We are seeking to ‘redefine church for the next generation.’

The heart of this statement is not to slam the church, but is a recognition that the church has to change if we are to reach an increasingly unchurched generation with the unchanging truth of Jesus.

We are on a journey to see what this looks like. But for us it is more than just tampering with the programming or the fancy stuff that may happen. It is about changing hearts, living out an authentic walk with Jesus that is visible to the unchurched because they see us acting and behaving differently.

How we do this will change but the heart of what we want to see achieved can be summed up in this way:

Our youth work exists to encourage young people to be DESPERATE for God, to live REAL lives for Jesus, to be ENERGISED/EMPOWERED by His Word through the Holy Spirit, to be ACTIVE in sharing their Faith and to MINISTER in their God given gifts.

Core values
• worshipping God
• pursuing Christlikeness
• reaching the unchurched
• helping one another
• telling God’s story

The following briefly explains what the purpose statement is about and how we are going to move towards fulfilling our core values.

1. The key word for the whole of the statement revolves around being desperate for God. This basically means that that our desire is to be worshippers of God and build a relationship with Him not because we are forced but because we have experienced the life changing message of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 5-7 His first comment was to basically say that you will know true lasting happiness, if you really on God and recognise that you have need to be in relationship with Him. Many of us can be so desperate for the latest album, car, boyfriend/girlfriend, gadget or whatever else to make us happy. If we are to know true happiness then we need to have desperation to be in relationship with God. How will we know people who are desperate for God: through the changing lives of those who confess to knowing Him.

2. As in the early church which is written about in the opening chapters of Acts, we want to be a place of authentic community, who share life together, which in essence being real with one another. Being a worshipper of God is not just an individualist thing but is about a group of people no matter what the sizes of the group doing life together. That means sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly. God made us all with different qualities and skills and we seek to value and appreciate those things. What will this look like in the future? I guess it will show itself when people are accepted for who they are!

3. We believe that the Bible contains within its pages everything that is useful for living the life that god has intended us to live. You would not even attempt to put together Ikea furniture or a model aeroplane without instructions! In the same way we seek to elevate the place of the bible in our lives so that we get to know how God wants us to live and behave towards other people. The bible energizes our soul the way that food energizes the body! God has not just left us with the bible but he gave us the Holy Spirit to empower us to be changed and learn through the Bible. We are sure that this will display itself with and increased understanding of the character of God.

4. The first three elements of our purpose statement are purposely focused on the community of believers and developing our relationship with God. However these final two are purposely focused outward. Jesus commissioned us to go and make disciples. This is the exciting part of being a Christian actually sharing the good stuff that God has done in our lives with someone who doesn’t know how God wants to be involved in their lives ! This is where we want to be active in sharing our faith. There is no better way to make the truth of what Jesus has done in us come alive than to share it with someone else! I guess the way that we see this take shape is when friends start coming to faith in Christ and starting on the journey. You don’t have to go far to find someone who could do with a bit of good news!

5. This is the final part of our purpose statement and this focus’ on each members being ministers in the gifts that God has given us. We believe that God has gifted each of us with unique gifting that go to strengthen the community of believers and the beyond into the communities that we are placed in, whether that is school, college, work, or the street we live. Your gifting is not for your benefit! Your gifting should not only go to build the church but should be used so that people see that you are a follower of Jesus. This will be evident when we start discovering and putting into action the stuff that God has put in us to use for the benefit of other and not ourselves!

This briefly describes the reasons behind why we do what we do. We ultimately want to see young people that live out authentic Christianity and are passionate about doing so.