Surrey Chapel is a Free Evangelical Church. The simplest way to explain our beliefs is to spell that out!
1) We are a Christian Church. A Christian is simply someone who trusts in Jesus Christ and sets out to follow him. But no-one can do this alone! We need the community of other believers as well as the love of God. Surrey Chapel is such a group. We seek him together, sharing God’s love, and one another’s struggles and joys. If you are not at this point a Christian, take a look here! Investigating Christianity
2) We are an Evangelical church. Real Christians are found in churches of many kinds, of course. We respect the teaching and traditions of previous generations and contemporary thinkers. However, we believe the most authentic expression of Christian faith is based on the Bible as God’s word to mankind. In practice this means we believe the familiar truths of mainstream Christianity – for example
- That God created everything;
- That He is Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
- The Jesus is both human and divine;
- That human beings are sinners needing forgiveness;
- That Jesus died for our sins, rose again and now reigns in heaven;
- That the Holy Spirit is given to all believers to empower their lives;
- That Christ will one day return to judge the world.
But we always seek to understand these things in the light of the Bible, not historic dogma or our own foolish ideas.
A full version of our statement of faith is here. We happily work with believers, churches and organisations of any denomination which share in these convictions.
3) We are a Free church. This doesn’t mean other churches charge you entry! Rather, it describes how we govern ourselves. We have no higher level of human bureaucracy or denomination. We are lead by Elders (including the Pastors) who account to the membership; we raise our own funds and make our own decisions before God. We practise believers’ Baptism but accept members with other convictions. You can find out more here:
