What We Believe
This page shares some things that are important to us, things which we believe passionately. They are core parts of our Christian faith. You may not share all of these beliefs, but we would certainly love to explore any of them with you if you’d like that. We’d also be interested to hear what you believe.
We also have a page about ‘Things that we care about’. There, we share a number of things that motivate us, important things in our world that we are committed to and want to promote with our words, lives and actions.
We believe in Jesus
2000 years ago a Jewish man called Jesus lived in the Middle East for 30 years. He was executed as a criminal, but three days later rose from the dead. We believe that he was God’s Son and that his death and resurrection opened a way for us to meet with God.
Jesus said that he came so that we could live life to the full. All of us at Gold Hill have a story to tell of how we’ve experienced that in our own lives.
We are his followers – we seek to emulate his life and to live by his teachings. We love to introduce others to Jesus – whether through 1-1 chats or through events such as an ALPHA course. As a church, we subscribe to the Evangelical Alliance basis of faith. Read more about what it means to follow Jesus.
We believe in Prayer
Prayer is the word we use to describe talking with God. As we spend our lives in his presence it’s natural to want to speak with him. As we pray, we deepen our relationship with him. God encourages us to ask him for the things we need. Whether it’s a big thing or a very small thing, it’s good to get in the routine of asking God. We’ve seen miraculous answers to prayers as we’ve learned this habit. Prayer is also key to receiving God’s specific guidance for our lives.
Prayer is central to life at Gold Hill. One room in the Hub is set aside for prayer. As people join and get embedded into the life of Gold Hill we provide opportunities for them to learn how to pray. Each weekday morning we send a daily prayer prompt to inspire prayer. We can recommend books, practices, apps to help people develop prayer habits.
We believe in Reaching, Restoring and Releasing
Our church is part of a global movement to change the world for God. We Reach out to people who are in trouble or looking for meaning, we Restore through a relationship with God so that they can become the people God designed them to be, and then we Release them to bring God’s blessing to others.
We believe in the Bible
Gold Hill has, for centuries, been an ‘evangelical’ church. That simply means that we trust what the Bible tells us, we believe it is good news and worth basing our lives upon. The bible is a library of over 60 books written over a span of a thousand years. These books tell a single story of a God who made us humans, who loves us and then lost us when we turned our back on him. But the story goes on to explain the extraordinary lengths that God went to, to win us back. In our Sunday and weekday meetings, we spend time studying this story – because it’s our story. We encourage everyone to read it on their own, and would love to help if you’d like to figure out where to start.
We believe in the Holy Spirit
After Jesus died and rose again, he went to Heaven, and is preparing to welcome many billions with him there. But he has not left us alone! We believe in the Holy Spirit, God himself living in us, drawing us closer and closer to him, and birthing new life and amazing gifts in all those who follow Jesus. We believe that as Christians we can always be filled with the Holy Spirit and that, when we are, we can see his power and work in our lives in real and wonderful ways.
We believe in the human race
Human beings are truly amazing. Each of us is unique. Each of us has enormous value to the God who made us – regardless of our intelligence, age, health, wealth, beauty or social standing. We believe in people because God believes in people. That doesn’t mean we think people are perfect – we all know that isn’t true. But God loves people enough that, even though we fail, he pursues us still and wants to restore us.
At Gold Hill, we do everything we can to help people thrive – whether that’s supporting through difficult circumstances or celebrating their success. Our pastoral team is available to support people during crises.