The Visible and Invisible Church

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There is one universal Church, composed of all those, in every time and place, who are chosen in Christ and united to Him through faith by the Spirit in one Body, with Christ Himself as the all-supplying, all-sustaining, all-supreme and all-authoritative Head. We believe that the ultimate purpose of the Church is to glorify God in the everlasting and ever-increasing gladness of worship. The universal Church finds expression in local churches in which believers covenant together to hear the Word of God proclaimed, to engage in corporate worship, to practise the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to build each other’s faith through the ministries of love, to hold each other accountable in the obedience of faith through Biblical discipline and to engage in local and world evangelisation. The Church is a body in which each member should find a suitable ministry for His gifts; it is the household of God in which the Spirit dwells; it is the pillar and bulwark of God’s truth in a truth-denying world; and it is a city set on a hill so that men may see the light of its good deeds and give glory to the Father in heaven. There is a crisis of identity and purpose in many local churches in Europe. This encompasses, among other things, forms of worship, styles of leadership, loyalty to institutions and differing expectations and assumptions about commitment and need. We recognize that the visible church will always struggle and not be perfect. Any expectation of perfectionism much be resisted. We must also resist a critical and cynical spirit. The ideal, which we should aim for but will not reach, must be a Church where Christ is the centre of our corporate affection and worship. For the Church is a taste of the coming Kingdom in its humility and gratitude and faithfulness to God. There needs to be a return of the place of awe in our worship; a respect for difference and a commitment to unity; a safe space for questions and doubts and where people are encouraged to think about and discover the richness of the Christian faith; preaching and personal discipleship where the goal of teaching is to prepare people to be pleasing to God in their respective callings; where all partners of the community are committed to loving God with mind, strength and soul, and their neighbour as their self; where there is no recognition of difference between sacred and secular calling; where mission both local and distant is supported; where creativity is encouraged; where engagement with society and not withdrawal is understood and promoted; where strong theological foundations are laid and forms of community and worship promoted with all the freedom the Bible gives. We are not called to leave the world, but to be faithful in it. Our life together should be both a prophetic witness and a testimony to the goodness of God. Our witness should address the real issues of daily life. The organisation and expectation of church life should encourage and prayerfully support members to be fully engaged in commitments in the wider world.