VALUES – CULTURE – BELIEFS
At Heart House, what we value shapes how we live. What we believe shapes how we love.
We are still learning, still growing – but these are the foundations we are building on.
Core values
Jesus Centred
Jesus is our reference point.
We look to Him to understand what God is like – compassionate and courageous, holy and kind.
His life shapes our lives.
His words guide us.
His cross and resurrection anchor our hope.
We gather around Him, not around personalities or preferences.
And we follow Him together.
Spirit-Led
We believe the Holy Spirit is present and active today.
He comforts, convicts, empowers, and leads. He speaks through Scripture, through prayer, through nature and through one another.
As a Pentecostal church, we believe the Spirit fills believers and gives spiritual gifts today -strengthening the Church, deepening faith, and extending God’s kingdom.
Being Spirit-led for us is not about performance. It is about attentiveness. It is about making space to listen, to notice. It is about ongoing surrender that flows from relationship.
We are expectant that God still moves – sometimes quietly, sometimes powerfully, but always faithfully.
Trauma-Informed
We recognise that every person carries a story, and many carry wounds.
We are committed to being a church that understands the impact of trauma and responds with wisdom, patience, and care. We do not rush people. We do not shame people. We do not force quick fixes.
We believe God’s kindness leads us into freedom. Healing is holy work – and it often happens slowly, in safe community, with Jesus at the centre.
OUR CULTURE
These are the qualities we want to practise together – not perfectly, but intentionally.
Courage
It takes courage to follow Jesus.
Courage to repent.
Courage to forgive.
Courage to look honestly at ourselves.
We want to be a people who choose brave honesty over comfortable pretending – trusting that God reveals to heal.
Curiosity
We are a curious people.
Curious about God. Curious about Scripture. Curious about one another’s stories.
We ask questions. We listen well. We resist simplistic answers. We believe growth often begins with wonder – and that humility keeps us teachable.
Compassion
Compassion is strength expressed gently.
Because we believe God is good, we seek to reflect His goodness in the way we treat others – with patience, mercy and grace.
But compassion begins here too – learning to treat ourselves with the same gentleness God shows us. Not excusing sin but refusing shame. Allowing Jesus to meet us in our weakness and do the holy work of healing.
As we receive His compassion, we become people who carry it well.
Community
We were not created to walk alone
Church is not an event we attend – it is a people we belong to. We share meals, worship, stories, responsibility, and prayer.
We grow in the context of relationship. We heal in the presence of one another. We learn what love looks like by practising it together.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
We are part of the Elim Pentecostal Movement – rooted in historic Christian faith and alive to the work of the Spirit today. Here is the heart of what we believe:
We believe God has made Himself known.
Through Scripture, faithfully given and carefully preserved, we are invited into the true story of who God is – and who we are becoming. The Bible is not a weapon to control, but a trustworthy witness that leads us to Jesus.
We believe in one God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
God has always existed in loving relationship. Before creation, before time, love was already alive within the Trinity. We were created from that love and for that love.
We believe Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human.
In Him we see the clearest picture of God’s heart – self-giving, holy, compassionate, strong. Through His life, His death, and His bodily resurrection, He has broken the power of sin, defeated death, and disarmed the forces that oppress and distort human life.
Because of Jesus, darkness does not have the final word. Forgiveness is real. Freedom is possible. Hope is alive.
We believe the Holy Spirit is not an idea, but God present with us now.
He awakens new life within us. He assures us we belong to God. He patiently transforms us. He empowers us to live courageously and love generously. We believe the gifts of the Spirit are still given today – not for status or spectacle, but to strengthen the Church and serve the world.
We believe every person is made in the image of God and carries immeasurable worth.
Sin distorts that image but does not erase it. In relationship with Christ, we are forgiven, restored, and slowly renewed into who we were always created to be.
We believe the Church is a Spirit-formed community – learning to worship, to forgive, to share life, and to embody good news together.
And we believe history is moving toward restoration. Jesus will return. Justice will be made whole. God will make all things new.
Until that day, we live in hope.
We don’t claim to have everything fully understood or perfectly lived out.
But we are committed to walking this path together –
centred on Jesus,
led by the Spirit,
grounded in grace,
growing in love.