Christ Church Derby

“Church for people who don’t go to church”

“ Psalm 127:1-2 Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in
vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard
in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for
he grants sleep to those he loves.

“ Matthew 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

“ 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God
made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything,
but only God, who makes things grow.

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Dear Friend

‘I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it’

When Jesus makes a promise, we know he will keep it.
or so before his crucifixion, he promised that he would
his Kingdom, and that not even the powers of death
thousand years later he continues to build, the gospel
miles from Jerusalem!
Sat on a Palestinian hillside a year
bring more and more people into
and Satan could stop him. Two
now having reached Derby, 2337

Over the last couple of years a few of us have wondered about planting a new church in
Derby city centre. In a city of a quarter of a million people, where perhaps 1 or 2 per cent
are in Bible-teaching churches there seemed a great need.

The following pages are an introduction to the vision we have for Christ Church Derby.
The 3D Network is essentially a set of principles we want to shape the new church. For
example we feel passionately that the Bible tells us to engage both the mind and the
emotions, so we will look to be engaging richly with God’s word whilst also enjoying singing
his praises. Similarly we are called to look in different ‘directions’ as God’s people, so we
will aim to take the life-giving gospel out to those around us, whilst also seeking to see our
own lives transformed through discipleship.

In short we are hoping to be a church for those who don’t go to church. Firstly in the
sense that we will always be seeker-friendly and intend to make Sunday services welcoming
for the ever increasing number of people who have never been to church and know
nothing of the Bible. But secondly we don’t want church to be a place we just ‘go to’, but a
community we are part of: not one club amongst many, but our primary identity as Jesus’
disciples.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, do get in touch. We are looking
for people to support us in prayer, remembering that it is ultimately Jesus who builds a
church. And we are certainly looking for people to come! Whether you live in Derby
already or could think about moving to the city, we’d love to hear from you. There’s no one
‘type’ of person we are looking for: Jesus broke down barriers between groups through his
death on the cross. At the moment we are a small group still planning and praying, as the
timeline will show. We’d love to welcome families, retired people, students, singles: anyone
who wants to join us on the mission.

Do get in touch if you’d like more information.

Yours In Christ

Jonty Rhodes

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What is the 3D network?
The 3D network is...

three
distinctives

three three
dimensions directions

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 what are we called to believe?
At Christ Church Derby we are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ. As a result
of this we rejoice to hear his voice, primarily and authoritatively through the Bible.
Whilst learning from and sharing fellowship with Christians from many sections of
the Church, we believe the Reformed tradition most faithfully represents the
Bible’s teaching. Its emphasis on God’s grace, sovereignty and word therefore shape
our beliefs. This God of grace calls through the Gospel: the message that his son
Jesus has paid the penalty for our rebellion and risen to offer us eternal life. As
this message spread from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth the con- tent
remained the same, whilst the style of presentation and worship adapted to each
new culture. We will try and follow the same pattern in Derby city centre.

three
distinctives

three
dimensions
In the Bible people are changed from the
heart outwards: the Gospel is meant to
affect us in every way. It should shape our
minds, emotions and actions. There should be
no gap between joyful praise of God and
serious study of his word, or between
sacrificial, radical living and deep, reflective
thinking.
three
directions
There are three different ‘directions’ we are called
to look to as Christians. Firstly we are called to
look up, and to live for the glory of God in all we
do . Then we are told to look out, to transform
the world around us, through evangelism and the
cultural mandate. Lastly we are told to look
inside, to our own spiritual renewal and growth A
healthy church will seek to look in each of these
directions.

what are we called what are we called

to be? to do?

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 God is sovereignly in control of all
creation, and has the right to be
acknowledged over every area of life. He
graciously calls us and enables us to live
for his glory in all spheres, with no
spiritual-secular divide.

reformed

three
distinctives
gospel-driven culturally-engaged

Through the (penal substitutionary) death and
resurrection of Jesus, God has offered
salvation to the world. There is no-one beyond
the reach or the need of his grace. This
Gospel is the means through which God calls
us to himself, and the means by which he
disciples his children. (Col 2:6-7)
The content of the Gospel never changes,
but its presentation is shaped by the
surrounding culture. Whilst maintaining
its full authority, we are to make it as
easy as possible for those around us to
hear and receive God's Word. Likewise
worship will be shaped by the twin
principles of this unchangeable Word and
our flexible culture' (1 Cor 9:19-23)

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 The Gospel and Christian faith do not by-pass the
mind: in fact we are transformed by the renewing
of our minds (Rom 12:1). Faith is not an irrational
leap in the dark. We are called to be constantly
learning from God’s word, growing in our knowledge
and understanding of Him through rich and deep
preaching, teaching and personal study.

informing the mind

three
dimensions
engaging the transforming
affections the will

Our emotions and affections are given to
us by God so we can delight in Him. We
will look to grow in our love and enjoyment
of God, over- flowing in praise and
thanksgiving. (Phil 4:4)
One of the signs of real faith is a
transformed life. We will look to be
always changing our lifestyle to bring it
closer into line with Jesus. Faith
without works is dead (James 2:17)

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 ‘Look up’. The ultimate purpose of the
cosmos is to bring glory to God.
God allows us to enjoy this glory, and
our primary goal is to see Him honoured
(Rom 11:36, 1 Cor 10:31).

God glorifying

three
directions
personal renewal world transforming

‘Look inside’. We are called to be constantly
renewing ourselves, through repentance and
faith. Standing still as a follower of Jesus is
impossible, he is always shaping and changing
us by his Spirit (2Cor 3:18).
‘Look outwards’ Jesus sends his
followers to make disciples of all
nations. By proclaiming the gospel and
transforming our society we are to love,
serve and challenge the world around us
(Mat 28:18-20, Gen 1:28).

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 The Gospel Coalition
Confessional Statement
Here is the confessional statement we will be following as a church. Agreement to this statement is
necessary for the core team, the launch team and for membership Christ Church Derby after launch. The
statement is also available to read online at http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/ where you can also find out
more about the Gospel Coalition.
1.
The Tri-une God We believe in one God, eternally
existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, who know, love, and glorify one
another. This one true and living God is infinitely perfect
both in his love and in his holiness. He is the Creator of all
things, visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy to
receive all glory and adoration. Immortal and eternal, he
perfectly and exhaustively knows the end from the
4.
The Fall We believe that Adam, made in the image of God,
beginning, sustains and sovereignly rules over all things, and
providentially brings about his eternal good purposes to
redeem a people for himself and restore his fallen
creation, to the praise of his glorious grace.
2.
Revelation God has graciously disclosed his existence
and power in the created order, and has supremely
revealed himself to fallen human beings in the person of
his Son, the incarnate Word. Moreover, this God is a
speaking God who by his Spirit has graciously disclosed
himself in human words: we believe that God has inspired
the words preserved in the Scriptures, the sixty-six books
of the Old and New Testaments, which are both record
5.
The Plan of God We believe that from all eternity God
and means of his saving work in the world. These writings
alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God, which
is utterly authoritative and without error in the original
writings, complete in its revelation of his will for salvation,
sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do,
and final in its authority over every domain of knowledge
to which it speaks. We confess that both our finitude and
our sinfulness preclude the possibility of knowing God’s
truth exhaustively, but we affirm that, enlightened by the
Spirit of God, we can know God’s revealed truth truly. The
6.
The Gospel We believe that the gospel is the good news of
Bible is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it
teaches; obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires;
and trusted, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises. As
God’s people hear, believe, and do the Word, they are
equipped as disciples of Christ and witnesses to the
gospel.
3.
Creation of Humanity We believe that God created
human beings, male and female, in his own image. Adam
and Eve belonged to the created order that God himself
declared to be very good, serving as God’s agents to care
for, manage, and govern creation, living in holy and devoted
fellowship with their Maker. Men and women, equally made
in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in
Christ Jesus and are both called to move beyond passive
self-indulgence to significant private and public
engagement in family, church, and civic life. Adam and Eve
were made to complement each other in a one-flesh
7.
The Redemption of Christ We believe that, moved by
union that establishes the only normative pattern of sexual
relations for men and women, such that marriage
ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ
and his church. In God’s wise purposes, men and women
are not simply interchangeable, but rather they
complement each other in mutually enriching ways. God
ordains that they assume distinctive roles which reflect
the loving relationship between Christ and the church, the
husband exercising headship in a way that displays the
caring, sacrificial love of Christ, and the wife submitting to
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her husband in a way that models the love of the church for
her Lord. In the ministry of the church, both men and women
are encouraged to serve Christ and to be developed to their
full potential in the manifold ministries of the people of God.
The distinctive leadership role within the church given to
qualified men is grounded in creation, fall, and redemption and
must not be sidelined by appeals to cultural developments.
distorted that image and forfeited his original blessedness—
for himself and all his progeny—by falling into sin through
Satan’s temptation. As a result, all human beings are alienated
from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being (e.g.,
physically, mentally, volitionally, emotionally, spiritually) and
condemned finally and irrevocably to death—apart from
God’s own gracious intervention. The supreme need of all
human beings is to be reconciled to the God under whose
just and holy wrath we stand; the only hope of all human
beings is the undeserved love of this same God, who alone
can rescue us and restore us to himself.
determined in grace to save a great multitude of guilty sinners
from every tribe and language and people and nation, and to
this end foreknew them and chose them. We believe that God
justifies and sanctifies those who by grace have faith in Jesus,
and that he will one day glorify them—all to the praise of his
glorious grace. In love God commands and implores all
people to repent and believe, having set his saving love on
those he has chosen and having ordained Christ to be their
Redeemer.
Jesus Christ—God’s very wisdom. Utter folly to the world,
even though it is the power of God to those who are being
saved, this good news is Christological, centering on the cross
and resurrection: the gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not
proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed
if his death and resurrection are not central (the message is
“Christ died for our sins . . . [and] was raised”). This good
news is biblical (his death and resurrection are according to
the Scriptures), theological and salvific (Christ died for our
sins, to reconcile us to God), historical (if the saving events
did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins,
and we are to be pitied more than all others), apostolic (the
message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles,
who were witnesses of these saving events), and intensely
personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly,
individual persons are saved).
love and in obedience to his Father, the eternal Son became
human: the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human
being, one Person in two natures. The man Jesus, the
promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the
miraculous agency of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the
virgin Mary. He perfectly obeyed his heavenly Father, lived a
sinless life, performed miraculous signs, was crucified under
Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead on the third day,
and ascended into heaven. As the mediatorial King, he is
seated at the right hand of God the Father, exercising in
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 heaven and on earth all of God’s sovereignty, and is our plunders Satan’s dark kingdom and regenerates and renovates
High Priest and righteous Advocate. We believe that by his through repentance and faith the lives of individuals rescued
incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus from that kingdom. It therefore inevitably establishes a new
Christ acted as our representative and substitute. He did community of human life together under God.
this so that in him we might become the righteousness of

11.

God’s New People We believe that God’s new covenant
God: on the cross he canceled sin, propitiated God, and, by people have already come to the heavenly Jerusalem; they are
bearing the full penalty of our sins, reconciled to God all already seated with Christ in the heavenlies. This universal
those who believe. By his resurrection Christ Jesus was church is manifest in local churches of which Christ is the only
vindicated by his Father, broke the power of death and Head; thus each “local church” is, in fact, the church, the
defeated Satan who once had power over it, and brought household of God, the assembly of the living God, and the pillar
everlasting life to all his people; by his ascension he has and foundation of the truth. The church is the body of Christ,
been forever exalted as Lord and has prepared a place for the apple of his eye, graven on his hands, and he has pledged
us to be with him. We believe that salvation is found in no himself to her forever. The church is distinguished by her gospel
one else, for there is no other name given under heaven message, her sacred ordinances, her discipline, her great
by which we must be saved. Because God chose the lowly mission, and, above all, by her love for God, and by her
things of this world, the despised things, the things that are members’ love for one another and for the world. Crucially, this
not, to nullify the things that are, no human being can ever gospel we cherish has both personal and corporate
boast before him—Christ Jesus has become for us dimensions, neither of which may properly be overlooked.
wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness, Christ Jesus is our peace: he has not only brought about peace
and redemption. with God, but also peace between alienated peoples. His


8.

The Justification of Sinners We believe that Christ, purpose was to create in himself one new humanity, thus
by his obedience and death, fully discharged the debt of all making peace, and in one body to reconcile both Jew and
those who are justified. By his sacrifice, he bore in our Gentile to God through the cross, by which he put to death
stead the punishment due us for our sins, making a their hostility. The church serves as a sign of God’s future new
proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice on our world when its members live for the service of one another
behalf. By his perfect obedience he satisfied the just and their neighbors, rather than for self-focus. The church is the
demands of God on our behalf, since by faith alone that corporate dwelling place of God’s Spirit, and the continuing
perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ witness to God in the world.
alone for their acceptance with God. Inasmuch as Christ

12.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper We believe that baptism
was given by the Father for us, and his obedience and and the Lord’s Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus himself.
punishment were accepted in place of our own, freely and The former is connected with entrance into the new covenant
not for anything in us, this justification is solely of free community, the latter with ongoing covenant renewal. Together
grace, in order that both the exact justice and the rich they are simultaneously God’s pledge to us, divinely ordained
grace of God might be glorified in the justification of means of grace, our public vows of submission to the once
sinners. We believe that a zeal for personal and public crucified and now resurrected Christ, and anticipations of his
obedience flows from this free justification. return and of the consummation of all things.


9.

The Power of the Holy Spirit We believe that this

13.

The Restoration of All Things We believe in the
salvation, attested in all Scripture and secured by Jesus personal, glorious, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ
Christ, is applied to his people by the Holy Spirit. Sent by with his holy angels, when he will exercise his role as final
the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Judge, and his kingdom will be consummated. We believe in the
Jesus Christ, and, as the “other” Paraclete, is present with bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust—the unjust
and in believers. He convicts the world of sin, to judgment and eternal conscious punishment in hell, as our
righteousness, and judgment, and by his powerful and Lord himself taught, and the just to eternal blessedness in the
mysterious work regenerates spiritually dead sinners, presence of him who sits on the throne and of the Lamb, in the
awakening them to repentance and faith, baptizing them new heaven and the new earth, the home of righteousness. On
into union with the Lord Jesus, such that they are justified that day the church will be presented faultless before God by
before God by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus the obedience, suffering and triumph of Christ, all sin purged
Christ alone. By the Spirit’s agency, believers are renewed, and its wretched effects forever banished. God will be all in all
sanctified, and adopted into God’s family; they participate and his people will be enthralled by the immediacy of his
in the divine nature and receive his sovereignly distributed ineffable holiness, and everything will be to the praise of his
gifts. The Holy Spirit is himself the down payment of the glorious grace.
promised inheritance, and in this age indwells, guides,
instructs, equips, revives, and empowers believers for
Christ-like living and service.


10.

The Kingdom of God We believe that those who have
been saved by the grace of God through union with Christ
by faith and through regeneration by the Holy Spirit enter
the kingdom of God and delight in the blessings of the
new covenant: the forgiveness of sins, the inward
transformation that awakens a desire to glorify, trust, and
obey God, and the prospect of the glory yet to be
revealed. Good works constitute indispensable evidence of
saving grace. Living as salt in a world that is decaying and
light in a world that is dark, believers should neither
withdraw into seclusion from the world, nor become
indistinguishable from it: rather, we are to do good to the
city, for all the glory and honor of the nations is to be
offered up to the living God. Recognizing whose created
order this is, and because we are citizens of God’s
kingdom, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, doing
good to all, especially to those who belong to the
household of God. The kingdom of God, already present
but not fully realized, is the exercise of God’s sovereignty
in the world toward the eventual redemption of all
creation. The kingdom of God is an invasive power that

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While our vision is to start a church in Derby that’s for the benefit of the whole city. we have to locate it
somewhere. Our aim is to start a church in the West side of Derby near Friar Gate. There are a number of
reasons for this: there are few Bible teaching churches in the area, it’s an area of great diversity (small
businesses, bars, restaurants, students, flats, established housing). We want to be a church for the whole city
but through our ministries seek to reach the West Side of Derby especially.

East Midlands

Derby

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West Derby

Friar Gate

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 Derby
Statistics
Here are some statistics from the 2001 UK census, comparing the West Side of Derby with the city as a
whole to show the demographic of the area.

Derby population: 237,000

Less than 1% in Bible teaching churches

Age Range
West Derby % Derby %
0-17 20 20
18-25 20 8
25-29 8 7
30-44 20 20
45-50 17 17

Living Status
West Derby % Derby %
Living Alone 27 16
Living Alone Pensioner 18 15
Married No Kids 10 12
Married With Kids 12 16
Living Together No Kids 7 5
Living Together With Kids 3 3
Lone Parent With Kids 5 7
Student 2 0.5
21% Full time or part time students in local wards

Religion
West Derby % Derby %
Claiming Christian 67 67
Muslim 0.8 4.5
Sikh 0.5 3
Hindu 0.6 0.6
No Religion 21 16
Not Stated 8 8

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 The team that meets week

Diary
by week to plan and pray
through the strategy for
Start meeting as a ‘Core Team’ the church plant.
Jan Here’s a rough diary of
events prior to launch in
October 2010.

February 27-8 Church Plant Launch Weekend at

Feb Duffield including gift day.
Launch Christ Church Derby website

March

Open meeting to gather ‘Launch Team’ The wider team not as

Possible ‘Core Team’ weekend away intensively involved in the
April
planning, but committed to
the launch of the church.

May

June

July

Aug

‘Practice’ launch
Sept

Launch! Start public meeting

Oct

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 Q&A
Who is planting the Christ Church Derby is being planted by St Alkmunds in Duffield. The
church? leaders at St Alkmunds believe that church planting should be a high priority
in the life of their church. Part of their 10 year plan is, with God’s strength to
plant 2 new church congregations. Christ Church Derby is the first of those
new churches.

Will it be an Anglican No. Christ Church Duffield will not be part of the Anglican Communion and
church? will have a different form of church government. We will seek to appoint
elders and deacons to run the church with a formal membership system.

Are you aiming to

reach a specific local
community?

Is it going to be a
church just for young
people?