Mission Statement
“To equip and encourage by the Word of God”
Statement of Aims
The aim of Saffron Walden Bible Focus is to glorify God by equipping and encouraging people and churches by the Word of God, in Saffron Walden and the surrounding area, to develop:
1) Adoration – for God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) through the teaching of the Bible.
2) Appetite – for the increase of faithful Bible teaching in local churches.
3) Ability – to understand the Word of God.
4) Application – for the personal and corporate obedience to the Word of God.
5) Association – for the uniting of people in fellowship around the Word of God.
In the pursuit of these aims we acknowledge our individual and corporate dependence on God for all that we need. As such, prayer is foundational in our life and ministry. By prayer we praise God, seek his direction, request resources, and call upon the Holy Spirit to empower our ministry.
We will demonstrate diligence, integrity, sharing, transparency and accountability in cultivating and using the resources God provides.
We believe in the worth and giftedness of each person at SWBF. We practise life-long learning, consultative leadership, mutual development and training as enduring disciplines.
We will respond with creativity and courage to evolving needs and opportunities under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. To be effective and relevant, our ministries, priorities, and structures are subject to ongoing evaluation and adaptation.
Statement of Faith
Saffron Walden Bible Focus abides by the truths held by Keswick Ministries and set out in the widely recognised Doctrinal Basis of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF):
- There is one God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
- God is sovereign in creation, revelation, redemption and final judgment.
- The Bible, as originally given, is the inspired and infallible Word of God. It is the supreme authority in all matters of belief and behaviour.
- Since the fall, the whole of humankind is sinful and guilty, so that everyone is subject to God’s wrath and condemnation.
- The Lord Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son, is fully God; he was born of a virgin; his humanity is real and sinless; he died on the cross, was raised bodily from death and is now reigning over heaven and earth.
- Sinful human beings are redeemed from the guilt, penalty and power of sin only through the sacrificial death once and for all time of their representative and substitute, Jesus Christ, the only mediator between them and God.
- Those who believe in Christ are pardoned all their sins and accepted in God’s sight only because of the righteousness of Christ credited to them; this justification is God’s act of undeserved mercy, received solely by trust in him and not by their own efforts.
- The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners, enabling them to turn to God from their sin and to trust in Jesus Christ.
- The Holy Spirit lives in all those he has regenerated. He makes them increasingly Christ-like in character and behaviour and gives them power for their witness in the world.
- The one holy universal church is the Body of Christ, to which all true believers belong.
- The Lord Jesus Christ will return in person, to judge everyone, to execute God’s just condemnation on those who have not repented and to receive the redeemed to eternal glory.