Our Values.

Relationship

We want to be a deeply loving, relational, people. Jesus said “as I have loved you… love one another… by this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35 ). We are to love not just with our words but in our actions (1John 3:18). and this love for one-another (reflected in the way we think about, speak of, relate to and help out), is the hall mark of a Christ-centred community. William Barclay says, “A Christian is a person in whom Christ lives again, and the best demonstration of God comes not from argument, but from a life of love. In such a life God is seen as He is seen nowhere else”.

Servant-heartedness

We want to be a servant-hearted people. Jesus said “I’ve not come to be served but to serve. To give my life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). He is the servant-hearted-saviour, the one who stoops to serve (John 13:1-17) and we follow in his footsteps, serving others, often at cost to ourselves. Fleming Rutledge says, “True power is best seen in a life willingly offered as a sacrifice for the sake of others”. This is at the heart of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Mission

We want to be a missional people. Jesus was clear on why he had come. He said “I’ve come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10); ‘When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’” (Matthew 9:36-38).

Being missional means living with the desire and passion to help people come to an understanding of who Jesus is, what he has done and what it means for them. We want everyone to be a witness to the gospel of grace through words, works and wonders.

Hospitality

We want to be an hospitable people. One of our central aims at King’s is to ‘Gather in friendship and family’. We want to be a church where people experience hospitality; where they are welcomed no matter who they are, where they’re from or what they’ve done. We want to be a church that takes Pauls words seriously to “practice hospitality” (Romans 12:13).

Hospitality means to ‘welcome the stranger’; and this is exactly what God has done for those who’ve RSVP’d to his wonderful invitation to eat with him. Paul puts it this way; “Once you were alienated [strangers] from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1:21-22). In other words; those who were once far away from God are now invited to come near and those who know they don’t make the grade, become recipients of Gods amazing grace (Ephesians 2:1-13).

Homes were central to the expansion and influence of the early church; and they remain central to our church life today. They prayed in their homes; sung in their homes; celebrated in their homes; taught in their homes; ate together in their homes; welcomed guests into their homes; saw people come to follow Christ in their homes, made disciples in their homes and some were even arrested in their homes (see Acts 2:42-47, 8:3, 18:3, 26; 1Cor 16:9). When we experience Gods generous hospitality in our own lives it will lead us to demonstrate hospitality to others. I’d go as far to say that the way we use our homes says something about our understanding and experience of the gospel of grace.

Generosity

We want to be a generous people. God is generous. He didn’t hold back in his giving; “He so loved the world… he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16). The apostle Paul writes, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). His love is great toward us (1John 3:1) and he lavishes his grace on us (Ephesians 1:8). 

We want our generosity to not only be reflected in our finances, but in our attitudes, our thinking, our time and ultimately our loving. Gordon MacDonald sums up the meaning of what it means to be generous person; ”Generosity is the act of projecting out of myself everything that God has loaned to me for the benefit of others” 

Humility

We want to be a humble people. It has been said many times that humility isn’t thinking less of ourselves, it’s thinking of ourselves less; which is an important distinction. To be a follower of Jesus is to “deny yourself and take up your cross” (Luke 9:23) and the cross both keeps us from self-pity (saying “I’m rubbish”, as it shows how valued and loved we are) and self-promotion (saying “I’m amazing”, as it shows how dark our hearts really are), there is no room for pride at the cross. 

We are those who are dependent on God for everything we have, starting with our salvation (Ephesians 21-9) and continuing in everything we do. Jesus was serious when he said “apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5) and this leads us to humble dependence on God and humble service of others. This attitude of humility is to be deeply embedded into the life of the church (1Peter 5:5-6). We are to “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility [we are to] value others interests above our own.” Paul writes that we are to have this mindset in our relationships with one another and in doing so becoming more like Christ who humbled himself on the cross. (Philippians 2:3-8).

Authenticity

We want to be an authentic people. To be authentic means to be real and genuine, not pretending we’re better than we really are. The gospel enables us to take off our masks, to come out of hiding (Genesis 3:10) and be ourselves. God wonderfully accepts us and loves us knowing the very worst about us! He graciously forgives and justifies those who are honest about what they are really like (Luke 18:9-14). Jesus often gave the hardest time to those who pretended they were better than they really were (Matthew 23:27-28). 

We’re not perfect, we all face internal battles and external pressures. I love Paul’s honesty in his second letter to the Corinthians where he says “We were under great pressure… we despaired of life (1:8-10)… we faced conflicts on the outside and fears within (7:5). Paul was honest about the struggles he faced, wasn’t afraid to ask others to pray for him (1:11), experienced the comfort of his friends (7:6) and through it all, grew in his reliance on God who raises the dead (1:9).