Statement of Faith
God
We believe that He exists eternally in three co-equal persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that these three are one God, and that He is sovereign in creation, redemption, providence and judgement.
The Bible
We believe in its divine inspiration and infallibility as originally given and its authority and sufficiency not only as containing but in itself being the word of God and our sole authority in matters of faith and conduct.
Mankind
We believe in the sinfulness of human nature as a consequence of the fall in Eden and the necessity for all people to be born again.
The Lord Jesus Christ
We believe in His true and proper deity, His virgin birth, His real and perfect humanity, His vicarious sufferings and death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension into heaven, and His present priestly intercession for His people.
Salvation
We believe in the justification of the sinner solely by faith in the atoning work of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His death on the cross.
The Church
We believe that the local church consists of all those, chosen in Christ, who have been born again by the Holy Spirit and made new creatures in Christ; that the local church has liberty under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to interpret the laws of Christ and is thus sufficient under Him for the ordering of its life in obedience to His will.
The Ordinances
We believe in the observance of believers baptism by immersion as a divinely ordained institution, but not as conveying any regenerating grace, and the observation of the Lord’s Supper as a commemoration of our Lord’s death, but not as being a sacrifice for sin, nor as involving any change of substance of the bread and wine.
Eschatology
We believe in the resurrection of the body, the judgement of the whole world by our Lord Jesus, the eternal bliss of the righteous, the eternal punishment of the wicked, and the personal return of our Lord Jesus Christ in glory.
A copy of our full statement of faith is available on request.
Worship
At Buckingham we believe that the right way to worship God is governed by God Himself (Deut. 12:32); and so, we believe that worship should be God-centred, not man-centred, and that our worship should be done in a way that first and foremost pleases Him and not ourselves.
The Bible makes it clear that we are to worship in ‘spirit’ and in ‘truth’ (John 4:23-24) and this guides our worship here at Buckingham.
Our worship is focused on being in reverence and awe of who God is and who we are and how we should approach Him in our worship: in the right spirit of being sinners coming into the presence of Holy God. Such reverence is not at all incompatible with a joyful spirit, this too being an essential element of acceptable worship (Psalm 100:1-2).
Our worship is centred around God’s Word (being the truth) and the preaching of it and singing hymns in accordance with that truth.
Our main meetings are on a Sunday, described in the Bible as the Lord’s Day (Revelation 1:10), in honour of the Saviour’s rising from the dead on the first day of the week. Along with our midweek meeting for Bible study and prayer, we regard these times of corporate worship as our joyful duty, not to be missed without good reason (Hebrews 10:25).
Our church hymnbooks are Christian Hymns (original) and our own hymn supplement.
Our church Bible is the New King James version.