Back in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his famous ʼ95 Thesesʼ to the door of Wittenburg Church, so
launching the Protestant Reformation. Like him, and the Reformers who followed, we are convinced that: 1. We are saved by Grace Alone, and we respond by faith alone. Itʼs Godʼs generousity, and not our own pale attempts to be good or religious or impressive that bring us into his family. Our response is to rely on the sacrifice of Jesus (his death on the cross), and to keep relying on him to the end. Thatʼs all. He does the saving, we do the trusting. Thatʼs faith.
2. Our leader and mediator is Christ alone. No Pope, Priest, or Pastor is going to stand between us and God the Father, because Jesus is the perfect mediator. Thatʼs why weʼre led by ordinary people who are appointed from the church as elders, and by other ordinary people who are well trained as Bible Teachers (see below). None of our leaders are super spiritual, and none of them will ever pretend to stand between you and God. Just go straight to Jesus instead.
3. We are guided by Scripture alone. Not that the Bible tells us how to fix the car or tells us
whatʼs on TV this week, but that when it comes to knowing the mind of God, we donʼt depend on
visions or feelings or traditions or even human reason – but Godʼs revelation of himself in his Word.
Thatʼs why we keep pushing the idea of clear, Christ centred Bible teaching.
4. The glory belongs to God alone. Which follows from all the above. We thank God for saving
us, and live out that gratitude.

Back when people drove FJ Holdens and watched black and white TVs, Christianity was a respected part of Australian culture. Well… grudgingly respected. Christian values were assumed to be right, Christian leaders were respected in the community, and people were pretty much in the church habit. At least at Christmas and Easter. Australia is no longer like that. We realise weʼre a minority. We realise most people donʼt automatically endorse Christian values just because we ʻsay so.ʼ We donʼt expect people to know much about Church. We expect to start from the ground up, and show graciously and tell clearly why itʼs still worth trusting and following Jesus – without assuming that everyone else will think weʼre right. In other words, we realise weʼre living in a post- Christendom world.

Weʼre not dualists. Well, okay, you probably didnʼt think we were. But dualists like to think thereʼs a split between ʻthe spiritualʼ and ʻthe earthly.ʼ (Sometimes people call it ʻthe sacred and the profane.ʼ) Itʼs an attitude that creeps in everywhere. But because the Bible says ʻthe earth and everything in it belongs to the Lord,” and because Jesus took on flesh and became very much part of our world, and because God ʻso loved the worldʼ… we think itʼs a mistake to draw a line between ʻchurchʼ and ʻlifeʼ, or ʻSundayʼ and ʻthe rest of the weekʼ, or ʻbeing Christianʼ and ʻbeing a worker.ʼ When weʼre in church we act and talk like ordinary people who follow Jesus. In every other part of life we do the same. Our worship isnʼt reserved for Sunday services… we think God is worth serving full time. Weʼre not dualists.

Because of the ʻScripture aloneʼ thing (above) and because Jesus says “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God,” we structure our church meetings around hearing from the Bible. We say that weʼre on about clear, Christ-centred Bible teaching for a reason. Unclear Bible teaching thatʼs centred on rules and laws and moralism and prophecies and speculations distracts people from Jesus. But Jesus says bluntly in John 5:39 “You (religious people) study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” Ultimately, weʼre hungry for Bible teaching that digs deep, analyses clearly, and applies perceptively and with punch in a way that directs attention to the life that is in Jesus. We want to teach the Bible in a way that engages hearts and engages minds and engages lives. Every now and then (thank God) it actually happens that way.

God has always been in the business of gathering a people of his own. The bible is full of it, from cover to cover… first the community called “Israel”, and then the community called “church.” A key distinctive of church is the way weʼll love one another in very practical ways. A second key distinctive is meant to be the way weʼre always open to anyone who wants to join. Itʼs easy to get cosy and familiar with one another and ʻenjoy the loveʼ – but we donʼt want to form comfortable cliques or in-groups, and weʼll always be ready to say “welcome.”

Because of Godʼs generosity to us, we want to pay it forward and be generous to others. That motivates us to serve in all kinds of situations. As a church, we love pooling our resources to make a real difference to real needs, with strategic service projects played out around our neighbourhoods, our city and our world. Feel free to join in – generously.

Yep, seriously. Weʼre so pleased to be saved by Godʼs grace through faith in Jesus that we want people to hear about it, trust Jesus, and grow as his followers. Our mission is not to be corny, or offensive, or ungracious, or arrogant – but to give Jesus the credit for the good things heʼs doing in us and through us. And to be clear about what weʼre on about, so we can easily explain it. And to be open and welcoming as a church community, so that anyone can join us, any time, and catch on to what weʼre on about. In technical terms, weʼre “Evangelical” – weʼre all evangelists. In a good way. Weʼre simply growing followers of Jesus who want to grow more followers of Jesus.

We love change. Especially when itʼs change that God is making in our lives by His Spirit. We expect to gradually grow more gracious, more generous, more good… and lots of other things that donʼt start with ʻgʼ as well. In short, we expect to be always growing as followers of Jesus. We also expect change in all kinds of other ways too, and welcome it – because we donʼt want church to become like a museum piece. Weʼre always keen to try new stuff.

We look forward to Godʼs promised restoration of all creation (otherwise known as Heaven) because we know weʼre not there yet. Jesus gave us a glimpse of what itʼs going to look like when he healed the sick, raised the dead and wiped away tears. And it looks great. But we know weʼre not there yet, so we donʼt always expect things to go well here. We expect weʼll need to grit our teeth and persevere. But weʼre looking forward with confident hope.