Jesus [said], "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind". This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbour as yourself." (Matt 22:37-39)
Then Jesus ... said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Matt 28:18-20)
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as they had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)
From Jesus’ commands and the description of the early church in the Bible we believe that we exist as a church to fulfil the following different purposes:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all mind." (Matt 22:37)
This we do by spending time with him in prayer and giving him our adoration and praise and by giving our lives in his service (our worship).
"Go and make disciples of all nations...." (Matt 28:19)
We've been given a mission to take the Good News of Jesus to people everywhere - both locally and globally.
"...baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Matt 28:19-20)
Through submitting to the Holy Spirit, teaching, equipping and spurring one another on we want to grow in our Christian maturity - this is what discipleship means.
From him the whole body … grows and builds itself up as each part does its work. (Eph 4:16)
We all have a part to play, a ministry to fulfill in the church. Through our full participation the whole church grows and is built up.
All the believers were together and had everything in common. (Acts 2:44)
We aren't called to do any of this on our own but to do it all together, as a community of God's people, encouraging each other and building one another up.
These purposes are not unique to us and could apply to any and every local church.
Paul likens the church to a body, and just like our bodies need a balanced diet and exercise to stay healthy we need a way of balancing our activities as a church to ensure that, as a body, we remain healthy and effective.
To help visualise this consider this wheel that divides our activities as a church into different areas based on the purposes mentioned above.
The hub of the wheel rests on our relationship with God - expressed through our prayer and worship. If we are not centred like this we'll never get anything right! Then the other four areas around the rim of the wheel need to be kept in balance - otherwise the wheel will tip over. We need to ensure we are putting equal effort into all these aspects of our church life and not over-emphasising one area over another. We need to periodically review our activities to make sure we are keeping things in balance.
We believe these different aspects of our purposes as a church can be summed up in the words of our vision, which is:
"Together, to know God and make him known"
Why have a vision statement like this? Because having a simple memorable statement helps us keep in mind what we are trying to achieve. Having this vision as our long-term goal helps us to have the right focus in the short term. We can use this to check our progress - is what we are doing as a church fitting in with our vision?
Our purposes and our vision describe what we are seeking to do as a church. But our values express the character, attitudes and mindset we want to demonstrate. In other words, how we want to be church. Our values are:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, "Love your neighbour as yourself." All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matt 22v35-40)
"A new command I give you – love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love another." (John 13v34-35)
Without love all our activities would be hollow and worthless. (1 Cor 13)
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Eph 4v3)
Maintaining our "unity in diversity" is very important to us as a fellowship.
"Trust in God; trust also in me." (John 14v1)
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Heb 11v6)
Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal 6v2)
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs. (Eph 4v29)
All relationships are based on trust, so we need not only to trust God but to be able to trust one another if we are to share our lives honestly and openly.
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Phil 4v4)
Being church together should be a joy not a drudge or duty.
We also believe that each church has a unique place in God's kingdom - we have a job to do in York that only we can do. We think we have certain "distinctives" which express our particular style and make us YCC (rather than any another church). We want to hold on to these and use them to help us decide what kind of activities and outreach we are best suited for. They are:
Our open communion service is a key time for us to focus on God, to be led by his Spirit and to encourage one another. We expect this to remain a vital part of our church life.
We serve in teams rather than following individuals. This is much deeper than the fact that we are led by a team of Elders, because many activities of the church are led by teams (task groups) and not individuals.
We do not have a formal membership list and we have a wide range of ages and backgrounds in the church. We want everyone to feel that they belong.
We encourage everyone who considers themselves to be a part of the church to actively participate in the life of the church and serve the church in some capacity.
We want to remain a church whose teaching is faithful to the Bible but is accessible to everyone and relevant to our culture - that really "scratches where people itch"
We have a passion for outreach to our local communities and for global mission – expressed through our missionary support. We also want to see more and more of our people being sent by God to various mission fields.
We recognise we have a multi-faceted ministry to various groups including (but not limited to) people from the local area, students and Christians from across York.
As a church we have been through a great deal of upheaval – we expect and look forward to more and more change as God reveals the way ahead.