About Ashburton Presbyterian
Our tag line is “finding solid ground in Christ”
(Psalm 40:2 (ESV): “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.”)
Our desire is to see people build their lives on the one sure foundation that is not going to fail them – Jesus Christ.
Purpose
We exist to glorify God by:
living our lives in the light of eternity in worship of Him;
making a difference in our community by the way we live and serve; and
making disciples in
nurturing followers of Jesus in their faith and service; and
sharing the good news about Jesus with those who are not yet His.
Beliefs
We believe that God has given us His word in the Bible, which is without error, through which He reveals truth concerning Himself, His creation, our condition and what He requires of us. The Bible provides all that is necessary for understanding our world and living in it.
God has also revealed Himself personally in Jesus Christ (God the Son), through whom, by faith and repentance, we are saved from God’s judgment on account of our sin and have eternal life. We are counted as righteous by reason of Jesus’ perfect life lived for us, forgiven by reason of His death on our behalf, and receive eternal life by reason of His resurrection from the dead.
For a fuller doctrinal statement click here
Core Values
Our core values express what we hold to be most important:
We value God’s word and seek to learn from it and live in obedience to it as His living, powerful, relevant, saving truth.
We value prayer as God’s gracious, powerful and effective gift to us, whereby we can speak to Him directly, and He answers according to His perfect will and purpose.
We value worship as only fitting response to God’s grace and the expression of our ‘heart’ pursuit of Him. It encompasses all of life, and is to be passionate and fervent, mirroring God’s passionate pursuit of us.
We value Christian discipleship and seek to be purposeful in nurturing believers in an extravagant love for Jesus, which they will in turn invest in nurturing others.
We value Christ’s love as the heartbeat of the church, displayed in a community of generous love and hospitality.
We value the diversity of spiritual gifts, distributed by the Holy Spirit (as He determines) to each and every believer to be used (in His power) for the building up of the church (Jesus’ people).
We value salvation as God’s gift and desire to see others share in that salvation. This means that we take seriously the task to share the good news that ‘Jesus saves’, both in our local community and abroad.
We value all of these as means of grace by which God is at work in our lives.