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The church’s reason for existence is to glorify Jesus by making disciples for Him. Jesus’ last command before his ascension, Matthew 28… made disciples of all nations…

Our Mission Statement starts with Growing Disciples:

  • Grow disciples of Jesus Christ,

  • Glorify God by our Love and Service,

  • Engage our city and the world with the message of the Risen Christ.

So our goal is to have every member of St. John’s partnering in Jesus’ great purpose. Every ministry and service has this in view: We grow disciples.

When a person joins us, we are not simply inviting them to sit with us on Sundays. We are inviting them into this partnership. We start with a gospel presentation (Explore). We continue with a series of Bible Studies on the fundamentals of Christian Living (Belong). And from there they are able to join a Growth Group (Grow).

We call this our ‘Partnership Pathway’: Explore -> Belong -> Grow

Belong is a series of Bible Studies held on Sunday afternoons. The Belong studies are broken into two parts.

The first looks at the fundamentals of Christian Faith: Grace; Faith; & Repentance. My experience is that people who have been believers for a very long time are often surprised and greatly helped by these three studies particularly. And sometimes people who have heard the gospel in Explore find their understanding crystalises and the Gospel makes sense at this point.

The second part of Belong looks at the four fundamental means of grace that God has given us for our Christian living: Bible; Prayer; Church; & Testimony before the watching world.

From Belong people are able to join a Growth Group (Grow in the Partnership Pathway) and continue to grow together with others as disciples of Christ. From there they will be able to serve in the church and in the world and share in this ministry partnership that Jesus offers to all believers.

Every year we are seeing many people progress through this partnership pathway. It may be that you would like to join in the Belong Studies. The next round starts on Sunday afternoon, 3 March. Please do talk to Bruce or email the office if you would like to join.

Bruce Morrison
Senior Minister