The vision of St John’s comprises the following:
1. Mission – Making Disciples of Christ
This is the purpose of St John’s; that is why we exist - encouraging people to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and growing them in their faith so that they in turn can make disciples.
It’s directly mandated by Jesus himself in his final words to his disciples in Matthew’s gospel:
“Jesus came to them [his disciples] and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations’.” (Matt 28:18-19)
2.Values – Truth and Love
Holding onto the value of Truth means that we are firmly founded in the gospel, that we believe certain propositional statements of the Christian faith and that we hold certain moral convictions. So truth isn’t about what is just in our head, it’s also about our hearts. That the two are aligned, so there is integrity is how we behave.
Holding onto the value of Love means that we have a generous spirit, we show social compassion. It means that knowing what sin is doesn’t prevent us from reaching out to the sinner. It means that we can profoundly disagree with someone and yet love them at the same time.
From these values many others will arise (e.g. devotion to God’s word, radical generosity etc.), but Truth and Love are our foundational values.
3. Aspirations – Treasure God, Love one another, Represent Jesus
To achieve our mission and live out our values, we aspire to be people that:
Treasure God - Above all things we put God first in our lives, valuing him more highly than anything else and living whole-heartedly for him. This comes from the 1st great commandment. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)
Love one another - Knowing God’s sacrificial love for us we mutually support, care and encourage each other as brothers and sisters in his family. This is a natural outworking of treasuring God. As the apostle John says: ”Let us love one another, for love comes from God” (1 John 4:7).
Represent Jesus - And as Christ’s body, we reach out to others in compassion, integrity and grace with the saving message of the gospel. Echoing the words of St Paul: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Cor 5:20).
So, the St John’s vision is as easy as 1,2,3 😊 1 Mission, 2 Values, 3 Aspirations. Or even more straightforwardly: GROWTH. Growth in maturity of our faith, as we become more like Jesus, and growth in numbers, as more people become Christians.
We hope and pray that this is the church that you want to belong to, attend regularly, serve in, give to, invite others to and where you will grow as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.