Our Beliefs & Mission

At Grace Taupo

Who We Are

Grace Presbyterian Church Taupo is a new Grace Presbyterian Church of New Zealand church plant in Taupo.
Our vision is to establish a faithful Bible-proclaiming church that exalts the Lord Jesus and loves people through authentic and grace-filled relationships.

This vision arises out of our core beliefs about who God is and how he has shown his love and grace toward us and our world through Jesus Christ. Below is a short summary of these beliefs. These are things of which we are earnestly persuaded, and which shape what we do as a church, but we always welcome people, and wish to remain a safe place for questions and dialogue in relationship with open-mindedness, patience, and respect.

Our Basic Commitments

We want to be a community of grace. The Church has not always represented Jesus well; sometimes it has been harsh and hurtful. Often people are struggling with great hurts in life as well as great questions and doubts. We desire to be a community that provides acceptance and allows for time to heal and room to work through doubts and fears as we all learn together from the grace and wisdom that Jesus offers.

We want to love and to serve. One of the great joys of being a Christian is in knowing how much Jesus, who is God, has loved and served us. So in response we seek to love and serve others, both within the Christian community and into the community in which we live. We hope that the warmth of our Sunday meetings expresses something of that Jesus kind of love.

We want to worship. We are committed to meeting to worship God for His glory and grace and that our gathered worship is the high point of our lives. We also believe that worship extends to every part of our lives and our daily pursuits and that we serve and honour Him in all that we do. We are committed to gathering for worship that embraces and respects those who may not yet believe. For that reason we try to practice a worship that is orderly and understandable; and that does not demand any more involvement than a visitor is willing or able to give.

We want to be missional. That is to say we, don’t believe we exist as Christians for our own sake. Rather Christ has commanded and modelled for us a way of life marked by neighbour love. We are to do good in the world and to care for our communities. We are to serve Him where we worship, where we work, where we study, where we live, even where we play. We also believe that the Good News of sins forgiven and everlasting life through the death and resurrection of Jesus is the message that everyone needs to hear.

We want our men to be servant leaders, in the church and the home. We take seriously what the Bible teaches about the creation of men and women, that they equally bear the image and likeness of God and are equal in dignity and worth. We also believe the Bible teaches unique roles for men and women which are not about status but about finding fulfilment in serving God in the ways He has designed.

We believe the Bible. That is to say, we believe that the Bible is the Word of God written, it is where God speaks authoritatively and infallibly. The Bible is the place to find answers to the great questions of life. Therefore, we seek to give the Bible the central place in our worship, our gatherings and in our lives.

We believe the Gospel. We believe the Good News that Jesus is the Son of God who died and rose again to reconcile us with God. The Holy Spirit applies this Good News to bring us into an eternal relationship with God through the forgiveness of our sins. We believe the Gospel was planned by God the Father, accomplished by God the Son and is applied by God the Holy Spirit.

We are Presbyterian. This relates particularly to our form of government. The local church is led by elders who conform to biblical standards for leadership and are duly recognised by the congregation who desire their spiritual care and oversight. Elders from the local churches also serve in regional bodies called Presbytery, which also provides wider wisdom and help to the local congregations. The Church leadership also meets once a year in a national assembly to consult on matters of importance to the whole church.

We are Reformed. Our doctrinal standards reflect something of the theology of the Reformation in Europe and Great Britain which revived several key biblical commitments, namely:

Scripture alone as the final authority in all matters of faith & practice,
Christ alone as the only ground of God’s saving grace.
Grace alone as the only way to be reconciled to God.
Faith alone as the only means of receiving God’s grace.
God’s glory alone as the ultimate purpose for the lives of men and women.

The Reformed faith has a strong sense of the sovereignty of God over the world, its people and its history, and calls for us to submit to His sovereignty in our own lives. This we gladly do since we believe the biblical view is the only one that makes sense of reality.

We are Covenantal. We believe that God in Christ makes a commitment to His people which the Bible calls a covenant. It expresses His abiding faithfulness to His promises and calls us also to our responsibility in the covenant arrangement to be obedient and faithful. The Bible teaches that God makes a commitment to Christian families which give great spiritual privileges to the children and remind them that they have great responsibility to walk in the faith of their parents which is their spiritual inheritance, and that to rebel brings greater judgement. We believe that children, of believing parents, should receive the blessing of baptism because of the position they have before God.

User warning: It’s a little risky to state right up front what we believe. Such things can be open to misunderstanding or simply viewed as arrogant. Nevertheless, not stating them is just as problematic because it leaves people in the dark about what we are committed to. And the bottom line is that for the church to be the church it is significantly committed to something. That being said, please recognise that these are simple statements for ease of reading. They cannot answer all the questions they may create. Those discussions are left to other opportunities – like visiting with us to hear more or by contacting our teaching elder to discuss them.

Our Mission

It is our mission to follow Christ with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind, serve all as we would want to be served and reach out to the community to share the Good News of the Gospel.

Mark 12:30-31 "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Matthew 7:12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 28:19-20 "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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."