Guiding Principles

As we plan for the future we will, as a church, be guided by the following convictions and principles…

1. We acknowledge that LifeSwitch is God’s church. He will grow the church in His time and in the dimensions He chooses.
2. For this reason we will raise the value of passionate spirituality within the church through investment in prayer and the nurturing of authentic spirituality both individually and in community.
3. We will work hard to ensure LifeSwitch maintains professionalism and excellence in all its activities, so that we can offer God all that is humanly required to achieve the spiritual growth He desires in the church.
4. We will regularly re-evaluate what we are doing to ensure optimum effectiveness. We will think in new ways about church practice, not just accepting the ways we have thought or acted in the past. We will enshrine flexibility and innovation, not for their own sake but to maintain maximum effectiveness. We will endeavour to focus always on the end, not the means. We will always be open to change.
5. When people speak of LifeSwitch, we want them to use words like: authentic, real, contemporary, creative, imaginative, intelligent, fresh, relevant, relaxed, fun, friendly, welcoming and spiritual. We will do all we can to make these words accurate and appropriate.
6. While we will not measure the ’success’ of LifeSwitch in terms of numerical growth, we will constantly adjust the settings of our church to facilitate such growth with particular focus on those who are currently unchurched or disillusioned with church. We want LifeSwitch to grow in size, with multiple points of entry for those we want to reach.
7. We want to connect with the unchurched in many different ways, and primarily at their point of need. To this end we will develop our community ministries as the church grows in size and in the resources it is able to offer. We will facilitate people’s journey towards faith through small group interaction and accessible Sunday programmes.
8. We will move out of our Christian comfort zones when appropriate in order to make the unchurched feel comfortable; and we will speak the language of the contemporary world as much as that is appropriate and possible, believing that such reality and relevance is healthy both for Christians and the unchurched.
9. We believe the church needs to provide for Christians of all ages, but we expect mature Christians to be more able to maintain their own walk with God; our main programmes will have in mind those in the 25-35 year age bracket; we will invest in the church of tomorrow by cultivating a strong youth group and children’s ministry.
10. We will encourage and equip the members of LifeSwitch to mature in the faith, to give themselves to ministry, and to share what they have found in Christ with others. We will work hard to nurture an environment in which people find reality in community.