MANIFESTO
We believe that the biblical Gospel is God’s enduring message to our world and we determine to defend, proclaim and embody it.
We believe that God is calling the whole Church to take the whole Gospel to the whole world, and so with each generation we resolve to give ourselves to this task with fresh determination in fulfilment of the Great Commission. We long to see all Christians trained for this task.
We believe that other religions and ideologies are not alternative paths to God and that human spirituality, if unredeemed by Christ, does not lead to God but to judgment and damnation, for Christ is the only way.
We believe that the Holy Spirit’s witness to Christ is indispensable to evangelism and that without His supernatural work neither new birth nor new life is possible.
We believe that the gifts of the Spirit are distributed to all God’s people and that the partnership of men and women in evangelism and ministry must be welcomed for common good.
We believe that spiritual warfare demands spiritual weapons and that we must both preach the Word in the power of the Spirit and pray constantly in order that we may enter into Christ’s victory over the principalities and the powers of evil.
We believe that we must turn outward to our local community in evangelistic witness and in compassionate service.
We believe that our proclamation of the Gospel must be exemplified in a life of holiness and love, otherwise our testimony loses credibility.
We believe that we must demonstrate God’s love visibly by caring for those who are deprived of justice, dignity, food and shelter.
We believe that the proclamation of God’s Kingdom of justice and peace demands the denunciation of all injustice and oppression, both personal and structural, and we will not shrink from this prophetic witness.
We believe that we who claim to be members of the Body of Christ must transcend within our fellowship the barriers of race, gender and class.
We believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.
We believe that it is our duty to study the society in which we live in order to understand its structures, values and needs, and to develop appropriate strategies for evangelism, missions and prophetic witness.
We believe that there is an urgent need for us to engage in evangelism and social action in co-operation with other churches, mission agencies and Christian organisations, and we repudiate competition.
We affirm our solidarity with those who suffer for the Gospel, and will prepare ourselves for the same possibility, and to work for religious and political freedom everywhere.