Ministry

Our ministry is an expression of our vision and our core values, which are outlined on this page.

Introduction

God's people have been planting and establishing churches since Bible times, so in one sense, there's little to be gained by seeking to "re-invent the wheel." The challenge confronting every church, whether new or old, is to build a God-honouring ministry that faithfully reflects three key perspectives i.e. normative (consistent with the Bible); situational (relevant to our particular context, setting and culture) and existential (built upon the God given gifts and talents of our people).

God and the Bible are always relevant to God's image-bearing human creatures, but for various reasons, many churches - though they bear the name of Christ - just as our city does ("Christ" "church"), they do not always represent Christ, or His kingdom, very well. Our aspiration is to reverse this tendency i.e. to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. Under the leadership of Tim Keller, the network of Redeemer Presbyterian Churches in New York pioneered a ministry that is faithful to the perspectives outlined to the left, successfully advancing God's kingdom in an urban, secular setting. Rather than starting over in our location, we have adopted and modified much from Redeemer and applied it to our situation in SE Christchurch.

Christchurch is the largest city on the South Island of New Zealand. It is a modern, western orientated, diverse city dominated by secular thinking. But like most of NZ, it is an "old waste place" spiritually, largely indifferent to the things of God. Though seriously impacted by twin major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, these did not trigger any resultant spiritual awakening. Our desire in our situation in SE Christchurch is to put Christ back into Christchurch! With God's help, we plan to do this by maximising the abilities of those God gathers, to faithfully discharge the many functions of a biblical church.

Vision

From a biblical perspective, the name of our city - "Christchurch" - may be the best name for a city in the world! But as NZ culture has become more secularised, our name, like our National Anthem - "God Defend NZ" - has become little more than a paradoxical label bearing little correlation to what our name signifies. We want to help make the name "Christ" more meaningful in "Christchurch!"

“To help build a great city for all people through a movement of the gospel that brings: personal conversion, community formation, social justice, and cultural renewal to Christchurch and to the world.”

This vision is rooted in:

Biblical identity: the faithful preaching of Scripture, the historic creeds, and the Reformed confessions.
City-focused mission: seeking the flourishing of our city.
Gospel movement: helping to plant churches and ministries that embody gospel values.

Ministry

Ministry is the practical outworking of our vision and values. In the initial stages, our ministries are largely aspirational.

"To help build a great city for all people through a movement of the gospel..."

Our identity: We will serve our city and our people through the true preaching of the Word of God, as well as the right administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. How we understand ‘true’ and ‘right’ is found in the ancient creeds of the church (e.g., Apostles’, Nicene) and the Protestant Reformed confessions (e.g., Westminster Confession and catechisms).

Our aspiration: We seek to love our God and neighbours by partnering with others to help bring about human flourishing for all, so that our city is a thriving and good place to live.

Our dynamic: The gospel is a living thing that transforms lives and communities, growing both as it sweeps us along with it. It is both the power for, and shaping factor, of all we do and the foundational source from which flow our core values.

Five Major Outcomes of the Vision

Our aim is to produce:

Personal Conversion - connecting people to God through worship, evangelism, and discipleship (changed lives).
Community Formation - building countercultural communities shaped by generosity, hospitality, and transformed relationships (renewal by the gospel).
Social Justice - serving the poor and marginalised through mercy and justice ministries (justice for the vulnerable).
Cultural Renewal - integrating faith with work, vocation, and the arts to renew culture (cultural impact).
New Churches - helping to establish other like-minded churches (kingdom growth).

The facets of our ministry are the main organisational manifestation of our core values. Each is an aspect of the whole, which means that, while each facet will specialise in expressing certain values, everyone must carry out their ministry giving attention to all of them e.g. worship ministry must consider how to conduct its ministry with reference to social justice; mercy ministry and faith-work must keep evangelism in mind etc.

Personal conversion: We connect people to God through worship, evangelism, and discipleship since the whole life is converted and changed by the gospel.
Community formation: We connect people to each other through worship, Community Group fellowship, sharing of resources, strengthening families, as well as being a countercultural influence with regard to sex, money, and power etc.
Social justice: We connect people to the poor and marginalised through ministries of justice and compassion and to the wider city through the civic involvement of our people.
Cultural renewal: We connect people to the culture, particularly through the integration of faith with work and vocation.
Movement: We will help to plant churches that share our core values. The term “movement” means the proliferation of gospel-based churches, ministries, institutions, companies, and initiatives both in our city, and beyond.

"...to the world"

SE Christchurch is a big mission field. It is tempting to let its importance and needs fill our entire field of attention. However, we see our ministry extending to other locations in NZ, and to the world beyond.

Values

Our nine core values:

As a community of changed people, we are committed to serving and renewing our city through a movement of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

1. Gospel Centrality

In general, the gospel is the message of the Bible that God is redeeming his fallen creation through the coming of his kingdom in the person and work of Jesus Christ. In particular, the gospel is the message that we are saved from our sins by sheer, free grace through faith in the finished work of Christ, not through our efforts and works. We believe that this gospel message of hope for the world and grace for the sinner is not merely a body of truth, but the very power of God which grows, changes, and shapes everything with which it has contact - hearts and identities, relationships, practices in every area of public and private life, and whole societies. So, the gospel is “central,” not merely as one department of belief, but because it is a power that affects every area of life when its implications are felt and thought out. Secondly, the gospel is “central” because it is neither legalism on the one hand, nor relativism on the other.

2. Changed Lives

It is common to think the gospel is a message mainly to be shared with non-believers to bring them salvation, after which they grow through following Biblical principles. We believe the gospel is a message for believers also - that believing, understanding, rejoicing in and practicing the gospel more deeply is the main way believers overcome flaws and problems and grow into Christ-likeness. Our sinful behaviour is rooted in idols of the heart i.e. alternative ‘salvations.’ A deeper knowledge of, and experience of, God’s grace in Christ can root out these often invisible, false, and ultimately futile 'Saviours' which are embedded within all cultures. We know that long-term life change also requires formative practices of individual and communal prayer, instruction, and worship (see Gospel Community), but without a gospel-changed and changing heart, church practices will produce nominal believers e.g. people whose allegiance is not to Christ alone, but also to various other cultural idols. The gospel changes us from the inside out, freeing us from both self-righteousness and self-condemnation. It enables us to welcome people we once excluded, including those who don’t share our beliefs. Bringing the gospel to bear on life is, therefore, the essence of what we do in preaching, pastoral care, counselling, and education etc. Through the gospel, God can change anyone. An open Bible and a heart changed and transformed by the Spirit of God can change the world one life at a time.

3. Gospel Community

Because the gospel changes both our hearts and identities, it makes us into people who can conduct far more transparent, honest, intimate, and loving relationships. So, the gospel creates a new kind of community. And the nature of the gospel is best conveyed and made plain in community because it is just as true that the gospel is not only a body of truth but also a life-changing power. Growth in gospel grace (discipleship) is best done in a community of informal relationships, not in a classroom or through a book. It is in community that people see how a gospel-changed heart really works - in our humility as well as our boldness; in our quickness to repent, forgive, and reconcile; and in the uniqueness of our life practices. The gospel does not merely make us closer in our one-on-one relationships, but also creates a counter-culture, a contrast community in which all can see the difference the gospel makes. The gospel, then, in multiple ways leads us to prize community and we aim to, whenever possible, do things through organic community and lay ministry rather than through staff-led programs. There are multiple ways to form community, but in urban/suburban settings the small group fellowship will continue to be crucial to this.

4. City Vision

We hold a positive, balanced, Biblically-rooted view of the city. We are very positive about our city - seeing it as a strategic place for Christians to live and minister today, and also valuing its many benefits for human life and flourishing. As a result, we encourage Christians to stay and live in the city - though not of course legalisticly. We want our leaders to be energised by and enjoy city living. We call this positive value “balanced” because we aspire to be contextualised to the city. This means to be adapted to our culture without compromising the truth, as Jesus was incarnated (fully human) yet without sin. The gospel makes us contextualisers - too humbled to make an idol out of our old culture, but too affirmed and loved to need the approval of the new one. So, we are very concerned to be relevant in our sensibilities and communication; none-the-less we do not romanticise the city or uncritically adopt attitudes and practices that contradict the gospel. We don’t hate the city or romanticise it - we love the city, we have a vision for what it could be, and we are here to seek its well-being for all its people.

5. Mercy and Justice

The gospel humbles people, showing them that they are no better than anyone else before God. It also lifts up the poor and broken, giving them a new identity and confidence in Christ. While concern for the needy is not a means of salvation, a life poured out in deeds of mercy and justice is a sign that the heart has been changed by grace. Mercy is simply meeting people’s basic needs out of a gospel-produced compassion. Doing justice includes being generous in sharing one’s wealth and time in meeting immediate needs, but it consists also in being advocates for people with less social power, and more broadly, engaging as citizens in the city in order to make it a good place for all people to live. A gospel-preaching church should be known for its mercy and justice, or outsiders will not listen to what is being preached. While bringing people to faith in Christ is the single greatest thing a person can do for another person, the gospel must be ministered in word and deed together if it is going to have the life-changing impact we desire.

6. Cultural Renewal

The gospel does not only have implications for our private life and Christian relationships, it also affects our public life, particularly how we pursue our vocations in the world and do our daily work. Every culture is largely the result of a society’s core beliefs about the meaning of life, right and wrong, the nature of the human dilemma and it’s solution - all fleshed out and expressed through people’s work and the things they produce. When Christians begin to do their work out of a different set of beliefs (worldview) - whether in business, the arts, the academy, government, or the helping professions - it changes and renews the culture. The gospel gives every believer a new worldview, new inner motives and power, and new conceptions and guidelines for work. While the local church does not directly seek to change culture, it disciples its people to be agents out in the world who do.

7. Outward Face

We are especially concerned to welcome secular, non-believing people. Most churches have an ethos and manner of operating that is confusing or offensive to outsiders. We aspire to be a place where doubters feel their questions are noticed and taken seriously. For this reason, we will endeavour to avoid typical Christian piety-jargon that makes outsiders immediately feel unnecessarily alien. Sermons should be preached, and public events (even most small groups) conducted as if non-Christians were present, over-hearing what we are saying. We must constantly keep in mind what it is like to not believe. If we maintain such an environment, then evangelism should happen the right way - not so much through programs but organically through the witness of believers. Our hope is that a large percentage of Christians come to Covenant Bible Church and think, “I wish my non-Christian friend could hear this.” Though we expect to attract some who are already-Christians, that is not our intended growth pathway. Rather, we are committed to a strong outward orientation, convinced that such a focus will guarantee that new Christians are mobilised to reach out to the city.

8. Gospel Movement

As a local church, we want to be a catalyst for an entire movement of the gospel in our city and elsewhere. A movement is a dynamic set of interactive relationships between renewed churches, new churches, a variety of specialist ministries (that unite congregations and lay people to do prayer, evangelism, youth and college ministries, faith and work projects, and mercy and justice) as well as many other new institutions, non-profits, arts initiatives, organisations, and companies. In a true movement, common vision and a spirit of innovation and cooperation characterise the relationships of these entities. These relationships then stimulate all parties and the overall the Body of Christ grows faster than the population - without a central, top-down, control centre. Lots of new ministries and churches can begin, and churches overall see conversions and changed lives. A movement also requires a host of institutions (schools, theological training centres etc), which support family life in the city and raise up leaders. A movement requires above all a “kingdom” (rather than a tribal) mindset on the part of the Christians of the city, produced (as usual!) by a grasp of the gospel of grace and the Biblical theology on which it is based.

9. Church Planting

We believe that at the very heart of any gospel movement in a city is church planting. Yet, we know that church planting is not everything that is needed. Existing churches must be renewed with the gospel. Christians must evangelise, do justice, and integrate their faith with their work. Educational institutions and arts initiatives and many non-profits must be started. However, the best way to renew older churches and increase the number of Christians, ministers, and givers in a city is to plant new churches. We are under no illusions that our single church or our Presbyterian tradition is sufficient to renew all of Christchurch, or NZ. We are therefore committed to planting (and helping others plant) many new churches, while at the same time working for a renewal of gospel vitality in all the congregations in the city.