Belief and Values
What We Believe
God has revealed Himself in the Bible, which consists of the Old and New Testaments alone. Every word was inspired by God through human authors. The Bible as originally given is in its entirety the Word of God, without error and fully reliable in fact and doctrine. Therefore, the Bible alone speaks with final authority and is always sufficient for all matters of belief and practice.
The Holy Spirit has been sent from heaven to glorify Christ and to apply his work of salvation. He convicts sinners, imparts spiritual life, and gives a true understanding of the Scriptures. He indwells all believers, brings assurance of salvation, and produces increasing likeness to Christ. He builds up the Church and empowers its members for worship, service, and mission.
Our Values
We serve with the chief end of seeing God glorified in the churches of Ethiopia and beyond. We do not seek our own honor or fame, but that of our triune God.
We realize that our work is in vain unless blessed by Christ the Master-Builder and we express our humility and dependence in prayer, committing ourselves to pray for churches and their leaders, and for ourselves, coveting the prayers of others in our work.
We fight against self-reliance and worldliness. We long that we might be filled with the Spirit and his fruit be evident in all our dealings with others.
We want to be those who are continually thanking God for the work he is doing in and through our ministry and in the world. We want to avoid presumption, ingratitude, and a failure to see God at work in others.
We want to be those who are growing in godliness and gifting, investing in both.
We challenge ungodly behavior amongst ourselves and seek to spur one another on. We refuse to distort the word of God, and we renounce secret and shameful ways.
We renounce worldly wisdom in favor of the wisdom of Christ. We seek to be reliable, trustworthy, and fully faithful in our work by keeping the commitments we make in the course of our work. We are quick to acknowledge mistakes and seek the forgiveness of others whilst also forgiving as we have been forgiven.
We will respect the autonomy of the local church and each church’s individual independence by encouraging the development of qualified and godly local leaders.
We will not claim or exercise authority over our churches but seek – where appropriate – to counsel, persuade, and reason, gently calling churches to be faithful to the commands of Scripture. We seek the good of others before ourselves. We recognize and pray against the sins of boastfulness and pride.
We are concerned for theological integrity and adherence to our doctrinal basis and ethos statements, both in ourselves and those we serve. We will take care in the way we speak about other matters over which churches legitimately disagree.
We are courageous in upholding and applying the truth of the Gospel whilst also calling error to account. We always seek to communicate in straightforward ways.
We long to be motivated by a deep affection for all God’s people and – in particular - those in our churches, striving for harmony and (where needed) reconciliation.
We abhor self-promotion. We are realistic about both the joys and hardships of Christian ministry and want to encourage others in this exacting task. We want to cultivate and demonstrate empathy and compassion towards those who are struggling.
As far as it depends on us, we want to live at peace with everyone.
We seek to serve all churches impartially, for example making no distinction based on the size, location, or personal relationships that churches might have with members of the team.
We long that each should gladly serve others and look to find ways to help this happen. We resist favoritism and nepotism and openly declare interests. We want to be generous with our time and energy in the service of churches.