All content © Christ Church Balham 2018.
Christ Church Balham is a ministry of the Co-Mission Churches Trust, registered charity number 1139922
Part of the Co-Mission Network.
building Disciple-making
disciples of Jesus Christ
A disciple is essentially a learner. And so, we want to learn from Jesus. After all, his life was marked by a wholehearted love for his Father, a sacrificial love for his people and a generous love towards his world.
OUR MINISTRY PRINCIPLES
TEACHING THE SCRIPTURES
We think the Bible matters. We want to let God speak so that we might live our lives in joyful obedience to His word. We ensure that God’s word sets the agenda for what we do and how we do it. Teaching and training one another to correctly handle the Bible permeates every level of church life, so that we might understand what the Scriptures mean for ourselves, our church, and our nation.
ENGAGING OUR HEARTS
We think emotions matter. Understanding the Scriptures should never be an end in itself, resulting in Christians puffed up with knowledge. Neither do we believe we should be simply led by our emotions, which are often dangerously misleading. Rather, as God’s word is read, preached, and sung, we long for the Spirit to inform and direct our hearts. To this end, we aim for our sung worship to engage the emotions, for our preaching of the Scriptures to stir the heart, and for our prayers to be earnest in spirit.
LOVING ONE ANOTHER
We think relationships matter. Lots of people live in London and yet sadly many fail to find a sense of belonging. We’re committed to providing a place where all sorts of people can find a community where they will be loved. As Christians, we need one another if we’re to continue to live with Jesus as our Lord. We need encouragement, care and support from others. Occasionally we also need the loving correction and rebuke of friends and leaders to whom we’re accountable. Our small group programme, our social events, and our hospitality mean a lot to us.
Equipping for service
We think training matters. Only a small percentage of people can realistically afford to live in London for the long term, so we desire to invest heavily in equipping the church to be useful servants of Jesus Christ, wherever they might end up. The more Christians who are trained up to be encouragers, teachers, preachers, evangelists, servers, and theologians, the greater the blessing to the wider church.
Reaching our neighbours
We think mission matters. Lots of churches think that mission is sending people out across the world, and we stand with them on that. But we also think that mission consists of sending one another across the street into our neighbourhood. Our origins as a church are mission related, and to that end much of our time, energy and money are directed towards evangelism. We want to keep reaching out to Balham with the good news of Jesus Christ, credibly backed up with practical care and concern for our neighbourhood. We’re doing this so that Jesus Christ may be known and God may be glorified.
