Growing Our Faith
We place our trust in the one God, Father, His Son Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. The life of faith to which we are all called is the Spirit’s gift, continually received through the Word, the Sacraments and our Christian life and worship together. We take our highest authority to be God’s Word in the Bible as we are inspired by the Holy Spirit. We rejoice in the diversity of the Spirit’s gifts and uphold the rights of personal conviction.
The Christian life is not one in which we stand still. The Bible uses a number of images, including likening it to running a race, and continually moving forward. A key aspect of moving forward is that we develop a greater understanding of what the Christian faith means and then apply that to the issues that face us individually and collectively. We need to recognise that we are all at different stages of our Christian life and will have different levels of understanding; some just beginning (perhaps only enquiring); others having been Christians for many decades; and many in the middle of their journey with Christ.
At St John’s Church we seek to nurture one another in the faith by, in addition to our established house groups, organising several short courses throughout the year exploring Biblical content and themes; issues facing church, society and the world. Within these courses there is teaching and discussion where free exchanges of opinions are valued. We also arrange Quiet Days for personal times of reflection and AwayDays for the whole church to come together to experience a time of fellowship.