South Barwon is a contemporary Reformed church, committed to:
As a Reformed church, we love and uphold the rich truths of God’s word as summarised in the confessions of the Reformation. We ground everything we do in these distinct theological convictions. We are deeply committed to a contemporary expression of these timeless truths, teaching and living, understanding and presenting them in a way that is relevant to the culture in which God has placed us.
The gospel is the good news that through Jesus, God is redeeming and restoring us and our broken world. We seek to be continually reminded of Christ’s work and have this good news set our hearts aflame with devotion to God. We are committed to growing in our love for the gospel and to have it shape our personal, corporate and all-of-life worship, to the glory of God.
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, powerful to transform God’s people both individually and communally by the Spirit’s enabling. We seek to be a church that is Bible-focused, using it systematically to grow in our knowledge of God’s Word, in order to be shaped by it. We seek to teach the Bible in every context of church life so that every person is equipped to minister the Word to others.
At the heart of our church’s purpose is the call to make and grow disciples of Jesus. We are therefore committed to being a disciple-making church at every stage of life: whether for new Christians or mature ones. Everything we do as a church has this goal in mind, so that people of all ages will grow deeper and stronger in their relationship with Christ and become competent as disciple-making-disciples.
As God’s people, we are called to be “salt and light” to those around us, making a positive difference to our neighbourhood and the world. We are committed to being an outward-looking, intentionally-missional church, reaching out with the good news of Jesus locally and globally as the gospel motivates us to serve our neighbours with love and compassion.
As a Christian community, we seek to encourage one another to live to the high standards God has given us in his Word concerning his ideals for human flourishing. We want to live and worship in deep communion, using the gifts God has given each of us to build one another up in love, serving and praying for each other as we pursue the joy of godly living.
