At Muckamore, we commit ourselves to two core values that help to shape us as a congregation in our life and witness:
Value 1: A ‘whole-life’ Christian community
Every area of our lives is important to God. In the book of Matthew, chapter 13, verse 33, it says: ‘Jesus told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until worked all through the dough”.’
Yeast not only pervades the dough, yeast transforms it into something much tastier and much more satisfying – into bread. It takes just 10 grams of yeast to turn a kilo of flour into bread. It’s not quantity that counts, but impact.
Like the yeast, as believers and followers of Jesus we are intended to be an agent of transformation in the world. We are not simply there to arrest decay, to add savour, to expose sin; not simply there to show a different way. We are there to radically transform the society in which God places us. Day by day people in our church are rubbing shoulders with many different people in their workplaces, schools, neighbourhoods and clubs.
In Muckamore we strive to encourage our people to live and share the Gospel – that amazing news of Jesus – wherever they relate to people in their daily lives. The great news of Jesus is not just for Sunday mornings – it’s for every day of the week. This means thinking of our workplaces, homes and neighbourhoods as the location of our mission work. It means creating a church culture where we celebrate day-to-day gospel living in the worlds in which we live in, and creatively discussing and challenging ourselves about how we can use our daily routines for Jesus.
Value 2: A ‘disciple-making’ Christian community
The church’s goal is not to build the church. Jesus does that. The goal is to make disciples. That’s what Jesus spent most of His time doing in His three years of public ministry work when he was on earth. Jesus made disciples and commanded us to do the same.
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Jesus, Matthew chapter 28, verses 19-20.
In Muckamore we are a community of people committed to helping one another to fulfil God’s calling on our lives in formal and informal ways, and to encourage one another to became disciple-making believers. That mean’s helping our people to find creative and appropriate ways to go to those who don’t know Jesus, with generosity, humility and purpose.
It is our prayer that Muckamore will in time become a place where people can learn, where they can be ‘real’, where they can share questions and intimate discoveries, struggles and joys, temptations and failures, sins and triumphs, and where they can find relationships of support and accountability.
In the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 24-25 it says: “So let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
These two key values influence and shape our view of mission, of reaching out to the local community and to the wider world. As believers and followers of Jesus we believe we are called to live distinctively as Jesus did, and to speak and act as such in the neighbourhoods in which we live, in the groups and clubs to which we belong, in the churches where we are members, as well as affecting the workplace and communities of which we are part. We believe this distinctive living lies not only at the heart of our mission as Christian people, but also forms the basis of our mission to the world around, both local and global.
And so we commit ourselves to:
- encouraging and developing a whole-life, disciple-making Christian community among our members in our times of worship, Bible-study, prayer and fellowship; and through our members not only as they participate in the activities and organisations of our congregation but in their everyday lives at home, school and work as well as their leisure pursuits and wider social involvement.
- using the activities and organisations already established within the congregation to show those who participate in them with us that the Gospel works – that it makes a difference to our lives, and can impact the lives of others as well.
- relating the Gospel to particular groups of people through focused activities – for example, to men through ‘Target’; young people through the Girls’ Brigade, Boys’ Brigade and Pulse; mothers through Mothers and Toddlers; women through PW; and through special events such as The Alpha Course.
- sharing in global mission through some of our church members serving at home and abroad; financial and prayer support for individuals and mission organisations; practical involvement in teams/projects.
At Muckamore, we are on a journey, where every day is a school day. We don’t have life worked out. We are constantly wrestling with what it means to believe and follow Jesus in today’s world. It is our prayer that we will continue to work towards creating an open, authentic, learning and praying community that is focussed on making whole-life disciples, who take the opportunities to show and share the Gospel of Jesus wherever they relate to people in their daily lives.
May we all be asking Jesus the question: ‘Lord, how can I make a difference for you today?’
