What we believe...

OUR CORE VALUES

We believe that faith in the power and the purposes of God is essential for every Christian.  We trust him to meet both our personal needs and for those of the work of CLC.  Therefore, the expansion and outreach of CLC is not determined by our visible resources but rather by the commands and promises of God. 

We recognize personal sacrifice and dedication to Jesus Christ to be essential to the fulfilling of our God-given commission.  We accept that out commitment to Christ may involve hardship and inconvenience, but we do so willingly in order to make the love of God known to needy world.

We are a fellowship of God's people drawn from various backgrounds. We therefore allow no national or racial prejudices or exclusive denominational or doctrinal emphases in the life and ministry of CLC. We believe that within the fellowship of CLC the will of God can be known in all matters pertaining to His work.  We accept the teaching of Christ that the test of our discipleship is our love for one another. The fellowship principle within CLC means that each member should be sensitive to the needs and welfare of others and bear one another's burdens in the spirit of love.

We believe we are called to a lifestyle that is honouring to God.  We recognize that this is impossible without the power of the Holy Spirit actively working in our lives.   We commit ourselves to allowing God to work in and through us. 

STATEMENT OF FAITH

We believe in the Holy Scriptures as originally given by God, divinely inspired, infallible, entirely trustworthy, and the supreme authority in all matters of faith.

We believe in one God, creator and sustainer of all things, eternally existent in three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We believe in the deity and humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth and sinless life, His miracles, His vicarious and atoning death on the cross, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, His mediatorial work and his personal return in power and glory. 

We believe in the universal sinfulness and guilt of all mankind since the fall, rendering man subject to God's wrath and condemnation.   

We believe in the redemption through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and the regeneration by the Holy Spirit as absolutely essential for the salvation of the lost and sinful mankind.   

We believe in the justification of the sinner solely by the grace of God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  

We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling a Christian is enabled to live a Godly life.  

We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of judgement.  

We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, who comprise the Church which is His body.

ETHOS STATEMENT

This organisation believes that our ethos emerges from a desire and motivation to express Christ’s love to those whom we serve outside the organisation, and to reflect this love internally in our relationships with one another.

The motivation for our mission comes from Christ’s love compelling believers (2 Cor 5v14) and is therefore rooted in our faith in Christ. This faith produces a distinctive heart attitude of love, which expresses and is characterised by the following values and behaviours:

Seeing the image of God in each individual

Facilitating a sense of belonging to the corporate whole

While developing our ministry in the UK we also seek to release funds and personnel to support CLC's international ministries

Understanding the role of self and others in the organisation as a whole

The organisation and the individual being true to their values

A heart attitude accepting of, and active commitment to, these values and behaviours is intrinsically linked to the implementation and fulfilment of our mission, ‘To give glory to God by making Christian literature available to all nations, so that people may come to faith and maturity in the Lord Jesus Christ’ and therefore the attitude and motivation of our members and the way our mission is achieved is as important as the mission itself (Jn 13:34, Matt 22:36-40, 1 Cor 13:1-2).

As this attitude and motivation come only from a relationship with Christ, it becomes a genuine occupational requirement that all of our members and volunteers are committed Christians so that all of us can participate in our ongoing prayer ministry. It is also essential that these attitudes and behaviours continue, and so we expect our members to act in good faith and with loyalty to that relational ethos and to evangelical Christian standards of behaviour. Failure to do so may result in members having to withdraw their membership.

Not withstanding this, the organisation is committed to diversity amongst its members and volunteers and will not discriminate on other grounds that are unrelated to our ethos. We believe that defining our occupational requirements does not restrict but actually enhances our commitment to diversity.