Our Beliefs.

King’s Community Church Beliefs

1. Saved by grace through faith in Jesus

We are saved only and entirely because of what Jesus has done on our behalf. This is the wonderful message of the New Testament. Everything that needed to be done for us to be loved and accepted and adopted into God’s family has been accomplished in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We no longer look to our own good works as the basis of our relationship with God, but trust in Jesus. He took our sin and gives us His righteousness. We are saved through faith in Jesus alone, by grace alone and not by our good works or good intentions or good efforts or good parents or even a good church (Romans 1:17, 3:28–30, 4:11–16, 5:2, 10:6, Ephesians 2:8). This is why we preach grace, teach grace, emphasise grace, and extend grace in our dealings with one another.

2. Repenting – unlike Jesus!

We start our Christian life with something that Jesus never did: we repent. Repentance requires us to recognise that, because of the wrong things we have thought and done, we are guilty before a holy God. Repentance is an active decision of the heart and mind to turn away from sin and live for God (Acts 2:38, 3:19, 17:30).

3. Baptised in water like Jesus

As we trust in Jesus, and His life and death for us, we are declared innocent. While we need to emphasise that we are saved through faith, we also need to recognise Jesus’ command and the gospel proclamation to be baptised.

Baptism in water is the universal means by which Jesus wants us to express personal faith in Him. In commanding it, we can be sure that Jesus has our best interests at heart. We encourage everyone to be baptised after personal faith in Jesus out of love and obedience to Jesus (Matthew 28:19, Acts 2:38, 8:36, 10:48, 22:16).

4. Baptised in the Holy Spirit by Jesus

The gospel comes with a gift – The “promised Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:33). The prophets looked forward to the time when the Holy Spirit would be poured out on “all people” (Joel 2:28). Jesus promised He would send the Holy Spirit to us (John 16:7) and encourages us to come to Him and ask for it (Luke 11:13, John 7:37).

While the Holy Spirit is active and present in the life of every believer, this “receiving” of the Holy Spirit is not necessarily automatic (Acts 19:2) and certainly not invisible or non–experiential (Acts 2:1–4, 8:18, 10:47, 19:1–7). We therefore want to encourage everyone to be expectant and ask the Father for this wonderful gift of the empowering presence of God.

5. Serving like Jesus

Jesus said he didn’t “come to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28), and this is the attitude of those who follow him. The church, like a body, works best when all the different parts are present and functioning well. Jesus wants every single person in His church to be serving and playing their part.

6. Being under authority like Jesus

Jesus was a man under authority (Matthew 8:9). He submitted to His Father and obeyed Him in everything (John 5:19, Luke 22:42). Through the gospel we recognise Jesus’ loving sacrificial authority over us and see it as a very good thing!

In God’s kingdom authority isn’t forced upon someone, it is received gladly. A key part of joining a local church, and an essential aspect to enable healthy growth as a Christian, is to recognise and receive Godly authority in those responsible for leading the church. At King’s we have a team of elders who lead the church and are responsible to God for the way they do it (Hebrews 13:17). They work in team, are open and accountable to one another and receive help, advice and encouragement from those with apostolic gifting. They aim to lead the church, exercising the authority Jesus has given them, in a servant hearted and sacrificial way.

7. Being in fellowship like Jesus

Jesus spent His time and lived His life in fellowship with a small number of close friends. He gave them the command to “Love one another” and said it would be a distinguishing mark of His disciples (John 13:34). Jesus also prayed that we would be one. This oneness is expressed in our relationships and the love we have for one another. While none of us are perfect, we can enjoy great relationships in the church as we understand and see Jesus’ love for us, and, by the Spirit (Galatians 5:22, 2 Timothy1:7), follow His example in the way we relate to others. Put simply: “We love because he the first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

8. Men and women for Jesus

The Bible teaches that God created us in His image as male and female (Genesis 1:16). Both men and women, therefore, have equal value and worth, and are commissioned together to “be fruitful, subdue and rule over” God’s creation (Genesis 1:28). While the fall can obscure elements of these truths, they are not erased and so in Christ we seek to live them out to the glory of God.
 
God wanted us to be like Him, having plurality and yet a oneness. While God made us to be equal in value he also made us different in our roles and responsibilities. This reflects God who is “one” yet three persons, with each person having a distinct role in the trinity. So it is with us, we are created male and female and we want to celebrate our differences as well as enjoy our unity.

When God created Adam and Eve He was also pointing to the fact that His son would one day have a bride (Ephesians 5:25). He would lovingly lead her and she would joyfully submit to Him. Though the fall damaged the relationship between men and women in ways particular to their responsibilities (Genesis 3:16–17), God continued to direct His people in ways that kept something of the equality and distinctiveness of the sexes. We see this not only through the Old Testament (Numbers 18) but also in the way the church is to be led (Mark 3, 14, 1 Corinthians 11:10, 1 Timothy 2:12, 3:2).

9. Giving like Jesus

“The Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35). It wasn’t just empty words. He gave His life up for us; and as we give we become more like Jesus. 

Our giving flows from our understanding and experience of who God is and what He has done. God in his very nature is a giving God, He is both lavish and generous (1 Timothy 1:14). The Bible tells us that God has given us his Son (John 3:16) and that God loves to give good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11). As we give ourselves to God (2 Corinthians 8:5) and experience the generosity of God in our lives (2 Corinthians 8:9); living life in a generous way soon follows. This is seen in the way we spend our time, talents and our treasure. We believe that everything we have belongs to God and we are simply stewards of (looking after) what He has given us.

At King’s we don’t want to be giving because we ‘ought’ to; to try and get in Gods good books or look good in front of other people (Matthew 6:2). We don’t want grumpy, grudging or guilt driven giving (2 Corinthians 9:7). Rather, the Bible encourages us to give, with love (1 Corinthians 13:3), as an expression of faith (James 2:15-17), willingly, eagerly, cheerfully, freely, generously, and sacrificially; that will result in people being helped, the church being built and God being praised! (2 Corinthians 8:1-9:15)

We believe that while God will resource us to be generous on every occasion, Jesus wants the focus of His activity in the world to be in and through His church. We grow and become more like Jesus as we let His passions, His agenda and His priority shape our own. If we do this we will usually focus our giving into the local church while being prayerful and faithful in giving generously as we have opportunity elsewhere.

10. Reading the Bible like Jesus

Jesus knew the Bible of His day, the Old Testament, really well. At a young age He discussed it with other teachers (Luke 2:46–47), He quoted it to overcome intense temptation (Luke 4:12) and He talked about it in His teaching (Matthew 5:38, 26:24, Mark 7:6, 14:27, Luke 7:27, 19:46). 

We too need to read and know the Bible like Jesus. Along with His first disciples and the early church we recognise the Old and New Testament as the very words of God (2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 3:16). That’s why we give a significant amount of time to preaching on Sunday mornings (Acts 2:42), and follow it up during the week in LIFE Groups. While, of course, we encourage everyone to read the Bible for themselves, a great advantage of being part of the local church is that there are those gifted at helping us get the most out of God’s word together (Ephesians 4:11).

11. Worshipping Jesus

“When they saw [Jesus], they worshipped Him” (Matthew 28:17). The universe was created through Jesus, and exists for Him (Colossians 1:16). His goodness and grace are dazzling in their intensity and beauty (Revelation 1:12–18). He took our sin on the cross and gives us His righteousness as a free gift. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 19:16). It is so fitting therefore that we worship Jesus fully and freely with every aspect of our lives.

One key expression of our worship is that we enjoy spending time together praising Jesus, thanking Him and declaring His goodness and grace. As we do so we have an expectation that God will enable different people to contribute in different ways. One may bring a word of encouragement, another a prophecy, a tongue or interpretation. Others serve in various ways publicly or behind the scenes (1 Corinthians 14:26).

12. Apostles from Jesus 

The word “apostle” means sent one. Jesus was an apostle (Hebrews 3:1, John 3:16–17, John 17:18) and called His twelve disciples apostles (Luke 6:12–13).

But that wasn’t the end of apostles. Not only did Jesus commission Paul as an apostle (Galatians 1:1) but He ascended and gave gifts of apostles to the church along with prophets, evangelists and pastor (shepherd)–teachers (Ephesians 4:8–16). These “post ascension” apostles like James (Galatians 1:19) and Barnabas (Acts 14:14) established churches on good foundations (1 Corinthians 3:10), related to them as loving fathers (1 Corinthians 4:15, 1 Thessalonians 2:8) and caught them up in the ongoing mission to the nations (Philippians 1:5, 2 Corinthians 10:15–16).

King’s is led by a team of elders (Titus 1:5), but recognises and receives input from apostolic gifting in the context of relationship and friendship.

13. Praying like Jesus

Jesus prayed to His Heavenly Father (John 12:28, Luke 6:12, Matthew 26:36) and he taught His disciples to do the same (Luke 11:1). Time and time again in the Bible, God invites prayer and promises that he hears it (John 14:14, Philippians 4:6, 1 John 5:14). He wants us to open up to Him and bring our requests to Him.

If we want to know and enjoy who we are in Christ, we need to pray. If we need help we should pray. If we want to know forgiveness we need to pray. If we are anxious we need to pray. James puts it bluntly, we don’t ask because we don’t get (James 4:2). If we want to see the kingdom come we need to pray, both individually and corporately.

14. On mission like Jesus

As His Father sent Him, Jesus sends us (John 20:21). Jesus called people to believe in Him (Mark 1:17, Matthew 11:28) and we call people to believe in Jesus. Christians took the gospel first to those in Jerusalem, then to the ends of the earth. 

We are to go into every street and every nation to declare, display and defend the gospel. We do so with our words, clearly calling people to repentance and faith in Jesus (Acts 2:38, Ephesians 6:20, Colossians 4:4). We step out and expect God to confirm His words with miraculous signs and wonders (Mark 16:20, Acts 4:30, Acts 8:6). We make Jesus known through the way we love one another (John 13:35) and we lovingly engage with any objections people have to the gospel (1 Peter 3:15,16; 2 Corinthians 10:5).

15. Breaking bread like Jesus

With just hours to go till His death by crucifixion Jesus broke bread and drank wine with His disciples (Mark 14:22). As He did so he spoke about a new covenant he was making with mankind. He had kept the law fully and yet the full judgment of the law was about to fall on Him. Why? Because His body was going to be broken and His blood poured out for our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The arrangement was simple. Trust in Him; His life, death and resurrection for us and come into His relationship with the Father. It’s simple but easily forgotten (Galatians 1:6, Galatians 2:21). At times our own good works can look like tickets into God’s good books while at other times our sin and failure can seem to condemn us. So Jesus tells His disciples to break bread in order to keep this new covenant ever before us (Luke 22:19, 1 Corinthians 11:26).

We break bread in each other’s homes and together on Sundays because we never ever want to forget that everything we have is through the amazing grace of God.