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What
is our purpose?
As a result of our great salvation, we want to live with God as Father,
Jesus as Lord, and the Holy Spirit as Guide.
This will all result in a life that is characterised by Loving
God; Loving each other; and
Loving the lost.
Please
click below for further explanation...
| Loving
God: |
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A
Christian seeks to love God by knowing God through His Word and obeying
Him.
- The
Bible teaches that ‘No-one has ever seen God but God the One and Only
who is at the Father’s side has made Him known’. We
remain completely ignorant of God unless God takes the initiative and
reveals Himself to us. God has done that in the Bible. The Bible is His
Word to us about Himself. Jesus is the Word who became a man. The Bible
is therefore a book all about Jesus. As we study the Bible we learn
more about Jesus and so we learn more about God. As we know God more so
we love Him more.
- We
place the utmost importance on the preaching and teaching of that Word.
We believe that when God’s Word is explained correctly, God’s voice is
heard. Everything in our Sunday meetings is designed to facilitate the
hearing of God’s Word. Our meetings on Sundays are purposefully not
over-emotional, nor bound by tradition. We try and avoid religious
jargon. This means that anyone (whether Christian or not) who is
invited to our meetings will be able to clearly understand the message
of the Bible.
- We
encourage all ages to hear the bible being explained, so
at CCU we have Children’s Church catering for all ages and a cry room
enabling mums of babies to come and hear the Bible. On Sunday mornings
we also have teen-talk, which is the Bible explained for teenagers.
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On a smaller more intimate scale - our ‘Knowing God’
groups meet weekly in various homes in order to search
and study the Scriptures and hear God speak. ‘Knowing God’ is an
interactive study, enabling us to participate and encourage each other
to grow.
- We
love God by responding to His Word in prayer and obedient living.
In regard to prayer, we pray in all our meetings, but specifically we
set aside certain meetings in order to pray such as our ‘Prayer and
Pudding’ Evenings and our regular Sunday morning prayer meetings. All
through the week small groups of two and three people meet to pray.
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We
love God by listening to his word and respond by obedient living.
We daily seek to apply God's word to our lives as He changes us in
response to serious contextual and relevant application of His Word to
our lives.
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| Loving
Each Other: |
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A
Christian seeks to love the family of God by :
- Coming
together on Sundays. The Bible teaches us not to ‘stop
meeting together as some are in the habit of doing but let us encourage
each other’. We meet on Sundays to encourage each other to keep going
as Christians.
- We
meet in the Knowing God groups to get to know each other and care for
each other. These groups are the primary means by which
we care for each other.
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It's
important that we practise hospitality showing practical love for each
other by inviting each other to fellowship meals. This
enables us to get to know each other intimately and to pray for one
another.
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We
also love each other through many other practical ways
such as prayer chains, financial support, visiting each other and
providing meals for others in times of distress etc.
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We
also seek to encourage relationships with other Christians outside our
immediate community and in particular with those who
share the same commitment to the Word of God. We value our partnerships
with other churches in our particular denomination.
- We
specifically look for ways to partner those Christians who have less
worldly wealth than us.
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We
actively promote prayer partners and prayer triplets.
These small groups are a great way to express love and care for each
other.
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| Loving
the Lost: |
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A
Christian seeks to love those who are still under God’s wrath, who have
not been forgiven their sins and do not know the wonderful news of
Jesus Christ.
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The
primary way by which we love the lost is by telling them
- those we know at work, friends, and family - the good news about
Jesus.
- We
focus our best energy on speaking the truth in love. We
try to warn people in a down-to-earth manner with no emotional or
psychological manipulation.
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As
Christians we are passionate about the glory of God. God’s
is glorified as we make disciples of Jesus Christ. We therefore strive
to make evangelism our utmost priority.
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As
was already said, our meetings on Sundays are purposefully not
over-emotional, nor traditional. We try and avoid religious jargon.
This means that anyone who is invited to our meetings will be able to
clearly understand the message of the Bible.
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At
the Sunday Meetings and the Knowing God groups during the week we try
to keep things simple and the teaching clear so that those who have
never been to a church or a bible study can hear the Bible being
clearly explained. Our meetings always concluded with an
open question time to encourage newcomers to ask about the things that
are not easy to understand.
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We
host a variety of events at various venues, away from the church
building that present an opportunity to invite non-Christian friends to
hear the gospel in a non-threatening environment. These
include music evenings, ‘Grill-a-Christian’ evenings, event evenings,
Restaurant Dinners etc.
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From
time to time we run courses that introduce Jesus Christ such as ‘Down
to Earth’, ‘Food for Thought’ or ‘Christianity Explored’.
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What we stand for