Foundation church

Who we are and what we are

We are a group of Christians who have chosen to come together as an ‘ecclesia’ (assembly of God’s people), to edify and encourage one another in our faith and serve God.

We meet face to face and sometimes over Zoom (because there are those who live in different parts of England and even as far away as Mexico!)

Meeting together

Fellowship is important to us and for those in Colchester we meet together at least once a week. This is an important time of sharing our lives and enjoying one another’s company.

We meet together for discussion the bible – to understand what it is saying and what it means for our daily lives. We aim to determine how to practice our faith and live it out.

We meet to see what God, has been saying to each of us through the Holy Spirit. We call this ‘Body Ministry’ (1 Cor 14); each person having the right (and responsibility) to bring and share something from God. There is no order of service and no one leads it from the front. Instead, we value the spontaneity and freedom to see what God is doing today!

We meet together to study the bible to understand the ‘apostles teaching’ and develop our faith. We explore topical issues, doctrinal subjects to enable us to know God word for ourselves.

We encourage people to share the lives together throughout the week; visiting each other and we maintain connections through WhatsApp Groups.

Beliefs

We know it’s important to those who might consider ‘trying us out’ or coming into fellowship with us to know something of what we hold dear.

We acknowledge God is our maker and the one who brought all things into existence and will one day extend His heavenly Kingdom to cover the earth (Revelation 20:4–6). We recognise that without Him our lives would have no eternal meaning.

We believe that Jesus died as an act of restoration and redemption making it possible for us to enter in an eternal relationship with God the Father. We accept Jesus’ death as the atonement for our sins and acknowledge that without His death, resurrection and ascension we would be cut off from God for eternity. We realise that He alone is the way (back) to fellowship with God.

We believe in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us (John 14: 16-17) and that it is the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to all believers to enable them to know the Father’s will and to understand His purposes for our lives. We acknowledge the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and hope to experience them active in our lives.

We know that we are saved by Grace alone and we are seeking to love the Lord our God more fully each and every day.

We recognise that God has prepared works of service for us to participate in. To that end we expect to engage in social action and to practice social justice as an outward expression of the commandment that God gave us that we show our over love for others.

We endeavour to hold one another in the highest esteem; to forgive one another, avoid holding grudges and to live for each other not ourselves.

We are intentional in sharing the Gospel of Christ with others and we do this through social action and by inviting people to join us on a ‘Start’ course when we open up the gospel and invite people to know Jesus for themselves.

We run a ‘Bible School’ for those seeking to know more and as a way of understanding faith.

We believe in the priesthood of all believers, so we choose not to have a hierarchy, instead to acknowledge each other’s gifting in the Holy Spirit applied through Body Ministry. It is through this gifting that we hope to see the church grow in maturity.

We recognise that some amongst us will be ‘guarding the flock’ (Acts 20:28) and protecting the church from wolves, heresy and false doctrine.

We understand that Satan is the prince of this world (2 Cor 4: 4) and he seeks to blind the eyes of unbelievers so that it is hard for them to see the light of the gospel. As such our fight is against the spiritual forces of evil.

Principles

There are core principles that guide how we live our Christian lives together, seek to know God more and reach out to others.