Vision

Jesus great commandment and great commission

When asked what the greatest commandment is Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-38). These commandments inspire our motives as a church.

Jesus having risen from the dead commissions His disciples saying: “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20). This commission directs our activities as a church.

Our mission statement and core purposes

Our mission is to be a contemporary and significant church that sees the lost won and the won winning throughout Edinburgh, the east coast and beyond.

With God’s help we plan to accomplish this through...

1 Regularly outreaching to the unchurched population of our city

The apostle Paul said: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16)

The “gospel” (which means “good news”) is the amazing message about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and how He has the power to give anyone who believes in Him eternal life and an authentic relationship with God.

We exist to introduce as many people as possible to Jesus in Edinburgh. As a church we’re committed to regularly communicating this timeless gospel in timely, creative, relevant and engaging ways in our city. Our church calendar is full of events designed to communicate the gospel with our city.

Our growth as a church has predominantly come from people coming to faith for the first time or coming back to faith. Last year we saw around 400 responses to the gospel in our services. By God’s grace we hope to see this attendance growth continue reaching our first major goal of 1% of our city’s population (5000 people) by 2027.

Read Peter Anderson's article for the Evangelical Alliance on: "Church growth and Luke 15"

Here is a MP3 message which help explain the gospel: “The gospel we preach” by Mark Driscoll

2 Discipleship of believers

Jesus commissioned us to “make disciples”. A “disciple” means a “learner”. We want to be a church that is a learning environment, a place where people can grow in God, reach their God given potential and live life to the full with the Gospel right at the centre.

We exist to help believers become mature and fulfill their God given purpose in life.

Here’s 3 ways we do this: As part of our Sunday gatherings we teach empowering truths from the Bible. We aim to do this in an engaging, thought provoking and applicable way so that people can apply the truths on a day-to-day basis.

Through the week we run dozens of “home groups” in people’s living rooms throughout the city. Home groups are friendly informal groups where people can meet, pray and study the Bible together. Hundreds of people in our church have found home groups to be excellent forum for them to grow in their faith.

We run our membership course called “According to the Pattern” over 6 weeks. During the time we cover 13 Bible studies giving people a greater understanding of the Bible, the Christian life, the Kingdom of God and the Church and its mission.

3 Offering practical help to a world in need

It’s our conviction that God is deeply concerned for not only the spiritual wellbeing of our city and world but also for our physical and emotional well-being.

We want to be a meaningful and influential Church in Edinburgh that makes a positive Christian contribution to society, tackles real life issues, and practically meet the needs of people.

Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:13-14)

Salt flavours, and we want to bring the flavour of God's love to others.
Salt preserves, and we want to have a preserving effect in society.
Salt heals, we believe that God is able to miraculously heal people physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Light disperses darkness; the Christian message is a message of hope and joy that can disperse hopelessness and depression.

We are not just about getting people to heaven; we also want people to experience some of heaven on earth.We exist to demonstrate God’s love by offering practical help to those in need in Edinburgh and beyond.

Having brought a member of staff on who is in charge of urban mission, we have a more specific vision for how we can help the community.

4 A church where people can experience true friendship and community

We exist to be a family, a community, a social network; welcoming people from different age groups, backgrounds and cultures.

Jesus placed great importance not only on our relationship with God but also on our relationships with each other. As a Church we help facilitate friendships by our network of weekly home groups, which are informal gatherings in people's homes around the city.

5 Intimacy with God

We exist to know and worship God

Our vision is to promote intimacy with God through worship and prayer. We recognise the importance of an individual's relationship with God and support and encourage them in this. Heartfelt uplifting worship is a major part of our main Sunday gatherings, but in addition we host monthly worship and prayer events (which we call “Encounter(link)”) and a weekly intercessory prayer gathering.