What sort of church?
What sort of church is this?
'Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.' ~ Psalm 100: 4-5
Richmond Park Church does not belong to any denomination; we are not C of E, Methodist or Baptist. This doesn't mean we are odd! We are not part of any denomination because we are trying to steer clear of ideas and beliefs that have crept in to Christianity over the hundreds of years since Jesus was resurrected, ideas and beliefs that take us away from the simplicity and guidelines of the Bible.
Richmond Park Church is described as an "evangelical pentecostal" church, which basically means we put emphasis on telling people about the good news of how we can be put right with God through Jesus, and the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians to help us do this and in other ways demonstrate God's concern and interest in the everyday lives of people.
We are sometimes called "born again" Christians. This is from a chapter in the Bible (chapter 3 of John's gospel) where Jesus explains that you can't just drift in to becoming a Christian; you're not a Christian just because your parents are or because you were christened or because you went to Sunday school. There's only one way to truly become a Christian and that's by you choosing for yourself to invite Jesus into your life. When you do this you get the spirit of God living in you and you are no longer just a physical body, you've got a spiritual life with God too. You've been "born again" of the spirit.
Does this all sound a bit muddled and confused?? Sometimes it's difficult to explain things about faith in a clear and concise way! You can read plenty more about what it means to be a Christian at New Christian UK or New Christian Life Ministries.
In many ways it's sad that Christ's church has split into denominations at all; that not the way it was meant to be. There are different denominations because Christians disagree about the importance and significance of various things. For instance, at Richmond Park Church we believe in full adult baptism, that is to say, you get baptised when you are old enough to make up your own mind that it's all true and that you want to give your life to Jesus and become a Christian - and then we dunk your entire body in a pool of water that is set into the stage in our church building! You may have automatically undergone a C of E baptism, getting a cross of water marked out on your forehead at some point. It's sad that we have spilt off into so many different denominations or factions, squabbling and disagreeing about secondary issues, there's no excuse for it. But it's extremely encouraging when the different churches in Bournemouth work together, when we remember our priorities: Jesus Christ came to save us all from a life cut-off from God, and get us back on-line with Him, and churches exist to worship God and introduce people to Jesus.
For details on some practical bits and bobs, including disability access, see Housekeeping and Practical Information.
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Still got questions? Email us now - we look forward to hearing from you!
