VISION AND VALUES

When you come to Hillview you will find a group of Christians seeking to have their lives defined by God’s word, shaped by His love and by grace in Jesus, and empowered by His Spirit.

Hence our vision statement…

‘Receiving, Living, Declaring the Word of God in a dying world by the power of the Holy Spirit’

One could sum this up as ‘Living the Word in the world’ - this is our hearts desire and what you will find us seeking to encourage each other to do. You will find our preaching and practice as a community firmly based in the Bible as the Word of God. Join us as we encourage each other to read the Bible regularly and look to God’s word to guide us in all areas of our lives, both individually and together. Our constant prayer is that God through the work of the Holy Spirit would help us to not only understand the Bible, but live it out in our lives.

¹ Blessed are those
   who do not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
   or sit in the company of mockers,
² but who delight in the law of the LORD
   and meditate on his law day and night.
³ They are like a tree planted by streams of water,
   which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

Psalm 1:1-3

We ascribe to the Evangelical Alliance Declaration of Faith. As an independent church we are not part of any denomination, but enjoy fellowship with churches from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Our practice as a church is firmly based in the Bible as the Word of God. We base our teaching on the Bible. We encourage everyone to read the Bible regularly. We look to the Bible to guide us in all areas of our lives and work, both individually and together. We look to God to help us understand the Bible with the help of the Holy Spirit.

The statement below is taken from the www.eauk.org website:

1. The one true God who lives eternally in three persons—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
2. The love, grace and sovereignty of God in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming and judging the world.
3. The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God—fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.
4. The dignity of all people, made male and female in God's image to love, be holy and care for creation, yet corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement.
5. The incarnation of God’s eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ—born of the virgin Mary; truly divine and truly human, yet without sin.
6. The atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross: dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, so reconciling us with God.
7. The bodily resurrection of Christ, the first fruits of our resurrection; his ascension to the Father, and his reign and mediation as the only Saviour of the world.
8. The justification of sinners solely by the grace of God through faith in Christ.
9. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit, who leads us to repentance, unites us with Christ through new birth, empowers our discipleship and enables our witness.
10. The Church, the body of Christ both local and universal, the priesthood of all believers—given life by the Spirit and endowed with the Spirit's gifts to worship God and proclaim the gospel, promoting justice and love.
11. The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven and new earth.