Each year we re-form the church, committing to walk together for another twelve months. The commitment is not focused on private spiritual disciplines, but on the attitudes and practices which shape and contribute to life in the body of Christ.
WE BELIEVE that God calls us to be the body of Christ and a sign of God’s culture in this time and place. Therefore, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to love one another and to follow Jesus together over the coming year.
With God’s help, we will gather regularly to wrestle with the Scriptures, pray, sing, play, eat, and work together, for in participating in these practices we will grow in loving communion with God and one another.
- At a personal level, this means putting church attendance in your diary; regularly staying for a chat afterwards; perhaps inviting other members of the congregation to a meal or a cuppa; perhaps participating in a prayer group or other joint project with other people in the church.
With God’s help, we will include young and old in our common life, for every one of us is on a journey of discipleship and every one of us has gifts to share, whether infant, child, teen, or adult.
- At a personal level, this means having conversations with people of all ages, not just with your peers or members of your own household.
With God’s help, we will invite others to join us and welcome every visitor just as Christ welcomes us, for Jesus both models a generous hospitality and meets us in the stranger’s guise.
- At a personal level, this means inviting people to services, greeting visitors, and befriending newcomers.
With God’s help, we will support the work of the church, contributing time and money as we are able, for the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, and giving is a way to rehearse this joyful reality and to shoulder our share of the load.
- At a personal level, this means allocating both time and money to the church as you are able (you may have already done this through the pledging process).
With God’s help, we will seek justice, reconciliation, wholeness, and peace for ourselves, our households, our workplaces, our neighbourhoods, our region, our nation, and the whole of creation, for it is for this work that God is calling us.
- At a personal level, this means committing to ongoing growth in self-understanding and love, as well as seeking to be loving, sacrificial and Christ-like in every sphere of life.
We commit to these things in freedom, faith, hope, and love, acknowledging that we will fail, and be forgiven, and be asked to try again, and that God’s grace will always be with us. Ω
Sanctuary 