Belief. It's a funny thing belief. People argue about it, make it complicated, make it personal, chop and change it, choose to accept things as true without really trying them out or thinking them through, or choose to believe in nothing - again without ever really testing their decisions against anything much.

Our beliefs are not like that, well, except that they are personal because they go to our hearts, but they are also corporate in that we all share in them, with millions of other Christians around the world.

We believe this stuff to be true, and have tested it and found it works:

• God is bigger and better and closer than we can imagine.
• The Bible is God’s perfect guidebook for living and understanding who God is and who we are.
• Jesus is God showing himself to us.
• Through His Holy Spirit, God lives in and through us now - and more than that, empowers us to live in a whole new way.
• Nothing in creation “just happened.” God made it all.
• Grace is the only way to have a relationship with God - which means we can't work our way to heaven by being good.
• Faith is the only way to grow in our relationship with God.
• God has allowed evil to provide us with a choice, God can bring good even out of evil events and God promises victory over evil to those who choose him.
• Heaven and hell are real places. Death is a beginning, not the end - we just have to choose in this life what it is a beginning of!
• The church is to serve people like Jesus served people - healing the broken, loving the lost, helping the needy - transforming lives and communities through prayer and practical action.
• Jesus is coming again - and we need to be ready!