OUR FAITH
Statement of Faith
Our Ethos’ Vision
The vision of Bourne Baptist Church is to see the Kingdom of God established in Bourne, Britain and the world.
We seek to be a Jesus-centred community of believers that grows in God, connects with others and serves one another, built on prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, living out “God within, reaching out” through which Bourne Baptist Church aims to provide an opportunity for all in our community to respond to Jesus’ call to follow Him.
The ethos of Bourne Baptist Church is our motivation for all our work; it is the reason why we do what we do. We seek to work together to extend Jesus’ model of the Kingdom of God on earth by living out a lifestyle of love, truth, justice, mercy and forgiveness, according to His teaching. We are inspired by His message, life and example through which God’s unconditional love for all people is expressed.
This ethos is given life through our relationships; in the way we work together and behave with one another and is both a demonstration and authentication of our ethos. It is through these relationships with each other and those whom we seek to serve that we practise our ethos.
Our ethos and therefore our motivation and relationships are rooted in our faith in Jesus Christ and in His love which compels us to serve others, putting their needs first. When we work together it is this faith which directs and influences both our internal relationships as well as our work with those whom Bourne Baptist Church is seeking to serve.
In this way, Bourne Baptist Church operates on the understanding that our activities are simply an outworking of our faith: that our “doing” derives directly from our “being”. There is an essential and indissoluble link between the inner and the outer, the private life and the public face of Bourne Baptist Church. The link between who we are and what we do cannot be broken.
Therefore, we preach the Kingdom of God, model how it would look in our relationships and work towards its establishment recognising that ultimately it is God’s work that establishes His Kingdom.
Our Ethos
INEGRITY
We believe that our mission and purpose – to extend Jesus’ model of the Kingdom of God on earth – is indissolubly linked with how we operate internally. The values, which we promote as a church, should be matched by those which we practice in what we do for others and ourselves. This would mean that in certain circumstances our integrity would not allow us to accept into positions of responsibility people whose lifestyle does not reflect our understanding of The Kingdom of God. The link between who we are and what we do cannot be broken.
AUTHENTICITY
We believe that our purpose – to extend the Kingdom of God on earth through our activities – flows out of our desire to love, serve and care for others and should be authenticated by the same love and care which we have for each other.
TRANSPARENCY
We believe that we should be open and transparent about our beliefs and the link between our beliefs and our mission, particularly, but not exclusively, in matters of publicity, finance and employment.
ACCOUNTABILITY
We believe that all we have comes from God and that we should exercise wisdom, integrity and responsibility in using the resources entrusted to us
UNITY AND DIVERSITY
We are committed to maintain our distinctively Christian ethos by ensuring that volunteers and staff are appointed to those positions which we have agreed require Christians to fill them. We believe that we have a duty to maintain our Christian distinctiveness by recruiting, to such roles, those who are committed to Christ’s teaching about the Kingdom of God. However, at the same time, we want to embrace the values of inclusivity and diversity by welcoming and involving, where appropriate, those of other faiths and those of none. (Please refer to our Equal Opportunities Employment Policy).
SERVANTHOOD
We believe in working for the common good, where appropriate, through partnership with other churches, other Christian organisations and other voluntary and statutory agencies.