Christian Ethos
Being a Christian involves affirming a very specific set of beliefs about God, Jesus and humanity, and consequently living in a particular kind of way.
We believe that One God made everything that exists and that Jesus Christ is His Son and our Saviour: Jesus was, and is, perfectly God and perfectly human. He fulfilled God's plan to heal the whole world by destroying the powers of destruction from the inside out. He died on the cross, rose to new bodily life, went up into heaven and sends God's Holy Spirit to anyone who believes in Him. The Holy Spirit reconnects us with God by bringing us into relationship with Jesus. This means that God our Heavenly Father counts us as His adopted children. We will inherit eternal life with God when we die and we enjoy a new quality of life in the here and now. And so....
We are members of God's family: in Jesus God has saved us and brought us home. Over time, we start to take on the characteristics of the children of God: we start being transformed into the likeness of Jesus. This makes us more truly ourselves and more different to other people, not less. We are all works in progress, we are all at different stages of maturity and repair, but the Holy Spirit binds us together in love. This means that even while God is healing us, He enables us to reveal glimpses of His nature: love, forgiveness, faithfulness, grace, mercy, peace, patience, power and wisdom. And so...
We do our best for God: we work hard at letting Him work in us and through us. This means that we grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus; we study and apply God's written word (the Bible); we get lost in worship; we fast, pray and prophesy; we co-operate with the Holy Spirit, letting Him live in us, change us and move among us; we declare and celebrate what God has done for us by baptizing people as Christian believers and by sharing Holy Communion.... and we throw our energies into joining with God in making the world new and beautiful.