At our recent newcomers Supper, we invited newer members to come and hear what we are on about as a church. The reason we want to do this is that it is really important to realise that Rouse Hill Anglican is committed to reaching our area with the good news of Jesus. Bible-based, Christ focussed.

That can only be done if we are telling the truth of Gods Word the Bible, and living it out in our lives. Another way of saying that is that we are Bible Based. We want to base our teaching, and practice on reading and comprehending the Bible well.

There are other alternatives to Bible-Based. For example, some churches place more emphasis on tradition- their church culture is strongly influenced by the historical ways of doing church in the past. There is nothing wrong with some tradition. And we all follow and develop traditions. However when a tradition does not help us connect with our people, or creates a barrier- we are happy to stop it. 

That’s why we are not a “traditional” anglican Church. We believe that the Bible calls us to do whatever we can to include as many as possible in meaningful church life. We are not against tradition- but tradition for tradition’s sake.

We are not experience based either. Our gatherings don’t want to hamper helpful experiences, or be a bad experience. Indeed, one of the reasons we have church  gatherings is to feel encouraged, challenged, comforted or even rebuked if need be. But that experience is ideally a response to God’s Word- not other things that can move or manipulate our emotions with little or no basis in God’s Word. (And there is no shortage of those).

Neither are we reason-based or rationalistic. We accept that God can and does work in ways that we normally would consider “supernatural” or “miraculous” – Sure we use reason, but when the Bible makes a clear statement that we normally would see as unusual, we believe the Bible: For example, the resurrection of Jesus, or the activity of The Holy Spirit to bring new birth and Holy living. Both are things we only know are true because of the Bible. So, are you willing to give Bible-based a shot?