WHAT WE BELIEVE

COMMITTED TO THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST

OUR LIFE AND MINISTRY DRIVEN BY TRUTH

1. IN PARTICULAR, WE ARE DRIVEN BY THE FOLLOWING BIBLICAL TRUTHS

Minto Anglican is a church in the South West of Sydney that seeks to honour Jesus by sharing his love and helping others come to know him personally. We are a community of people from a wide range of ages and life experiences who are keen to express our ever-increasing love for Christ as we gather, grow, give and go in the name of Jesus.

We long to see the fruit of Jesus’ great commission in our lives and church; we want to be Christ’s disciples who go out with urgent love to the communities and peoples around us, to make new disciples and to teach them to obey all that Christ has commanded. This is our vision because we believe it is God’s great plan and mission as revealed in the Bible, and we hold the Bible as our supreme and sufficient authority.

That the three persons of our one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are united in love and purpose to save his people and, working in and through them, to save others.
That for this purpose, God the Son became the man Jesus Christ, lived a sinless life, died on the cross in our place to bear the righteous anger of God because of our sin and was bodily raised from the dead and exalted to the right hand of God.
That the crucified and risen Jesus Christ reigns over all as the Saviour and Lord. He will come to judge the world and now offers forgiveness and new life to everyone.
That the most pressing problem facing humanity is our total lostness in sin, and our guilt before the judgement throne of God;
That God’s climactic purpose in history is to glorify his Son by delivering forgiven sinners out of darkness into his kingdom and transforming them into his image; in the words of the Great Commission, it is to see people from every nation become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and learn to obey all that he has commanded;
That God’s chosen method for both conversion and growth is the prayerful, Spirit-empowered speaking of the Word of the Cross—the biblical message that centres on the penal substitutionary atonement of Jesus, and his universal rule as the Risen Lord and Christ. The Spirit empowers believers to speak the gospel message, and drives the word of God into the hearts of the elect so that they are convicted of its truth, repent of their sin and rebellion and turn to Jesus Christ for forgiveness.
That this task of evangelising the world and edifying the church is not only the role of preachers, pastors and evangelists, but of all God’s people as they are trained and equipped to speak God’s word to others;
That our involvement in this work of God should be the central priority of our lives as disciples of Jesus and of our churches as loving fellowships of disciple-making disciples;
That as we seek to fulfil this commission, the theology of the all-sufficient Scriptures (the Bible) should shape and drive all that we do, especially as we utilise methods and structures derived from wisdom.
That our joy in this work will come in the midst of suffering, conflict and opposition from the world and the devil, as we await the return of Christ at the end of the age.

2. HOWEVER, LOOKING AROUND US, EVEN AMONG THOSE WHO WOULD LAY CLAIM TO MOST OR ALL THE ABOVE CONVICTIONS WE ARE CONCERNED TO SEE:

Millions lost in sin and facing God’s judgement; and yet a widespread lack of evangelistic vision and urgency in many churches, where much of the available energy and resources are expended in various worthy programs to improve church life or to bless society, but where a lack of conversions is accepted with complacency;
A lowering of the bar for everyday Christians, who are not being radically transformed and equipped as godly disciple-makers but often simply served as spiritual consumers, or deployed to help run programs that produce little gospel fruit;
A loss of momentum in recruiting and training the next generation of full-time gospel-workers;
Among leaders, a lack of vision, boldness, flexibility and skill to plan and grow ministries around disciple-making;
A theologically undiscerning pragmatism that takes core evangelical truths for granted, fails to see the link between theology and practice, and falls captive to the latest trends.

3. SO UNDER GOD, AND IN FELLOWSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER, WE WANT TO PROVIDE TEACHING, LEADERSHIP, ENCOURAGEMENT AND COMMUNITY TO ACHIEVE TO FOLLOWING:

To build a fellowship of passionate, sacrificial, gospel-hearted disciple-makers who continue to urge, stimulate and encourage one another in this ministry;
A renewed urgency among Christ’s people to reach out with the gospel to our neighbourhoods, communities and beyond—to make disciples, to plant new churches and ministries, to revitalise and grow existing churches, to see by God’s blessing multitudes of new and growing believers giving glory to his name;
To revolutionise and equip all Christians to be holy, prayerful, Spirit-filled disciple-makers; who abound in love and good works, who speak God’s truth to those around them, and who work hard to see God’s kingdom grow in both breadth and depth, whatever the cost;
To see all our ministry leaders embrace this Bible-centred, prayerful, disciple-making vision, and to express that commitment in their personal lives and in their ministries;
To equip our ministry leaders with fresh enthusiasm, knowledge and skills, not only to preach the cross, but to train people under their care as disciple-makers, and to change our church culture, structures and practices in order to make disciples;
To see a new generation of gospel-driven, appropriately gifted leaders recruited and equipped with the vision and skills to lead God’s people in this task.