Vision and Values

Our vision as a church has 3 elements:

• To grow closer to God in worship and in our understanding and experience of Him;
• To love and care for each other;
• To demonstrate the love of God by serving others, both in our own communities here in Sheffield and also in a number of other communities in this country and abroad.

We are working, by God's grace and goodness, to achieve each element of our vision in a way that is consistent with our values.

Growing closer to God

We meet together throughout the week to worship God and learn about Him in a variety of ways. These are some examples:

• Sunday morning meetings where we meet as a family with 3 and 4 generations coming together to worship God and to learn more about Him. Sunday mornings include separate groups for our children and young people, from crèche up to Year 11.
• Reflective prayer meetings during the day (mid-week). Lasting no more than half an hour, they provide a great opportunity to take time out of a busy day to enjoy God's presence.
• Sunday evening meetings, where we have more time to meet with God in worship, prayer and ministry.
• House groups, meeting in different places across the city during the week, provide a forum for us to study the Bible and apply it to our lives in a way that is not possible in the larger meetings.

Underpinning all these activities is the desire:

• To see everyone - men, women and children growing in their personal relationship with God.
• To see people released into ministry and gifting and
• To ensure an atmosphere of mutual encouragement and support in which this can happen.

Loving and caring for each other

We care for each other in practical, as well as spiritual, ways, seeking to care for the whole person. We believe in anointed leadership, given by God to care for and develop the church. This leadership, however, is provided with a light touch and is a catalyst to growth rather than being a controlling or directive approach.
Much of this caring is achieved through house groups, which help us to build strong relationships with each other, and puts us in a position to notice when people need support, and then to provide assistance in whatever way is best.
We also support a number of different people working in countries across the world, through prayer, through finance or by sending people to work with them for short or longer trips. Some of these have gone from MCF, and others are people we have got to know over the years through Connections and GAP Ministries. You can read about some of these on the overseas page.

Demonstrating the love of God

We believe that people need to see the love of God in action, as well as hearing about the love of God. Indeed, our vision for Unit 3 is that it will provide a venue for local people of all ages, a place where they can find help in practical, as well as spiritual, ways. Having said that, we do run the Y Course and the Alpha Course from time to time to give people the opportunity to learn about Christianity and to discuss some of life's big questions.
Already we see this happening, with Unit 3 being used throughout the week for a wide range of groups and events - some organised by MCF and some by local groups - but we are continually looking for other ways that we can serve the local community. The latest of these is Soup and Sandwiches, a place where local people can meet old friends, make new ones and enjoy lunch together at the same time. Take a look at the regular weekly events to see what's going on in Unit 3 each week.
We're not looking to build a big church here at Unit 3. Instead, our vision is to plant a diversity of churches in other communities across the city, as God guides us. Each will seek to demonstrate the love of God in the most appropriate way for the community or network it seeks to serve.
As well as serving in our local community and the city of Sheffield, we also look to demonstrate the love of God to people in other parts of the world. This is achieved either through MCF people going out to work overseas, or by MCF supporting those already abroad. Individuals and teams from MCF regularly go abroad for both short and longer term trips to different parts of the world.