RENEW

Faith is often thought of as a thing we have—a belief in something or someone. But in the Scriptures, faith is more than a passive possession—it’s a firm confidence that results in action. An action follows every mention of faith. Instead of sitting back, believers should count on God’s promises and act accordingly, as did the men and women listed in Hebrews 11. The Lord accomplished amazing feats...

The idea of being “born again” (one of the most powerful and prevalent themes in the Christian faith) emerged from a conversation with a Pharisee. In John 3, Nicodemus—a Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling council—came to Jesus at night with an inquirer’s heart and a question regarding the deeper meaning of salvation. Jesus’ answer would not only change his life; it would change the lives of...

Stillness is the quiet space where God migrates from the periphery back to the centre. True prayer comes out of a life that has God at the centre.

The motive behind all true intercessory prayer is love for the other. Prayers that start with love for someone else and end with inviting God's activity into places where that love is lacking. Intercession is a willing and intentional choice to turn away from the endless spiral into the self -- my desires, my needs, my circumstances -- to the desires, needs, and circumstances of another. Inter...

Start where you are. Talk to God about the little details of your life you think he doesn't care about. Talk to him about the ways he has let you down or disappointed you. Talk to him about the blessings he has heaped on you that you could never deserve. Talk to him about the anxiety you're carrying today. Just talk to him. Prayer is not the memorising of facts or highlighting of key phras...

Although the Bible offers a great deal of guidance on how we can deepen our communication with the Creator, effective prayer has more to do with the one doing the praying than it does with “how” we are to pray. 

Christianity shows us an exhilarating vision that is rigorous, seemingly unrealistic, unbending, and otherworldly. The God of the Bible, whose glory and holiness fills the narrative, invites us to live a very different way to the culture we find ourselves in.

The message of the New Testament is that the consequences of your response to the gospel message are massive. Eternity hangs in the balance.

No matter how things are changing in the culture around us, we choose to live according to a different standard with confidence in the ultimate triumph of truth. And it is this truth that takes on the world, and sometimes it even takes on the church, because in the end Christianity serves the good of both.

The ancient truths of Christianity expressed in the Bible and summed up in the creeds and expounded on by the earliest writings of Christianity provide a map for us. They give us direction and help us to speak the language of faith in ways that exalt our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The key to renewal is to return to the only truth that is reliable and sturdy. When so much of the world is in chaos and confusion we stand by what Christianity has always taught.

When we go through hardships, whether they be financial troubles, painful relationships, damaged health or questioning our self-worth, it's hard for us to realise that God is still always working in us. It can be difficult to trust God during uncertain times, but as believers we know that His ways are not our ways, and He will ultimately work all things for good (Isaiah 55:8-9, Romans 8:28). H...

Revivals are “surprising works” of God meant to impact people with the love and grace of God to such an extent that they spark a Kingdom of God revolution. A revolution in how we understand the Christian life, how we live it out, and how we practice being the church.

Maybe there is a stone blocking your way or standing in your path. Maybe you need to be reminded that the glorious, good news of Easter is that Jesus will one day roll away every stone, because he walked out of his tomb that day, very much alive, never to die again. As followers of Jesus, we truly believe that— that His bodily resurrection from the dead actually took place, and is in fact, the def...

There’s a whole dimension to reality that wields a direct and very powerful influence in our experience and yet is largely outside of our perception.  It’s not something that should surprise us because Jesus and his followers all believed the devil had significant control over the entire world.

When we think about sacraments, we have to ask ourselves; What is this seen and unseen world that we live in? The world was created and given to us for conversion of creaturely life into participation in divine life. And our only response to that revelation is worship. Our only response is to say "My Lord and my God."

The Holy Spirit bears the title of Lord with God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. He is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. He is eternal, uncreated, and divine; always existing with the Father and the Son in the oneness of the Trinity. Just like the Son, there was no time when there was no Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a sacrament, but he definitely pervades the sacramental life...

The transmission of what Jesus taught the Apostles to teach others to do, has been passed on like a baton through the church and through the centuries to all Christians and anyone who will believe. For two thousand years now, Christians have followed the orders given by Jesus to make disciples of all nations, based on the belief that it really matters that people hear the Word of God.

Healing is a mark of the Christian church. Emotional healing, spiritual healing, physical healing, relational healing. Healing is part and parcel of the Christian message. You can’t talk about authentic Christianity, the Christianity of Jesus, the apostles, the early church, the church worldwide, or even our own church without thinking about health and healing.

In our fallen and sinful world, an all-important aspect of our personhood is our need to be healed, to get up after we’ve fallen, our need to repent, to forgive – and to be forgiven. This is why confession is an important and integral aspect of Christian life.

Everything the Holy Spirit does bestows grace upon us. Sacraments, like the Church, are both visible and invisible. In every sacrament there is an outward visible si gn along with an inward spiritual grace . They are moments we experience in which God reveals Himself to us and imparts His grace upon us. Through marriage, God (through his representative) joins a man and a woman as husband and wife....

Whenever we celebrate Communion together, we are telling not only ourselves but the world around us about Jesus and his death on the cross for us. But we are also declaring that this is just a foretaste of the Great Banquet that is still to come, when Jesus returns — as both Judge and Saviour — and that our call is to repent and receive him now so that we can welcome him as our saviour and not tre...

The church since the very beginning began to take these specific moments in our salvation and our walk with Jesus and began to celebrate them as holy, as sacred and consecrated to God. Baptism shows that we have understood the good news message of Jesus and we understand the symbolic power of being immersed in water because the Creator has touched our lives at a very personal level.

Giving is not an obligation. Giving is not something God does to raise money; giving is something God does to raise people, because it's an invitation for us to step into kingdom reality.

We come together to build a church where people are encouraged and equipped to pursue a relationship with God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We come together to pursue connection with each other, and then learn to leverage our influence with our friends who are far from God. Everyone has something God wants them to do within the Church body.