About Hartshill Bible Church
Who we are and what we believe
Who we are
We are Hartshill Bible Church (HBC) and we meet at the Willows Primary School, Penkhull, every Sunday at 10:30am in the sports hall.
Hartshill Church is like a family; a mixture of ages, backgrounds, and experiences, who love to hear about, talk about and praise God together.
Please feel free to join us as we are a friendly bunch, a mixture of ages, backgrounds and experiences, who love to hear about, talk about and praise God together.
Leadership
Our leadership team here at Hartshill is comprised of our pastor and 3 elders who lead in the spiritual welfare of the Church.
Hello, I’m Nelu Cozea from Romania. I’m married to Georgina and we have two beautiful daughters. I became pastor of HBC in 2019.
Friendly
God’s word is central to all that we do at HBC and so we aim to teach from the Bible in a way that impacts our everyday lives.
A Sunday gathering at Hartshill doesn’t finish with the closing song.
Please stay around and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and a friendly chat.
There’s always someone who would love to listen or answer questions about what you have just heard.
What We Believe
Basis of Faith
God
There is one God, who exists eternally in three distinct but equal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is unchangeable in his holiness, justice, wisdom and love. He is the almighty Creator; Saviour and Judge who sustains and governs all things according to his sovereign will for his own glory.
The Bible
God has revealed himself in the Bible, which consists of the Old and New Testaments alone. Every word was inspired by God through human authors, so that the Bible as originally given is in its entirety the Word of God, without error and fully reliable in fact and doctrine. The Bible alone speaks with final authority and is always sufficient for all matters of belief and practice.
The Lord Jesus Christ
The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, and lived a sinless life in obedience to the Father. He taught with authority and all his words are true. On the cross he died in the place of sinners, bearing God’s punishment for their sin, redeeming them by his blood. He rose from the dead and in his resurrection body ascended into heaven where he is exalted as Lord of all. He intercedes for his people in the presence of the Father.
Basis of Faith: Cont’d
The Human Race
All men and women, being created in the image of God, have inherent and equal dignity and worth. Their greatest purpose is to obey, worship and love God. As a result of the fall of our first parents, every aspect of human nature has been corrupted and all men and women are without spiritual life, guilty sinners and hostile to God. Every person is therefore under the just condemnation of God and needs to be born again, forgiven and reconciled to God in order to know and please him.
Salvation
Salvation is entirely a work of God’s grace and cannot be earned or deserved. It has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ and is offered to all in the gospel. God, in his love, forgives sinners whom he calls, granting them repentance and faith. All who believe in Christ are justified by faith alone, adopted into the family of God and receive eternal life.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit has been sent from heaven to glorify Christ and to apply his work of salvation. He convicts sinners, imparts spiritual life and gives a true understanding of the Scriptures. He indwells all believers, brings assurance of salvation and produces increasing likeness to Christ. He builds up the Church and empowers its members for worship, service and mission.
The Church
The universal Church is the body of which Christ is the head and to which all who are saved belong. It is made visible in local Churches, which are congregations of believers who are committed to each other for the worship of God, the preaching of the Word, the administering of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper; for pastoral care and discipline, and for evangelism. The unity of the body of Christ is expressed within and between churches by mutual love, care and encouragement. True fellowship between churches exists only where they are faithful to the gospel.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper have been given to the Churches by Christ as visible signs of the gospel. Baptism is a symbol of union with Christ and entry into his Church but does not impart spiritual life. The Lord’s Supper is a commemoration of Christ’s sacrifice offered once for all and involves no change in the bread and wine. All its blessings are received by faith.
Marriage
Sexual intimacy is a gift from God and is to be enjoyed exclusively within the context of marriage. Marriage is, by definition, heterosexual and between one man and one woman. Marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and his Church.
The Future
The Lord Jesus Christ will return in glory. He will raise the dead and judge the world in righteousness. The wicked will be sent to eternal punishment and the righteous will be welcomed into a life of eternal joy in fellowship with God. God will make all things new and will be glorified forever.
HBC Distinctives
Our doctrinal distinctives set out the doctrines that are taught at HBC. To this end, the pastor and elders are required to have a much deeper and extensive knowledge of the Bible and this is reflected in their teaching. A more detailed summary of the Christian Faith is found in the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith which governs the teaching at Hartshill.
Baptism
We recognise that baptism is an issue upon which Christian differ. Some hold that baptism is appropriate for infants, especially in the case of the children of believing parents. Whilst we respect this view this is not the practice of Hartshill. Only believers are baptised, whether they be adults or children, and that upon a credible profession of faith.
Baptism is required in order to be a member of the church. However, an exception is granted to this requirement where a believer holds to the validity of infant-baptism and who, for this reason alone, believes they should not to be baptised as a believer. It is important that they have considered the case for believers’ baptism in the Scriptures and that despite this they continue to hold to the validity of their baptism as an infant. This exception does not apply in cases where such baptism was understood as conferring regeneration (i.e. the belief that one is born-again through baptism).
By making this exception, the Church is not accepting the validity of infant baptism as being true baptism, but is rather respecting their fellow-believer’s conscience in this matter. It is the desire of the Church that such a person would in time come to see the need to be baptised as a believer, but until that time fellowship will not be withheld or restrained.
The Lord’s Supper
We believe it is desirable that all who partake of the Lord’s Supper should have been baptised as believers in obedience to the teaching of the Scriptures, however, all those who profess to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Saviour are welcomed to partake of the Lord’s supper.
Charismatic Gifts
As a Church we believe that God is able to grant gifts to His Church for whatever He wishes to do. To divide these gifts into miraculous and non-miraculous is difficult and unhelpful. The New Testament contains more than one list of such gifts (1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12) but we believe that neither, nor both together, is an exhaustive list. Gifts such as public prayer and intercession are not mentioned, though most accept that these are spiritual gifts. In the two passages quoted, Paul’s concern is to deal with how the Church, Christ’s body, functions and how spiritual gifts should be viewed and used and therefore chooses a selection of gifts to illustrate his points.
That some gifts have ceased is evident. The Old Testament records the gifting of those constructing the tabernacle furnishings by the Spirit with the gift of “all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of artistic workmanship.” (Exodus 35:31) Why has this gift ceased? It has ceased because God is no longer building an earthly, physical tabernacle or temple. In like manner those gifts associated with the writing of Scripture have ceased as Scripture is now complete.
But then all believers presumably believe in the continuation of some gifts, for instance liberality and exhortation listed in Romans 12. The question is thus which gifts have ceased and which remain to be received and exercised.
We welcome those with charismatic beliefs to worship with us but would wish it to be understood that we do not practice the modern gifts which imply verbal inspiration, neither do we hold the present-day gift of tongues to be the same as the biblical gift. For further information please contact the pastor.
Marriage
In line with our Basis of Faith and Doctrinal Distinctives it is important that the Church and Church Members in no way condone, promote, assist, encourage, or practise adulterous or extra-marital sexual practices, whether heterosexual or homosexual.
Gender
In accordance with our Doctrinal Distinctives and the FIEC Statement of Women in Ministry, we recognize that God created us male and female and calls us to live according to our gender identity, which is inseparable from our biological sex determined at conception. Our gender may not be changed or reassigned.
