Grace Hills Church is a movement of Jesus’ disciples
Our Vision
We exist that people of the Adelaide Hills would know Jesus and become part of a movement of His disciples, for the good of our region and the glory of God.
Our Mission
As disciples of Jesus we are a community devoted to:
Taking God at His word, in all of life
Living as a compelling community, defined by love and service of our neighbours
Centring our lives on Jesus and His finished work on the cross and in His resurrection
Being a people of prayer, seeking the power of the Holy Spirit and the promises of God for our time and place
Our Beliefs
We joyfully, confidently and generously hold our beliefs in five areas:
Grace Hills is Orthodox and Historic
Grace Hills Church believes the bible, both Old and New Testaments to be God’s authoritative word and sufficient in all things pertaining to life and godliness. We hold the historic Christian faith in agreement with the Apostles Creed, the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith and the Cityreach Network Statement of Beliefs. We believe that all people are accountable to God and that people are only saved by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38, 4:12). We hold to the authority of God’s word for all things in faith and practice and submit ourselves to Jesus as head of the church (John 14:23; 2 Peter 1:3-4; Ephesians 5:23-24).
2. Grace Hills is Gospel centred
Grace Hills Church keeps first things first and that means Jesus and His Gospel are central in all we do and believe. We strive for unity in Christ and will not falter or apologise for believing in all primary doctrines (see Statement of Belief). However knowing that secondary issues are indeed secondary and often disputable, we hold our own distinctives generously and those we share as a Network (see below). We interpret culture through God’s word and choose to obey God rather than man as appropriate (Acts 4:19-20; Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:11-12).
3. Grace Hills has distinctive doctrines
Biblical view of men and women and roles in the home and church (Genesis 1-3; Ephesians 5:22-33; 1 Timothy 2:8-3:7)
Believers baptism and the Lord’s supper (Matthew 28:18-20; 1 Cor 11:17-33)
Plurality of elders and pastoral leadership (1 Peter 5:1-5; 1 Timothy 3:1-7, 5:17)
Spiritual renewal and Spirit filled lives (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor 12:4-11; Acts 4:23-31)
Centrality of the Gospel in all of ministry (Romans 1:16-17; Titus 2:11-14; Matthew 11:25-30)
4. We hold our distinctives generously
Whilst we hold to all our distinctives with passion and conviction, we realise that some of these matters are held differently by other Christians. Therefore we hold charity towards others in these and other secondary and tertiary matters of faith and practice. Primary matters as explained in the statement of beliefs (linked above) are our ‘non negotiables’.
5. We love and challenge our culture simultaneously
Our posture is faced towards God and open handed to our culture. We love the Adelaide Hills, the particular (and peculiar!) people who live, work, educate and do life here. We are working together to better our region, to demonstrate the goodness of God and help others as an expression of God’s love to the world and a witness of Jesus goodness to people in our neighbourhood. In our families, work, education, art and friendships we seek to bless all people by our presence in the Hills (Jeremiah 29:5-7).
We love the people of our community and country as Jesus does and we realise that our changing culture has many different values and practices than confessing Christians. When we differ we seek to do so with gentleness and respect, holding firm in our convictions and speaking the truth in love, sharing the reason for the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15-16). We have been called to be both salt and light, living servant hearted and lovingly in our community whilst being distinctly Christian in our behaviour and attitudes (Matthew 5:13-16).
Jesus at the centre
