Our Vision, Mission and Values

Our Vision

Our vision statement acknowledges our desire for a deeper life with God while at the same time recognising we are all on this journey together.

Learning to experience a different kind of life through a personal relationship with Jesus

Our mission

We are drawn to the idea of people flourishing in life; living life to the full or experiencing it in abundance. (John 10:10) We also believe that a flourishing life can only come from a relationship with Jesus. That flourishing life should then manifest itself in different ways; it will be visible in how we live. That new life we believe will be visible in at least three ways: -

    1.Rich relationships between people inside the church and with those we know outside the church. The church is a body made up of many interdependent parts. (1 Corinthians 12)
    2.Our character increasingly being changed so we become more like Jesus. We become people who act as Jesus would act if he was living my life and in my situation.

    The church’s primary mission is to make disciples – apprentices of Jesus (Matthew 28:19). We believe this change is effected by the Holy Spirit and requires our cooperation through spiritual disciplines that we engage in to make ourselves available to Him.
    3.We will be more concerned for the world around us in terms of those in our families, communities and places of work who do not yet know Jesus. We will also be concerned about the good news of Jesus being communicated to a wider world in word and deed. (Matthew 28:19)

These three aspects of a flourishing life are things we as a church can invest people, time and resources into.

When Jesus met a blind man in Mark 10, he asked him “what do you want me to for you?” Unless we are a people who have a desire for more of God and more from the life that he offers us, we will not flourish. We want to be a people therefore who want a deeper relationship with Jesus. We want to be people who from that desire, are committed to act upon it by seeking character transformation and are concerned for the lives of those around us.

We understand our mission therefore to be: -

Our mission is to enjoy a flourishing relationship with Jesus resulting in rich relationships with others, transformation of our character and faithful sharing of his message with our community

Our Values

Our values help us form and keep our group identity. When we do anything as a church it should broadly align with our values. As a church we should be comfortable saying “we are a people who seek to live out these values”.
The following are values that we see at Swords Baptist Church

1. Followers of Jesus – We believe as followers or disciples of Jesus that God wants to conform us to the character of his son Jesus (Romans 8:29). While we cannot change ourselves, we also recognise that no one accidentally drifts into holiness and that it will take intentional cooperation with the Holy Spirit, surrender to him, through enacting practices also known as spiritual disciplines as we apprentice under Jesus
2. Joy – We believe that joy as a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) is evident at SBC. Where joy is absent in a community, growth is less evident (Hendricks, 2020, p. 62). The following are some benefits of joy in a community setting.

      a. I feel like I belong
        b. I feel more stable when things go wrong
      c. It is easier to be myself
      d. I feel free to share my heart with God and others

Joy is something that we want to continue to experience and promote as a value at SBC

3. Community - We believe strong, interdependent relationships are key in a local church body. We want people to individually develop a personal interactive relationship with Jesus Christ which comes from spending time in his presence and with each other. As we seek to share life together we want to be open to being challenged in love by one another in terms of how we live so that we can grow to be more like Jesus

4. Multi-Ethnic – We are a diverse group of people who each have a story of origin. While we want to remain an ‘Irish’ church we want at the same time to celebrate our diversity as we believe it is a picture of heaven (Revelation 7:9)

5. Grace-Centred – We acknowledge that we are a blood-bought people and that in our own strength we would be completely without hope. (Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:8-9) We received that grace and seek to extend it to others with God’s help.

6. Hearts – The heart is the wellspring of a person’s life (Proverbs 4:23). What is going on in a person’s heart is who they really are – what they believe about life. We believe that the condition of our hearts is more important to Jesus than “how well we play by the rules” (Richard Foster). We want our people to live from their hearts rather than just their thinking (cognitive centre)

7. Bible-based – We believe the Bible is God’s words to us. It is our authority where we find how best to live. But more than that we believe God reveals his heart to us through the 66 books that constitute the Bible; so much so that we see it as God’s love letter to us.

8. Sharing the hope we have in Jesus – We believe the offer of new life in Jesus through trust in Him is the good news everyone is ultimately searching for. It is our desire to live authentic, transparent lives that are filled with hope, that cause others to need us to account for the hope that is within us. (1 Peter 3:15)

With that in mind our values can be summarised as: -

Jesus Followers
We seek to follow Jesus in every aspect of our lives, resulting in character change through living out the practices he modelled in the gospels
Joy
We have genuine Joy that is deep, resilient, and resistant to challenging times

Community
We are a community which responds to God’s love for us by pursuing genuine, deep relationships with one another

Multi-Ethnic
We are multi-ethnic in our makeup, practice and worship

Grace
As we experience God’s grace in our lives we seek to extend it to others

Heart focused
We believe that the condition of our hearts is more important to Jesus than how well we “play by the rules”

Bible
The Bible is God’s words to us. It is our authority where we find how best to live

Evangelism
We share the good news message of Jesus in our everyday conversations and through living lives that demonstrate our trust in him

Hello and welcome to our church. If you are a new visitor, we have a page for you to get to know us and learn more about planning a visit.
Click here to see more.

Visitors click here.

Planning your Visit

A Warm Hello

The following information is specifically for those planning a visit, so that you know, beforehand, what to expect on a Sunday morning.

Where and When

We meet at The Riasc Centre Building (details here) for our Sunday Service starting at 10:45 am. For your first visit, we recommend arriving 10-15 minutes early to ensure you get a parking space and find somewhere to sit before the service begins. When you arrive, you should be greeted by someone on our Welcome Team.

Accessibility: There is wheelchair access. Please let one of the Welcome Team know on your arrival and they will help you to get set up. There are disabled toilets in the main foyer.

Our Service

The main service begins at 10:45 am with a warm welcome from one of our team members. Then follows a time of corporate worship and singing, led by our band. We typically have 2 or 3 songs lasting approximately 15 minutes. Sometimes a person might pray out loud or read a passage from the Bible. This might seem strange the first time you hear it but it’s all part of our connecting with God. We then share news and notices, usually about what’s going on in the life of the church. One of our leaders will then give a sermon that is Bible based and that we can apply to our everyday life. We then finish with a final worship song.

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What about my kids?

We have a great programme lined up for kids of all ages:

Creche (0 months to 3 years). Children under 12 months are welcome but must be accompanied by their parent/grown-up at all times.
Kidzone Juniors (Junior, Senior Infants, 1st and 2nd Class )
Kidzone Middle (3rd and 4th Class)
Kidzone Seniors (5th and 6th Class)
Impact Xtra (Secondary School age students)

Children stay with their parent or guardian at the start of the service for the welcome, songs and notices. We really value worshiping God all together as a family. At the end of the notices someone will announce that it’s time for the younger members to go to their various groups.

The kids group activities vary depending on the age but usually there is a friendly welcome, Bible stories, praying, music, craft, drama, fun games and free play. Please pick your children up as soon as the service finishes.

Getting Connected

Home Groups

While Sundays are a great way to meet new people, it is often in smaller gatherings that you can really get to know someone. Being part of one of our small groups allows you to make new friends, share together and support each other. We have a variety of groups that meet throughout the week, some afternoons and some evenings. Check out Small Groups and see if there’s one that you could join, or we can put you in touch with a small group leader who will be more than happy to invite you along to their group.

Serving and Volunteering

If you want to get involved in the life of the church and help us make Sundays run smoothly, you can sign up to serve on a team.

Get in touch with us to plan your visit

If you would like to come and visit the church beforehand you are more than welcome! Get in touch and we can arrange a time that suits you.

Name:

Telephone:

Email Address:
Comments / Questions or anything you would like to say?

Next, we will contact you by email to say hello and help arrange anything necessary for your visit.

Leadership


Johnny Holland
Lead Pastor

We hope that whoever you are, you will feel at home at our church.

Best Wishes