Our Beliefs and Values

We think our faith in God should be expressed in every aspect of our lives, not just by going to church on Sundays. As Christians we have a lot to celebrate, but we think it’s important to be honest, so we talk about our struggles, as well as things that are going well.

We’re a diverse bunch in ethnicity, social background, age and character. This can be challenging at times but going outside our comfort zone helps us to grow in love, patience and maturity. We welcome and include people who suffer from mental health issues, or who are homeless or otherwise in need.

We like people to participate and contribute in our meetings, rather than watch everything happen from the front. Everyone has unique and valuable contributions they can bring to serve and encourage one another.

Although our church members live across northwest London, we have a particular concern to serve the local community around the church building in Notting Hill. Many local people come to our building for a whole variety of activities. We seek to make our community an active and connected part of the local community.

In some churches, the leaders define the beliefs, vision and activities of the church. We work upside down: we see our leaders as servants whose role is to support and nurture the growth of church members, to help people find their role in God’s plans.

We encourage and support people to think for themselves and hear God, but in the context of a community grounded in the Bible and prayer.

We think questions are good and doubts are OK – they’re vital tools to help us grow in our faith, understanding and wisdom.

We are a church who loves all that God has made – among us there are tree planters, CO2 capture scheme endeavours, nature photographers, cold water swimmers, dog lovers, elephant savers, bird watchers, plant eaters, and hill walkers.

We encourage each other to find ways to look after our planet. Nature inspires us to worship, and to be thankful: we glimpse God through it and are restored and refreshed.

We think beauty and creativity are gifts of God. We love to find creative ways to worship and communicate the life of God. God often reveals himself by showing us beauty in unexpected places.

Someone once described our church as ‘messy beautiful’ – we quite like this because although we think order is important, it’s vital to make room for the messiness that comes from creativity, new life and being fallible humans.