our values

Love God 

“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 

We are amazed that God should love us and send his Son to die for undeserving people like us, and so we respond with a joy-filled love for the God who loved us first. We long and pray that our love for him would grow more and more as we grow to know him better, and that our love for God would be shown in every area of our lives through lives of growing faith and obedience. We grow in our experience of God’s love, and in our loving response to him, as we hear him speak to us personally and dynamically through his word, the Bible. This happens as his word is preached  each Sunday, and also as all members of Grace Church “speak the truth in love” (Eph 4:15) to each  other throughout the week.

Love God’s People 

“As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34 

God has adopted each of his children into his family through the Lord Jesus, so we are committed to one another as a family who love one another deeply, showing the costly love that Jesus showed for us. Since God is the one who meets our needs, we pray for each other’s needs regularly. Sharing meals together is a central part of the way we express our love for each other and our community life. And as we build relationships with those who don’t know Christ, we long to introduce them to  the Christian community, since we believe the love of the Christian community is a powerful demonstration of who God is. As communities of grace, we are committed to welcoming broken people and making church accessible to unbelievers. We want to offer a sense of belonging in which people can be open and vulnerable, and we want our church community to be a safe place where people can share problems and hurts. 

Love God’s World 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him  shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 

The Bible says that everyone is made in God's image, so we want to love the people in our community by seeking to meet the needs of those we come into contact with. But the biggest need we all have is to hear the good news that Jesus died and rose to forgive our sins and bring  us to eternal life. So we are committed to the mission of making disciples of the Lord Jesus in every corner of our communities and of the world. We seek as a church to announce this good news locally to our friends, family, neighbours, and to other sections of our communities in any way we can. We aim to do this through everyday conversations in shared life as much as through organised  events or meetings. Making disciples is not just about seeing people become followers of Christ, but also about seeing them grow to maturity in Christ that they too might become disciple-makers. We also partner with global mission partners seeking to make disciples in other nations. Recognising that God is the primary agent and orchestrator of mission, we view prayer as a critical missionary activity.