Blackstone Christian Centre

Living Life On Purpose

What We Believe

Vision

Engaging in the lives of the lost
and enriching the lives of the found.


Mission

Discipleship

Everyone should have the opportunity
to the full council of God.

Evangelism

Everyone should have the opportunity
to share their faith.

Fellowship

Everyone should have the opportunity
to a loving relationship.

Ministry

Everyone should have the opportunity
to serve and to be served.

Worship

Everyone should have the opportunity
of openly praying and worshipping God.


GOD - HOLY TRINITY

Love God, yourself and others We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equally divine, yet distinct, Persons: - God the Father; Jesus, God the Son; and God the Holy Spirit; together being known as the Holy Trinity.

God is the Creator and Ruler over all things in heaven and earth, seen and unseen.

He describes Himself (Exodus 34:6-7) as: -

“The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Yet He doesn’t leave the guilty unpunished….”
This is God’s glory and as a perfect, loving, and holy God, He is worthy of all praise and worship.

The Father: Our Faithful God

The Father is fully God, co-equal and co-eternal with the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The Father so loved the world that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross to rescue us from the power of sin over our lives, to pay the penalty for our sin, to restore our relationship with Himself, and giving us eternal life.
In our new relationship, Jesus encourages us to pray to the Father, who will hear us and answer our prayers according to His will.

Jesus: Our Saviour

Jesus Christ is the Son of God and is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. Jesus, as determined by the Godhead before creation, came to earth to become a man in the flesh, having been born of a virgin. He lived a sinless, human life and, in obedience to the Father and in His love for us, offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of humanity, by dying on the cross. He rose bodily from the dead after three days to demonstrate His power over sin and death and to validate that the way of salvation is through Him alone. He ascended into heaven, from where He will return at God’s appointed time, to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.

The Holy Spirit: Our Helper

The Holy Spirit is also fully God, co-equal and co-eternal with both the Father and the Son. He is present in the world to make people aware of their need for Jesus Christ.
He has also been sent by the Father and the Son to in-dwell every believer from the moment of salvation, helping the Christian to understand God’s Word, guiding, and helping them to live lives pleasing God, comforting in trials, and providing the gifts and power for ministry.
The Christian always seeks the leading of the Spirit in their daily lives.

The Bible: How We Know God

The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself, His holiness and His righteousness, and His dealings with mankind, particularly as regards to His chosen Nation, Israel and, through them, the salvation of all mankind through Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Through God’s Word He desires to establish a loving relationship with the people that He has created in His image, which He will fully implement in His Eternal Kingdom, at His appointed time.
The Bible comprises 66 books divided into the Old and New Testaments, both of which contain a common message written by various authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and is, therefore, regarded as God’s word and is our highest written authority in all Truth.
It is, therefore, of vital importance for us to thoroughly familiarise ourselves with its whole content.

Humanity: Beautiful and Broken

We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image and placed them in the Garden of Eden to live out their identity in loving harmony with Himself and one another. However, Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God, believing Satan’s lie that they could instead become like God. This is when sin entered the world, and ruined our relationship with God, one another, and ourselves. We are sinners by nature and by choice, and our sin has separated us from God, placing us under His just and Holy anger. Incapable of regaining a right relationship with God through our own efforts, our greatest need is the undeserved love of God, Who alone can rescue us from sin and restore the relationship between Himself and us.

The Gospel: God Saves sinners

Although people are completely sinful, God had a plan in place to lovingly save and redeem a people for Himself. Throughout the Old Testament, we read what God will do to save His people from their sins. In the New Testament we see this plan fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who came and lived a perfect life of obedience to the Father, died in our place by being crucified for our sins, and was raised from the dead on the third day. This is the ‘Gospel’ or ‘Good News.’ The Holy Spirit draws us to Christ, our Saviour, and gives us faith to believe in Him. “Whoever believes that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead, will be saved.” The Gospel alone is the power of God for salvation. It is the promise that satisfies our restlessness by restoring us to relationship with God, giving us eternal life with Him, both now and forever. Salvation cannot be earned or achieved through our good works, but only received as a gift of grace.

The Church: God’s People

We believe that, because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, when we confess and truly repent of our sins to God, He sees us as totally blameless and holy in our relationship to Him. We are no longer subject to His wrath but, by His grace provided through Jesus, we have become His children, and He sees us in the same way as He sees Jesus.
The community of people who have entered this special relationship with God is called ‘the Church.’ So, while our new relationship with God is personal, it is not individual, for we have all been adopted into God’s family.
As a family we meet in large or small settings to support and encourage one another, learn from one another, and worship God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) together.

The Ordinances: Baptism and Communion

We believe that Jesus gave His Church two primary ordinances to be observed regularly:- Water Baptism and Holy Communion.
When we first acknowledge Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, the Bible instructs that we be baptised by immersion in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Baptism is an outward demonstration of our inward change of heart.
Holy Communion is a regular observance that the Church shares together as a reminder that Jesus alone is the Saviour who died on the cross, in our place, for our sins, to restore our relationship with the Father.
The bread represents Christ’s body that was broken, and the cup represents His blood that was shed for us.

The Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit

We believe that every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit at conversion as a seal confirming our new status as a child of God.
Separate to this regenerating work, we believe that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (or being filled with the Holy Spirit) is a distinct and ongoing experience that is promised to believers and empowers them for Christ-exalting ministry. Additionally, we believe that believers should desire and pray for the various spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit sovereignly distributes as He wills. All the spiritual gifts, as outlined in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, are still in operation and are available for the building up of the church and for the glory of God.

The Family

God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.
Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime and provides for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of humans.
The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image.
The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people.
A husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family.
A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband, even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.
Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honour and obey their parents.

Stewardship

God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all we have and are, we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual responsibility to God regarding the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the Gospel, and a binding stewardship of their possessions. They are, therefore, under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions. They should recognise that all these are entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement of the Kingdom’s cause on earth.

Evangelism and Missions

It is the duty and privilege of every individual Christian and every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to make every effort to present the Gospel to those who remain separated from God.
As we have been born again and receive God’s Holy Spirit, we have birthed within us God’s love for others and which, therefore, unites us with Christ to seek to save those who are lost.
We are also commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel to all nations, making it our duty to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the use of all God has given us, to serve God in His work of salvation for all people.

The Christian and the Social Order

All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society. Means and methods used for the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the re-generation of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. In the Spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death. Every Christian should seek to bring industry, government, and society under the sway of the principles of righteousness, justice, truth, and brotherly love. To promote these ends Christians should be ready to work with all people of good will in any good cause, always being careful to act in the spirit of love, without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth.

The Kingdom

The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular Kingship over people who wilfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly, the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which people enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ.
Christian's ought to pray and to labour that the Kingdom may come, and God’s will be done on earth.
The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.

Healing

We believe that the Father has the power to heal the whole person. Spiritually, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Healing can come through the agency of the Holy Spirit working through a believer with spiritual gifts, through the laying on of hands of individual believers and through the elders and the anointing with oil.
Jesus healed “every disease and sickness among the people” in Galilee, Judea, and everywhere He went.
We believe Him to be the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The Restoration of All Things

We believe in the personal, glorious, bodily, and soon return of Jesus Christ in fulfilment of the prophetic word. We trust in God’s promise that a day is coming when He will banish sin, sickness, death, decay, and Satan. Those who have rejected God will be eternally separated from Him in hell, while those who have accepted the gift of His forgiveness will receive eternal life with Him in Heaven. When Jesus returns, He will usher in the New Heavens and New Earth.


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