“I am not ashamed of the gospel,” writes Paul, “for it is the power of God for salvation of everyone who believes”. What a crazy idea! The gospel – the good news – changing the world? Not a new technology, or political program or economic initiative – just some information about something that happened 2000 years ago? And the impact of this information on people’s lives is too profound to be described as anything less than “SALVATION”. If we even begin to take Paul seriously in this claim, then it has to change pretty well everything we are and everything we do. That is what it means to bring in a gospel culture.

So we are on a mission. It is a mission in the first instance to the church, because, “when the church gets the gospel as it should, then the world will get the gospel as it should”. We are exploring together the wonders of the gospel until we are over-awed again at the magnificence of what God has done on our behalf – rediscovering the total impotence of our lostness, and the completeness of our salvation in Jesus Christ.

We are on a mission to reposition the gospel as the cornerstone of everything God does in our lives – not merely the doorway into a kingdom existence, but the very undergirding of every born-again breath that passes our lips.

We are on a mission to discover the very good reasons for believing the gospel and the very good answers for those who choose not to believe – and so gain for ourselves a new boldness.

We are on a mission to find a language that will speak to the culture around us. We are learning how to address the most deep-seated and God-denying ways of a fallen world. We intend to penetrate the defensive walls of spiritual privatism and religious complacency. We are learning how to speak to the universal spiritual yearnings of the human heart.

We are on a mission to discover grace-filled pathways to deliver a message of unparalleled grace.

Welcome on the journey.

Richard, for the elders.