God’s Word is perfect and timeless. It doesn’t change. But the challenges we face in understanding it do change, and it’s vitally important that we are equipped to deal with the theological challenges of our day.
“One of the biggest challenges facing our churches, which are currently mainly in Europe, is knowing how to relate to our societies, which are increasingly secular in their thinking,” explains Dave Holden.
This means that there are some huge issues for our churches to contend with today – individualism, a tough economy, redefining marriage, increasing family breakdown, and many more – and so we want everyone in our churches to understand how to apply the timeless Word of God to our modern-day culture.
A defining feature of Newfrontiers, our wider family of churches, has always been our commitment to being baptised in and filled with the Holy Spirit. As a movement, we have experienced and enjoyed some wonderful charismatic times in the past, but we are thoroughly confident that God has much more for us in the future!
Being filled with the Holy Spirit is so essential to being a Christian that Jesus told his followers not to even try to obey the Great Commission until they had experienced Pentecost. We want to help churches take new ground in their day-to-day experience of the Holy Spirit and charismatic gifts.
Building churches that are committed to the Word and Spirit is one of our key values. We want all of our churches to be shaped by the presence of God, using all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, experiencing Him tangibly and powerfully so that we are transformed by Him.
Taking new ground in the Spirit is about all of our members being filled by the Spirit every day, so that together we are empowered by Him in our own relationships with Jesus, as well as in our communities and across the nations.