About Us
It’s hard to give a real flavour of who we are online. The best way to get to know us is to come along and meet us in person.
We are a new church
We started meeting as a church family in September 2014. This was after months, and for some of us years, of praying and planning. We began with just under 10 adults and 7 children, and currently there are around 70 adults and 20 children meeting every week.
We are a connected church
Although we didn’t come out of an existing local church, we are now part of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), which provides us with support, advice and gospel partnership. We also have the support and encouragement of other churches and wider networks, such as the South East Gospel Partnership.
We are a relational church
Through Jesus’ death on the cross, we can enjoy real relationship with God as our Heavenly Father and also with one another in His family. It’s been said that ‘Christianity is not an individual sport but a team game!’ That’s because ‘church’ is not a building you go to but a people you belong to. And so with God’s help we are seeking to grow in our love for Him and for one another as we care for, serve, forgive, encourage and help one another in practical ways.
We are an evangelical church
This means that we believe in the good news of Jesus and we are committed to God’s Word, the Bible. We are a group of people who seek to believe what the Bible says, teach what the Bible says and live out what the Bible says. We are not a perfect church, in fact, we are extremely imperfect! And yet we believe in someone who is perfect – whose work for us is enough and whose word to us is sufficient.
Our Vision
At King’s, our great desire is to build God’s church with God’s word for God’s glory.
Build God’s church…
We want to build God’s church in both maturity and number. That is, we want to build up those who are already Christians, so that they grow in their faith, love and service of King Jesus. We also want to reach out to those who don’t know Jesus as their King, so that many more can come to know the life, joy and hope that is to be found in Him. And we don’t just want to make disciples of Jesus, we want to make disciple-making-disciples of the Lord Jesus.
With God’s word…
It is God who builds His church, through His word and by His Spirit. That is why we get the Bible open at every opportunity – on Sundays, in Life Groups, one-to-one, and on our own – in order to focus on what God is saying rather than on what we are wanting. In order for us to grow up and grow out, prayerful Bible teaching is at the heart of what we do.
For God’s glory
The reason we are seeking to build God’s church with His word, is so that He would be glorified. That means that we want God to be seen to be the great, glorious and gracious God that he really is. We don’t want to make a name for ourselves, but for our Father.
Our Beliefs
As a church family, we don’t all believe the same things about everything. Having said that, we are united in our faith in Jesus and in our beliefs about the following…
There is only one God, who exists eternally in three distinct but equal persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is the Almighty Creator of all things, the Supreme Ruler over all things and the Holy Judge of all people. He sustains and governs all things according to his sovereign will, for his own glory. Even though God is more powerful, wise and holy than we can imagine, because of his kindness revealed in the Gospel, we can know him as our loving Father.
Genesis 1:1-2:25; Psalm 90:2, 96:10-13; Isaiah 45:5-18; Daniel 4:34-35; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 1 John 3:1
The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin and lived a sinless life in obedience to the Father. In his life, death, teaching and miracles he perfectly reveals the Father. On the cross he died in the place of sinners, bearing God’s anger and punishment for their sin, redeeming them by his blood. He rose bodily from the dead and ascended into heaven where he is exalted as Lord of all. Salvation is in and through Christ alone.
Matthew 1:18-25; John 1:1-18; Acts 2:22-36; Colossians 1:15-22; Hebrews 2:14-18, 7:23-28, 10:11-14
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He has been sent from heaven to glorify Christ and to apply his work of salvation. He convicts sinners, imparts spiritual life and gives a true understanding of the Bible – for he inspired all Scripture and he speaks in Scripture to us today. He indwells all believers, brings assurance of salvation and produces increasing likeness to Christ. He builds up the Church and empowers its members for service and mission.
John 3:1-8, 16:5-16; Romans 8:1-17; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, 3:17-18, 12:1-31; Galations 5:16-26
God has revealed himself, his actions and his promises in the Bible, which consists of the Old and New Testaments alone. Every word was inspired by God through human authors, so that the Bible as originally given is in its entirety the Word of God, without error and fully reliable in fact and doctrine. The Bible alone speaks with final authority and is always sufficient for all matters of belief and practice.
Psalm 19:7-11; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 2 Peter 1:19-21
All men and women are created in the image of God and therefore have inherent dignity and worth. Because there is equality and difference within God himself, men and women are equal before God, yet have different roles under God. Both men and women are created to love, obey and glorify God. However, as a result of the disobedience of our first parents, Adam & Eve, every aspect of human nature has been corrupted so that naturally all people are without spiritual life, guilty sinners and enemies of God. Every person is therefore under the just condemnation of God and needs to be forgiven and reconciled to God through Christ in order to know him & please him.
Genesis 1:26-27, 3:1-24; Matthew 22:34-40; Romans 1:18-32, 5:12-19; 2 Corinthians 5:16-19; Eph 2:1-3
The Gospel is the wonderful news that because of God’s love, sinners can be saved from God’s wrath through the sacrificial death and resurrection of God’s Son. Because of what Jesus has done on the cross we can be saved from wrath for relationship; from Hell for Heaven. This salvation is entirely a work of God’s grace and cannot be earned or deserved. It is God who calls sinners, granting them repentance and faith so that all who believe in Jesus are justified by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. Believers are adopted into the family of God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit and preserved for the coming Kingdom.
John 1:12-13, 6:35-51; Romans 3:21-26; Galations 2:15-16; Ephesians 2:4-9; 2 Timothy 1:9-10; Titus 3:4-7
The universal Church is the body of which Christ is the head and to which all who are saved belong. It is made visible in local churches, which are congregations of believers who are committed to each other for the worship of God, the preaching of the Word, the administering of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, for pastoral care and discipline, for building up believers for service and reaching out to non-believers in evangelism. The unity of the body of Christ is expressed within and between churches by mutual love, care and encouragement.
Acts 2:42-47; Ephesians 2:19-22, 4:1-6, 5:25-33; Philippians 2:1-11; Colossians 1:18
The Lord Jesus Christ will return in glory. He will raise the dead and judge the world in righteousness. Those who have not been saved by Christ will be sent to eternal punishment in Hell and those who have will be welcomed into a life of eternal joy in fellowship with God in the promised New Creation. God will make all things new and will be glorified in all things forever.
Matthew 24:1-44, 25:31-46; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:11-21:8, 22:1-5