Key Beliefs and Distinctive Values | King's Church Edinburgh

The Nicene Creed

Alongside Christians around the world and throughout history, we affirm the statements of the Nicene Creed:

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is,
seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.

Basis of Faith

We subscribe to the Evangelical Alliance Basis of Faith, that we believe in…

The one true God who lives eternally in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The love, grace and sovereignty of God in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming and judging the world.
The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God – fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.
The dignity of all people, made male and female in God’s image to love, be holy and care for creation, yet corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement.
The incarnation of God’s eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ – born of the virgin Mary; truly divine and truly human, yet without sin.
The atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross: dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, so reconciling us with God.
The bodily resurrection of Christ, the first fruits of our resurrection; his ascension to the Father, and his reign and mediation as the only Saviour of the world.
The justification of sinners solely by the grace of God through faith in Christ.
The ministry of God the Holy Spirit, who leads us to repentance, unites us with Christ through new birth, empowers our discipleship and enables our witness.
The Church, the body of Christ both local and universal, the priesthood of all believers – given life by the Spirit and endowed with the Spirit’s gifts to worship God and proclaim the gospel, promoting justice and love.
The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven and new earth.

Distinctive Values

These twelve values paint a portrait of King’s. We’re not saying that any of them are unique to us but together they show what makes us who we are.

1. Amazed by grace

God has done it all, and we didn’t deserve any of it! All of us were rescued from our sins and judgement because of the plan that God the Father lovingly made, which was achieved on our behalf by Jesus and revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. This isn’t just a theology of salvation, it’s how we do everything as a church. We come to God freely, thankfully, and confidently.

There’s no desperation to impress God or each other because we know that were all sinners who have been saved by Jesus, and freely adopted into His loving family. We never use guilt to persuade people. We don’t value anyone more than anyone else. Everyone is aware of their own faults and God’s wonderful mercy, so there’s no place for holier-than-thou attitudes. We have a great time rejoicing in all of this.

2. Defined by the Bible

God has spoken to the world perfectly by His Word: it tells us who He is, who we are, how He can rescue us, and how we can live in the good of that. Because it is God’s timeless word we give it supreme authority and it shapes everything we do: it’s not out-of-date or merely a starting point for discussions. We want King’s to be a church that is recognisably similar in its principles to the church we see in the New Testament, even if there are practical and cultural differences. All this will bring us into disagreement and sometimes even conflict with the world around us.

We want every member of King’s to love God’s word, to read it, feed on it, and share it with others. We prioritise teaching from it at our Sunday meetings and we weigh prophetic contributions according to it. A vital part of any leadership training we do is learning how to rightly understand and communicate what God has said to us in Scripture.

3. Filled with the Spirit

New Testament church life was dominated by the Holy Spirit’s work, and we don’t think that we have any less need of Him today! We want to experience the presence and love of God, we want to receive spiritual gifts to strengthen the church and astonish unbelievers, we want Him to work powerfully in our lives to make us more like Jesus. So, we make space for Him in our gatherings, and in our decision-making processes. We expect that when people ask Him to lead them, He will lead them in holiness, greater obedience and love for God.

The New Testament repeatedly shows people receiving a baptism in the Holy Spirit, a transformative experience of His presence and power that tends to be separate from their conversion experience. What exactly this looks like varies from person to person but if you aren’t experiencing this sense of His power and presence, we want you to! Don’t just be open to this happening, pursue it and ask for help from those who you see the Spirit at work in.

4. Focusing on the church

God’s plan for telling the world about His Son and discipling His followers is the local church. Establishing and building churches is how Jesus’ first followers responded to His great commission, so we’re doing the same. This is the priority in our staffing, what we encourage people to get involved with, and what we give money to.

We work and pray with many other churches in Edinburgh and Scotland, and around the world through New Ground. When we’re looking to collaborate with Christian organisations, we will always prioritise those who are rooted in and serve local church life.

5. Involving everyone

Just as every part in the body is needed in order for the body to function, so every person in King’s needs to be involved in our life together. Attending meetings as a spectator is to miss what God has for you.

Although we have people on paid staff doing pastoral and administrative work, we know that the church only grows when everyone is playing their part. All the things we do, we do in teams. We want everyone in King’s – according to their ability – to get involved with a serving team, which will bless others and help them develop their God-given gifts.

6. Building community

Many people’s first impression of King’s is that it is a welcoming community, and that’s what we’re aiming for. “Family” is one of the primary metaphors used in the Bible to describe the church, and we take this joyfully seriously. We don’t address each other by titles or put leaders on pedestals, we encourage real sharing of lives, being honest and relaxed with each other, and we make sure that we have a lot of fun together! Small groups are essential for this, and we hope that all members of King’s will belong to one.

Part of being a community of people united by Christ is that we should express the diversity that He has brought together.

7. Reaching out

The good news of Jesus is always going out and changing lives, and we play our part in this by reaching out to those around us and not only focusing on ourselves. We do this by proclaiming the gospel in word and deed.

We want everyone in King’s to be active in sharing their faith with people they know, and people they don’t. We also have several ministries which share God’s love practically with people in need, and these teams are always looking to expand so that they can increase the work they are doing.

8. Expecting growth

There is plenty of opposition to God’s Kingdom but we are not discouraged into negativity and passivity by this. God makes things grow – we see this in nature and we expect to see it in His Church. King’s has grown since it began in 2002 and we make decisions and plans for the future with this in mind. We want to raise up and send out more leaders, we want to plant and grow churches. We expect that people will respond to the gospel when it is preached, and that God will move in power when we pray to Him.

We should also see this in the lives of our members, as they grow in maturity to become more like Jesus. This happens through mutual encouragement and challenge, service, teaching, help in the different seasons of life, personal devotion, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

9. Following appointed leadership

The many aspects of church life at King’s are shared among a large team of men and women, volunteers and paid staff. We see this in the New Testament, where we also see that God appoints and empowers certain qualified men to guard and govern the church together as a team. The phrase we tend to use for this is “elders”. They are to be appointed by apostles (see “Welcoming Apostolic Ministry” below) in consultation with the church. We always want a team of elders, one of whom is recognised as having the role of team leader.

The elders of King’s are currently Dan Hudson, who is also the team leader (appointed 2004), Luke Davydaitis (appointed 2012), and Chris Rawson (appointed 2018). For more detailed explanation of this, please get in touch to request our document, “Defining Leadership at King’s”.

10. Welcoming apostolic ministry

Apostles are “sent ones”, who are at work throughout the New Testament: spreading the good news of Jesus, doing miracles, establishing churches and making sure those churches were built on good foundations. The unique tasks of eyewitness testimony to Jesus and writing Scripture were for a limited time only, but everything else that apostolic ministry does is still required today.

We are delighted to be in New Ground, part of Newfrontiers, which brings us into an apostolic family, giving us vision, life, provocation, and mutually-beneficial relationships. We frequently invite people from New Ground churches to visit us, we attend conferences and prayer events together.

11. Baptising believers in water

Jesus told His first followers to baptise all those who gave their lives to Him, so this is what we do: fully immersing them into a pool of water in the church building, after they have told their story of conversion. Because we see this as the pattern for believers we don’t baptise/christen infants, and it is a prerequisite for membership of King’s. For more detailed explanation of this, please get in touch to request our document, “Baptism at King’s”.

12. Honouring families and singles

Jesus said that people are to live in celibate singleness or faithful heterosexual marriage. We want to celebrate both of these, helping people to live in the situation they are in. We also recognise our responsibility to challenge those who are not living according to God’s good intentions for sexuality and marriage.

Marriage exists for more than the good of the husband and wife (and any children they may have): it is a picture of how Christ relates to His Church, with husbands called to take the role of Christlike leadership, and wives demonstrating the Church’s reception of this.

Singleness is just as precious a gift, as both Jesus and the apostle Paul taught and showed by their example.

Key beliefs & distinctive values