What We Believe
MISSION STATEMENT
Our Mission Statement, which highlights our predominant vision and the centrality of Jesus Christ, is:
Following Jesus, permeating society, transforming lives … together.
We are by God’s grace “following Jesus” so that we will ‘grow up into (union with) Him who is the Head, that is, Christ’ (Ephesians 4:15).
We are “permeating society,” as Christ’s ambassadors, working with him ‘to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ’ (Ephesians 1:10), because God has given us ‘the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ’ (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
We seek to engage with the person of the Spirit in his work of “transforming lives” so ‘that we may present everyone perfect (i.e., complete and mature) in (their union with) Christ’ (Col 1:28), doing this ‘with all his energy’ (Colossians 1:29).
Finally, we work and worship “together” because Jesus prayed, ‘that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you’ (John 17:21), that we may ‘be brought to complete unity’ (John 17:23); and because ‘we are members of his body’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 5:30).
We are on a journey together following Jesus Christ in the dynamic of the Spirit, participating in what he is doing among us.
VISION & STRATEGY
At the centre of everything that MPBC is (our being) and does (our ministry) is a person: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is our vision. We are part of His body in the world, participating in the Father’s work by the Spirit.
There are nine key areas that shape our direction and fulfil our strategic intent. Our Vision and Mission along with these overarching strategic areas of focus inform all of our ministries.
Prayer
We acknowledge our dependence on the Holy Spirit for our participation in God’s transforming mission. Every aspect of life and work in our church will be bathed in prayer to our Father through Jesus Christ by the Spirit.
Pastoral Care
Our love and care for one another is central to who we are in Christ. Access to pastoral care is vital for all members of the church family and our heart is to reach out in love to those in wider community as the Lord leads. Small groups are the heartbeat of the church, an opportunity for people to grow together in Christ as they fellowship, worship, pray, study the Scriptures, share, listen to one another and receive and give pastoral care.
Corporate Gatherings
These Sunday gatherings are a critical part of our body life together. Their primary purpose is to meet with Christ, edify and equip and build up each other and to glorify God. These gatherings will also proclaim Christ to those not yet Christians.
Community: Intergenerational Culture and Diversity
We seek a Christian community with a strong sense of family and inclusivity, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, social/economic standing or ability. Our heart is to know and experience the diversity of the body of Christ and recognise the immense value of families and generations doing life together.
Spiritual Formation: Growth and Discipleship
We are participants in God’s transformational purposes in Christ. God’s heart is to continue to transform us into His image as we grow and mature in Him; God is more interested in character and maturity than skills and performance. Our ministry is participation in God’s work of transforming the community of faith until we are blameless at the coming of Christ; we are yet individually and corporately unfinished work living in the “already” but “not yet” of the kingdom of God.
Missional Heart: Outward Looking
We seek to actively participate in God’s mission to unify all creation in Christ, whether it be locally, nearby regions or globally, seeking always to empower and equip those whom God is calling to serve. Our heart is to go out into the world and share Christ’s life with others that they may know and experience God for themselves.
Inter Church Unity and Involvement
We highly value unity both within our local body and beyond to other churches. We will seek every opportunity to express this practically, serving together and encouraging one another. The growth of healthy relationships in every aspect of church life will be our goal.
Communication
We recognise good healthy communication is essential to our effective functioning as a church community and we commit to continually updating and seeking to improve our communication channels and their effectiveness.
Operational Support: Shared Services and Stewardship
We recognise the importance of providing quality operational and administrative support to each ministry area for the efficient and effective operation of the church. Our back office and related systems and procedures are vital to ensuring the proper delivery of our ministries and the good stewardship of our resources.
Jesus Christ is the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct in the life of both churches and individuals.
STATEMENT OF FAITH
As followers of Jesus, we hold that:
- Jesus Christ alone is head of the Church.
- The Church is the community called into being by God. In both its universal and local expressions, it consists of persons who have personally and knowingly accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, and have pledged themselves to worship, follow and serve him as a priestly community.
- By his high-priestly ministry, Jesus Christ has opened the way for every believer to approach God the Father directly through him.
- Jesus Christ is the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct in the life of both churches and individuals.
- He has given to all churches and to every individual the right and responsibility to understand and to do God’s will. Therefore, being accountable to God, Christians are not to despise their fellow believers but to accept one another as Christ’s servants, allowing each other freedom of conscience. God has given to human governments the right and responsibility to promote what is just and good but not to coerce belief or practice contrary to conscience.
- There is only one God. He is infinitely good and great, and has revealed himself to be personal and triune in essential being, eternally existing as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- God speaks to us through the Bible, the sixty-six Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Being God-breathed they are fully trustworthy and supremely authoritative in all matters of faith and conduct.
- God created the heavens and the earth and all that exists in them. He continues to care for and govern his creation, working out his purposes for all he has made.
- God created humans in his image, male and female, intending that we live in fellowship with him. However, tempted by Satan, God’s adversary, the first man and woman disobeyed God. As a result we all sin, falling short in our responsibilities to love God and neighbour and to care for the world.
- Despite our sin, which alienates us from God and rightly deserves his judgment, God, because of his grace and great love for all people, sent his Son into the world to save us. The incarnate Son, Jesus of Nazareth, was conceived by the virgin Mary through the Holy Spirit. Fully human and fully divine, he lived on earth a sinless life of perfect obedience. He died on the cross as a sacrifice on our behalf and in our place, redeeming us from the penalty and power of sin and triumphing over Satan. He was raised bodily from the dead and ascended to his Father’s presence where he lives forever as our great High Priest and reigns as Lord of all.
- The Gospel, the good news concerning Jesus Christ and his reconciling work, is God’s powerful way of bringing salvation. All who respond in repentance and faith God sets right with himself, forgiving and cleansing them from sin, giving them his Holy Spirit and eternal life, and incorporating them into his church.
- The Holy Spirit gives new life to all believers and resides in them permanently. He makes them holy, and enables them to grow into the likeness of Christ. Through his Spirit God empowers all his people for life and witness, granting them various gifts for the well-being, functioning and mission of the church.
- While all believers belong to the universal church, God gathers them into local churches which exist to worship and serve him. Jesus Christ, the head of the church, has established both baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is the immersion of believers on their profession of faith, an act of identification with the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It involves commitment to a life of discipleship in fellowship with his people. In the Lord’s Supper, believers remember Christ’s sacrificial death, share in fellowship with their risen Lord and with one another, and look forward to his return.
- All Christians are commanded to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and their neighbours as themselves. We discover what love means in practice through searching the Scriptures, which reveal God’s character and will. Such love includes the responsibility of every Christian to participate in the proclamation of the Good News throughout the world.
- Jesus Christ will return visibly and victoriously from his Father’s presence to gather his people to himself and to complete his conquest of sin and evil. All people, both believers and unbelievers, will be raised bodily and be judged by God. Believers will enjoy eternal blessedness in God’s presence, while unbelievers will suffer the eternal punishment of exclusion from his presence. The whole creation will be so transformed that righteousness will characterise the new heavens and the new earth for ever.
