Faith on the Hoof, in the Streets, out where it's needed - City Lights Values
1 Partnership not ownership.City Lights is relational, grass roots and Jesus focused. It is decentralized and friendship-based, committed to putting aside agendas in order to be unified in the essentials: Our love for God and people.
It is non-denominational and not governed by one church or organisation.
2 Service as worship and lifestyle
We believe that “doing” comes out of “being”. Therefore, we cannot separate worship and prayer from action. We believe holiness is social as well as personal. Serving others is an incredibly valuable and necessary expression of our worship and prayer. Our devotional life is weak and incomplete until we learn to outwork our love for Jesus in practical ways.
We want to encourage people to adopt a lifestyle of service and worship, hand in hand. This lifestyle goes far beyond one-off events. We long to see simple acts of service reshaping peoples' lives and priorities in every day life. In light of this, the “one-off events” serve as catalysts and exposure to needs.
3 Gathering and scattering
One of the ways we express this, is through gathering (coming together as a community) and scattering.
This model of gathering has the following purposes:
- It equips and empowers people.
- It connects people.
- It provides a platform for corporate prayer and worship.
- It provides training and education.
We want to serve communities in word and action and in all of this, we see Jesus as our example.
4 Simplicity.
We want to make it easy for individuals to take initiative and express their faith actively in their community. We want to create tangible pathways and accessible entry points in to social action, demystifying the grandiosity of mission.
We want our gatherings to reflect this value, for them to be “incarnational”, not “attractional”. In other words, our focus is not to put on impressive events, so as to attract greater numbers. City Lights is committed to locating itself “in” excluded neighborhoods and becoming a worshipping community through: the singing of psalms, prayer, learning, fellowship and then service.
5 Social Justice.
We have a particular focus on the marginalised, those who have been socially isolated and profoundly misunderstood in society.
If you're in or near Auckland, get involved.
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