How do we see ourselves as a church community? What values do we hold as important?
Certain guiding principles will help to shape us and guide us in our journey of faith.
Here are some of ours. There could be more, but these are a flavour of what we believe is important for us at this time.
We can accomplish nothing of value without prayer! Prayer is a two-way communication with God, a powerful means of working with him in his good purposes for the world. Prayer is integral and essential to all we do as a church.
God is a hospitable God! He extends a welcome to all who will come to him. We believe that showing hospitality, love and a welcome to others is to reflect and demonstrate God's heart towards them.
The church is God's household, with God himself as the perfect Father. Not everyone has had a good experience of fatherhood or family in their lives, but the church should be a living example and an environment where people consistently experience what a loving family and healthy relationships are like.
God delights in speaking and acting though all kinds of people, weak or strong, young or old. We believe God can be experienced by and communicate through children as much as adults. Our children are therefore just as much part of the church as anyone else and we value their involvement.
We are not all gifted evangelists, but we are all called to be witnesses of what God has done in our lives. This will happen in many different ways, according to the personalities and gifts God has given us, but the task of spreading the message about God and helping people respond to it is for everyone.
We have confidence in the message of the gospel (the good news) of Christ as the "power of God for salvation", and in the Scriptures (the Bible) as the written word of God.
We also seek to maintain a conscious dependence on and openness to the guiding of God the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the work of the church.
If either of these is missing, or out of balance, then we will not be effective. By holding on to both of these, we seek to be a vibrant and powerful testimony of Jesus in our locality and beyond.
Jesus is the perfect expression of the servant heart of God. In his life of selfless service and his sacrificial death, he gave us an example to follow. As Christ-followers, we are called to "pick up our cross daily", to live sacrificially for others, just as Jesus did.
Sometimes, being a disciple of Jesus will cost us. We do not live for ourselves alone. Placing others' needs ahead of our own is part of being truly human, made in God's image.
The very early Christian believers met frequently to share the amazing new life they had found in Jesus. They did this in two ways: eating meals together with joy in each others' homes, and gathering in the courts of the Temple in Jerusalem - presumably in larger numbers, to hear the apostles teach and to testify to their new faith in Jesus.
In the same way, we have two main expressions of our church life that we see as important: First, real life happens around a table! We gather (usually fortnightly, during the week) around a table to share food, fun, fellowship and to encourage one another in our faith. We share personal stories, Bible passages and "gifts of the Holy Spirit", praying for one another and grappling with what God is teaching us right now. Secondly, we gather weekly on most Sunday mornings at Loughborough Town Hall for worship and teaching, with plenty of opportunity for all to contribute, responding to the Holy Spirit as God inspires each one, using their unique gifts to encourage and stir others.