, politics, businesses, education, community groups, neighbours and friends.
We want to grow our impact in the areas where we live and work in order to communicate and practically demonstrate the love of God.
We want to further develop Burton CAP Centre and to continue to build links with other organisations that seek to impact the communities around us.
We want to regularly provide opportunities for people who don’t know Jesus to come to church and for our services to be culturally relevant.
We want to provide opportunities through Alpha Courses and social events for people to find out more about Christianity in a non-threatening environment.
International
We are committed to supporting work in other countries. These include:
The Nahimana family and their project – Restoration of Hope (RoH) in Burundi. RoH started with the vision of helping street boys by changing their environment to give them a family, a home and an education. Honda and Libby (and their family) have seen the work grow and are now working with boys & girls of all ages.
We want to continue to pray, provide pastoral support and give financially to work overseas. We want to encourage people to visit projects that we are specifically linked to.