Church is a gift.
When Jesus calls people to follow him, he doesn’t ask us to do it alone. We are each adopted into God’s family, with countless brothers and sisters in Christ. Church is the expression of our unity in Jesus.
Church has a mission.
God gathers people together to partner with him in his mission. We don’t exist for ourselves. We exist for God and his purposes.
So what does that look like in practice? We dream big dreams for our city, and seek to be a church that is actively engaged in becoming the kind of people Jesus designed us to be, for the sake of ourselves and the people of our city.
Our Vision
is to see the city of Blacktown flourish, in God’s good design, through our Jesus shaped community.
This is our dream for our city and our church.
Our vision has three parts:
We believe the Bible teaches that God is trinity – three persons, one God. Jesus represents a concrete and human element of the trinity.
Although many religious groups and beliefs will speak of a ‘god’ of some kind, Jesus provides clear distinction and focus to the identity, character and mission of the Christian God. The centrality of God’s plan as revealed in the Bible is in the person and work of Jesus.
God loves people, and cities are full of people.
The Blacktown city centre is at the core of community life in this diverse geographical area and is the centre of influence in the wider region. The city is made up of people from many different walks of life, backgrounds, cultures and religions. When we refer to the ‘city’, we are referring to this diverse body of people who live in and around this central population cluster.
As a church located in the middle of our city, we have responsibility to consider how our ministry and mission are worked out in the context of the city and among its people.
Our Mission
is to grow people who Know Jesus, Treasure Jesus, Depend on Jesus and Represent Jesus.
After Jesus resurrection, before ascending into heaven, he said to his disciples:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
Our mission is to make disciples of Jesus.
We describe a disciple as someone who knows Jesus, treasures Jesus, depends on Jesus, and represents Jesus.
Our Mission
To grow people who
We want every person to personally understand the good news that Jesus is God’s Saviour and King for all humanity. We seek to deepen our knowledge and understanding of what God is doing in the world through Jesus, and how we should respond.
We believe that following Jesus is the best way to live. We value Jesus above all else in this world. We follow Jesus as our first priority in life by seeking to love what Jesus loves, desire what he desires, and pursue what he pursues.
We are prayerful in all things in order to show Jesus as infinitely powerful and trustworthy. We live, act and make decisions that display a deep, necessary and logical dependence on Jesus in order to accomplish our goals.
We live as people created in God’s image to display to the world God’s character and mission through our words and actions. We are salt and light to our world, helping people experience God’s grace, love and generosity through our Jesus-shaped community.