What is faith ?
We believe that faith concerns our relationship with God, which is a response to the relationship of love offers the world. The churches of All Saints Kings Bromley, St Michael and All Angels Hamstall Ridware, St Nicholas Mavesyn Ridware and St Peter Yoxall, are part of the Christian family that began with Jesus and his disciples and today, covers the world. As a family of countless generations, we believe the following:
- GOD
There is only one God, who exists eternally in three distinct but equal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is unchangeable in holiness, justice, wisdom and love. God is the almighty Creator; Saviour and Judge. God, who created all things and goes on creating, who has a never ending love for all his creation and whose love for humankind led him to send his Son to live on earth and to die to bring salvation to all. It is God who sustains and governs all things, all history and all existence according to God’s will and for God’s own glory.
- THE BIBLE
God’s nature and promises are revealed in the Bible, which consists of the Old and New Testaments. Every word was inspired by God through human authors, so that the Bible is in its entirety the Word of God, fully reliable in fact and doctrine. The Bible is our source and speaks with final authority. It is always sufficient for all matters of belief and practice.
- THE HUMAN RACE
All men and women, being created in God’s image are inheritors of his dignity and have equal place and worth in God’s sight. Our greatest purpose is to worship, obey and love God. As a result of the original disobedience of our ancestors we are all tainted by sin and find ourselves hostile to God. We all need to be justified, forgiven and reconciled to God through Christ that we may come to know and please him.
- THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
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. He taught with authority and all his words are true. On the cross he died in the place of sinners, bearing God’s punishment for their sin, redeeming them by his blood. He rose from the dead and in his resurrection body ascended into heaven where he is Lord of all. He intercedes for his people in the presence of the Father. Salvation is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
- SALVATION
Salvation is entirely a work of God’s grace and cannot be earned or deserved. It has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ’s once and for all death, resurrection and ascension and is offered to all in the gospel. God loves creation so much that we are forgiven and called and granted repentance and faith. Believers in Christ are justified by grace alone in Christ alone whose righteousness is imputed to us by God’s mercy so that we are righteous in God’s sight, pardoned of all sin, adopted into the family of God, are progressively sanctified by the Holy Spirit for holiness and are preserved for the coming Kingdom and New Creation.
- THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity present with the Father and the Son at the beginning of Creation. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives spiritual life to all who believe, empowering, guiding and leading them. The Spirit also speaks to those who do not yet believe calling them to repentance. The Holy Spirit was the inspiration for God’s Word, the Bible and we believe that all Scriptures were written to bring us inspiration, guidance, and teaching. The Spirit lives in all believers bringing assurance of salvation.
We believe that the Spirit’s work in our lives will enable us to be increasingly more Christlike. The Spirit builds up the Church and empowers its members for worship, service and mission.
- THE CHURCH
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 the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion; for pastoral care and discipline, for mutual love and encouragement, for calling all people to repentance and faith in the gospel of Christ, and to equip believers for their works of mercy and justice in the world that demonstrate God’s care over all creation. The unity of the body of Christ is expressed within and between churches by mutual love, care and encouragement. True fellowship between churches exists only where they are faithful to the gospel.
- JESUS’ RETURN
The Lord Jesus Christ will return in glory. Christ will raise the dead and judge the world in righteousness. The righteous 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.