Our Mission

Loving Jesus Together.

We are a community that is devoted to Jesus and seeks to love him in all we do. Our simple Mission Statement of “Loving Jesus Together” keeps us focused on the heart of Jesus and the community he invites us into. His example and invitation to us is to participate in his mission to push back the darkness where addiction, evil, brokenness, and trauma thrive to replace them with light, hope, and a new creation 

Without Jesus, we are all flawed and broken. That sin keeps us separated from him and living in darkness. But he doesn’t just leave us to our brokenness. Instead, he loves us, offers to make us new, and extends the invitation to walk in community with him.

Jesus loved us so much that He came to earth, lived as a human, and ultimately gave his life for our sins before rising and ascending into heaven. While on earth, Jesus showed us the ultimate example of how to live for him, and part of his example is to bring light in dark places, living in community with others. 

Community is such an important part of our life together because God created us to love him and we cannot do that alone. Community offers the opportunity to love, encourage, and support one another in keeping our eyes focused on Jesus and his love for us rather than the brokenness we face in life. 

We believe that our core values are integral to our mission to love Jesus together and push back the darkness.

How do we live out our core values together?

The Good News of God isn’t a passport to Heaven; it is Jesus Christ himself (John 3:3-6; Hebrews 1:1-4). Jesus shows us God’s redeeming, renewing heart through his death and resurrection. Jesus personally cares for each of us, having borne our sins, shame and weakness upon his Cross. Now, he welcomes us into a personal relationship with Him, with his people (John 14; 1 Peter 1:8). Our lives are often busy, with difficult and murky decisions and dynamics facing us every day. We are committed to keeping everything we do as a church focused on Jesus because we know how easy it can be to get off course when we lose sight of him.

We root our doctrinal heritage in the long line of believers who’ve loved the Bible before us. Believers have studied God’s word in various cultures for over two thousand years. While our context in Manchester is different from believers in the Early Church (100 to about 500 AD), our faith is one and the same as believers throughout history (1 Corinthians 15). So, we love to recite things like the Nicene Creed or portions of the Heidelberg Catechism in our services.

At different times and places, historic Christian teaching will conflict with the culture. This both drives us to better understand the issues, but also offers us a rich Christian tradition to learn from to better understand how to please the Lord in our time and place. We treasure orthodoxy by preaching and teaching the Bible, where God reveals himself to us most clearly. Thus, we preach expositionally on Sundays through books of the Bible, because we love God’s Word. 

Jesus tells us that we are united to him like a branch to a vine (John 15:5). That is to say, the very nature of who we are is somehow fully alive and connected to Jesus. The Apostle Paul called this the “glory of God’s mystery”: Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). At King’s Cross we want to regularly encourage and find ways to help each member experience personal renewal in Jesus by knowing Him and His love for each of us.

The Apostle Paul also gives us this window into this mystery of the Christian life: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). At King’s Cross, we want to help each person find ways to personally connect and experience this mystery of knowing Jesus! This means that we prioritize people, relationships and a quiet life over programs and presentations. We run classes on spiritual renewal from time to time, and care about helping people find simple steps to experience more of God in their lives. 

Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to faithfully obey his command to make disciples of all people (Matthew 28:16-20). Discipleship is at the heart of who we are as Christians and a church. We see discipleship as a key aspect of God’s mission to make new and more disciples. Our folks are from all walks of life – each is specifically redeemed and renewed by God to join his mission to spread the fame of Jesus wherever they are. So we look to equip people to join Jesus’ mission, right where they are in life (Ephesians 4:11-16).

But this also means that we disciple and equip people to join Jesus’ mission in new places that he may be leading us. Thus, we work to equip and empower disciples to join Jesus’ mission in the Manchester area and beyond. This means we’re intentionally discipling people into church planting and global missions, in whatever ways God has gifted them to be a part of his mission. 

Loving Our Community Together

Manchester is an amazing city in many ways and struggles with many dynamics. One of the major dynamics facing our city is the drug crisis, which has claimed the lives of our neighbors, family and members. We are intentionally built as a church to be on the front doorstep of our community’s needs, eager to serve however we can, just like Jesus. 

Because we are committed to joining God’s renewing work in Manchester, we meet in the heart of Manchester at Hope Recovery Center. This space is in the neighborhood where many of us live, and more importantly, tangibly addresses a key area of need in our city. We are extremely grateful for the work God is doing through Hope, and regularly work with them to serve our city. 

What do we want to be known for?

Each of us comes to Jesus with a broken background. We want to be a congregation where people who’ve experienced trauma of all kinds can find hope and healing in Jesus with fellow sufferers beside them. In our life together, we regularly walk alongside people who’ve experienced trauma and abuse from all types of backgrounds. Whether it’s domestic or sexual abuse, religious or spiritual abuse, our congregation has continually become a home for those who are weary from suffering. We want to be a people who are known for compassion, just like our Savior.

We are excited about what God is doing in all different types of communities. It is our hope to be people who model healthy leadership and churches for a local community where others can be trained and equipped to serve wherever God has called them. We have no illusions about being perfect! What we hope to be is a people who are spiritually and emotionally healthy, amidst the demands of ministry, that can be used to strengthen and deploy others into their local missionary work. You can learn more about our church leadership here.

If anyone has visited King’s Cross, they will know we are a diverse group of people, from all types of backgrounds. We’ve all been redeemed and joined to Jesus Christ, who is renewing all things. While there are certainly very real, painful, difficult dynamics in life, we want to be a happy people because of who Jesus is, what he has done, and is doing!

This doesn’t mean people won’t struggle with depression or mental health, or that people experiencing those afflictions aren’t among us already. It means that we aim for a happiness and humility based on Jesus, not our circumstances. We want to be a people that are like Jesus – holy. Each of these areas requires a lifetime of discipleship, with many different twists and turns in our life together. But it is our hope to be known as a happy, holy, humble group of people because of Jesus.

There are many needs in our world. But we don’t live in the world in general, we live in our specific zip code. We don’t pay general bills, we pay bills for where we live – Manchester and the surrounding area. Manchester’s issues are different and unique to Manchester. This is where God has placed us, and we want to learn, think and work to address the needs of our neighbors immediately around us, because that’s what Jesus meant when he said “Love your neighbor.” (Matthew 22:39)