WHAT DOES BEING PRESBYTERIAN MEAN?
We’re not just any old church – our name sums us up. Not only are we from our local community, and part of it, we’re a Presbyterian Church. This means a few things for us. It means we’re part of something bigger – we’re not just part of the whole number of children of God who have ever lived. We’re joined with a bunch of other Christians around the world, Australia, New South Wales, and the Hunter region. These brothers and sisters in Christ share a similar understanding of what it means to follow Jesus, and how we should structure our church community, how we govern ourselves. We don’t make a big deal about being Presbyterian. Rather, we want people who’ve come from all sorts of other church traditions to feel comfortable being followers of Jesus with us.
There are hundreds of other ways to do church. Here at MPC, we adhere to a Presbyterian form of governance and structure but at all times, God’s word is our supreme standard and has the final say.
WHY WE LIKE BEING PRESBYTERIAN
As Presbyterians we need to hold up to our core beliefs. We also have a governance system that ensures we stick to them. This begins with our elders. They work within our church to make certain the things we do align with what we believe. This then spreads to our relationship with other churches in our area, NSW, and all across Australia.
The Presbyterian Church is solid on the important stuff. Such as who God is, who Jesus is, what the Bible is about, how people become followers of Jesus, and finally what that means. It has a long history of fighting for and holding on to those truths, and traces its roots back to the Reformation. This is where the “reformers” (the people who launched the Reformation) were big on making it clear that faith in Jesus, not the things that we do, is what counts for everything.
The Presbyterian Church also gives different churches in different places freedom in how we do church. This way, we can reach different people in different ways with these same truths. We have a statement of faith called The Westminster Confession of Faith, which details our core beliefs.