Immanuel Community Church

The Word Of God

We value the Scriptures as the divinely inspired, infallible, authoritative and living Word of God. We value the Lutheran Confessions as a Christ-centered expression and exposition of the Scriptures.

Worship

We value corporate worship as the heart and centre of our Christian walk as we gather to praise Him, be transformed by Him and be empowered by Him to be faithful to His call on our lives. We value inspiring worship that is culturally relevant and open to utilising creative arts and multi-media to help people encounter God face to face and respond to Him.

We recognise that the responsibility for public proclamation of the Word, including the declaring of absolution and preaching, rests with the called Pastor. The congregation recognises, welcomes, encourages and approves this ministry of proclamation also by lay people working under the Pastor’s authority.

Prayer

In prayer we are seeking the Lord and His mercy to carry out His work amongst us and in our local community. We cannot bear any lasting fruit without God’s help, and so we are committed to under-girding all worship, fellowship, discipleship, service and outreach activities at Immanuel with prayer at their conception, planning and implementation.

Passionate Spirituality

We recognise that a passion for Jesus and His Kingdom is the appropriate response for all we do as Kingdom people. This is expressed in a number of ways:

• Spiritual disciplines: The primary relationship to be encouraged is each person’s relationship with Jesus. Since disciplines such as Bible reading and personal prayer are an essential part of our Christian walk, we are committed to providing resources and opportunities to help people of Immanuel deepen their walk with Jesus.
• Faith development at home: We affirm that the home is the primary place of faith formation and expression, especially for children and youth. We value encouraging, equipping and providing resources for families and households to grow together in Jesus.
• Stewardship is using all we are and all we have for God. As Jesus has given His all for us, we value sacrificial giving and wise stewardship of money, time, possessions and gifts for ministry as a loving and joyful response, both as a congregation and as individuals.

Integrity

• Transparent integrity: Our passion for Jesus flows over into our dealings with each other and with the wider community. God calls us to be a Christian community whose people display integrity in all their dealings by being open and accountable.
• Excellence: As a response to God’s action for us, we value a spirit of excellence in all we do, but even more so an excellence of spirit, because it honours God.
• Unity: We value unity as both a gift from the Holy Spirit and task to be constantly engaged in (Ephesians 4:3). We especially value unity in leadership and staff relationships. Whereas division and discord weaken the body, unity in the lordship of Jesus enables us to mature and bear fruit for His Kingdom (Psalm 133).

Everyday Evangelism and Service

Jesus has given us the task of being His primary agents for sharing the Gospel. While not everybody is an evangelist, we are all called to give an account of the hope that we have in Jesus. Therefore we value:

• Equipping and encouraging the Immanuel community to share Jesus and faith matters in everyday life in the home, schoolyard, workplace and social circles (1 Peter 3:15-16)
• Service projects/acts of service where we show Jesus' love by responding to the specific needs of those around us, both corporately and individually

Empowering Leadership

We value leadership that encourages, affirms, delegates and helps members of the body of Christ give birth to ministries consistent with their spiritual gifts. We value permission-giving leadership that promotes a church environment where it is safe to experiment and learn from mistakes. We value clear expectations, guidelines and accountability in all areas of leadership.

Gift-Oriented Ministry

Every person whom God brings to Immanuel is to be nurtured and seen as a gift to us, and has gifts to be discovered, developed and deployed in ministries which grow the Kingdom of God. We value partners being given the opportunities to do so at every stage of their Christian walk. We recognise that a desire to exercise a certain gift may sometimes be greater than an individual’s actual gifting. Hence we value the submission of all of our gifts to the congregation for confirmation.

Small Groups

We recognise that personal growth, discipleship, relationship building and most pastoral care happens for the majority of our fellowship in small groups — be they Bible study, service, social or ministry groups.

We therefore value an intentional coordination of small groups and opportunity for everyone at Immanuel to be involved in one, where they can grow in authentic, Christ-centred loving relationships.

Sending and Support of Missionaries

We recognise that God calls people from Immanuel to Kingdom work in other places. We value the sending out of mission workers and seek to partner such ventures with prayer support, encouragement and practical resources as we are able.

Leadership and Ministry Structure

We value a simple, flexible and functional leadership and ministry structure which:

• encourages a team approach to ministry and mission
• frees staff to primarily be leaders and equippers of Immanuel’s members
• is geared towards raising leaders and multiplying ministries
• recognises different roles and respects boundaries of responsibilities
• ensures mutual empowerment, trust and accountability.