Who are we?

A Church of God
Paul addressed the Christians in Corinth as 'the church of God in Corinth'. Like them, we are a church of God. The word 'church' literally means 'gathering'. We gather every Sunday to join our hearts in worship of God, hear him speak through his Word, and respond to him in faith and obedience as his Spirit leads us. We also gather in smaller groups at other times.

A Christian Church
We are a Christian church, in that we worship God as he has revealed himself in his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is at the heart of who we are. He is our Saviour and Lord. We are his people, his family, his body, his bride, who have been given the task of shining his light in the world.

An Evangelical Church
As an evangelical church, we believe that the Bible is God's way of speaking to us. The Bible is God's word, because he inspired the human authors to write what they wrote. It is therefore relevant, reliable, powerful and all we need to know God and be saved by him. So the focus of our gatherings is on hearing (and doing) God's Word. We also believe that God wants us to tell others the good news about Jesus. So we seek to reach out to those around us in his name.

A Presbyterian Church
We are part of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, though our members are from a variety of denominational backgrounds. That means we are led by a group of elders including the pastor/minister (Session). It also means we are guided by the rules of the denomination.

Our Core Values

We value the gospel as ‘the power of God for the salvation of every one who believes’ — the good news that God came to us in his Son, Jesus Christ, that Jesus died for our sins and rose victorious from the tomb, and that consequently we have eternal life through him, if we turn to him as our Lord and trust him as our Saviour. We recognise that ‘there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved’.

We value the Bible as God’s reliable, authoritative Word and the best guide for our life. We value the preaching of that Word and seek to defend its truth and obey its precepts.

We value the church, the body of Christ, chosen by God to declare his praises by loving one another and working together to grow in Christ.

We value the grace of God that gives us salvation when we do not deserve it and could never earn it. In response to that grace we seek to live as God has called us to — with a faith that is shown by holiness, righteousness and love.

We value making the gospel known to others by demonstrating the implications of the gospel in our lives and by sharing the content of the gospel in words.

We value love — loving God with all that we are, loving each other as Christ has loved us, and loving everybody as we love ourselves.

We value God’s promise to strengthen and uphold us until the end and recognise our absolute need of him in prayer.

 

Our Mission

With God’s help we aim to know Christ and to make him known

To know Christ means to grow in knowledge about Him, in relationship with Him and in response to Him, through the Bible, through prayer, through fellowship and through trust and obedience.      

To make him known means declaring the Christian message with our lips and demonstrating it with our lives, seeking always to take it from Wagga Wagga to the world, both doing it ourselves and supporting others.

 

Our Vision

Our vision is to be a ‘cross-shaped church’ as illustrated above. That is, to be a people who, depending on the sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ, glorify God together in fellowship, by worshiping him and serving each other, as we reach out in evangelism and grow as disciples of Christ.

 

It is a vision to obey Jesus’ great commandment by loving God and neighbour (Matthew 22:37-49); to live out His great commission by making new disciples and teaching them everything Jesus taught (Matthew 28: 18-20); and to rely on His great commitment to give rest to all who come to him (Matthew 11:28-30).