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Our Purpose
As a charitable company the formal purpose of Cross-Links Dover, as an expression of the Christian Faith is:
- To provide or assist in the provision of facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation or other leisure time occupation of individuals who have need to such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disability, financial hardship or social circumstances with the object of improving their conditions of life;
- To advance education and training in particular but not exclusively in appropriate transferable skills to increase a person’s chances of gaining employment; and
- The advancement of the Christian religion for the benefit of the public in accordance with the statements of belief of the United Reformed Church (URC), the Church of England (C of E), the Methodist Church and any other Christian church in communion with them.
For the benefit of the public in the Dover District in particular, but not exclusively, the Buckland Estate.
Our Vision
Our Vision is to be a church in the heart of Buckland which acts as a beacon of Christ’s love for all. We believe that the Good News of Jesus’ message of love and hope is as relevant for people today as it has ever been.
Our Mission
We seek to communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ and bring God’s kingdom to the community through acts of love and kindness.
Our Values
As Christians we will communicate the Good News of Jesus within the framework of our values:
- Authenticity, Love & Respect – being authentic in showing loving kindness and respect to everyone irrespective of their beliefs or personal circumstances in a non-judgemental way.
- Accountability & Integrity – being appropriately accountable in all that we do whilst maintaining integrity in the manner in which we conduct ourselves.
Our Strategy
In being church it is our strategy to grow towards maturity within our vision and in keeping with our context. There are two strands to our strategy and so we will do this by:
A) Building Church
Working alongside other local churches we will strive to reach out in love to people of faith and no faith alike. As we build a community of disciples the following principles will be at the heart of all we do:
- Love and kindness - to give and receive love and kindness in our relationship with God and others.
- Encountering God - to encounter the fullness of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- Evangelism - sharing our faith through presence, action and word in order to draw others to Jesus. Helping every Christian to develop as a witness, and to do it seriously, continuously and strategically in very simple step-by-step ways.
- Discipleship - for everyone to become involved; sharing, learning and growing together as an integral part of the local community. Encouraging all to discover and pursue their unique gifts, talents and abilities.
As a church we are an engaging faith community driven by our faith in Jesus to serve others and so the second strand of our strategy is:
B) Community Development
Working as part of a common effort dedicated to increasing the strength and effectiveness of community life, improving local conditions especially for people in disadvantaged situations; and enabling people to achieve greater long-term control over their circumstances. In doing this we will model good community development by:
working in partnership with others. sharing our learning, experience and best practice with others. learning from the wisdom and experience of others. Strategic Priorities
We will reflect the strategic vision and priorities of our sponsoring churches/ denominations at both regional and a local level; particularly:
We will seek to reflect the vision and priorities for the local community in support of regional and local strategic policies as produced by:
- Kent County Council (KCC).
- Dover District Council (DDC).
- Dover Local Children’s Services Partnership (LCSP).
- Buckland Together.
Key criteria
We will approach and evaluate our work using community development principles against these related criteria:
Christian Ethos
The Christian ethos of Cross-Links Dover is the motivation for all our work – it is the reason why we do what we do. It is rooted in our faith in Jesus Christ and in his love, which compels us to serve others, putting their needs first.
In serving others we work together to extend Jesus’ model of the Kingdom of God on earth by living out a lifestyle of love, truth, justice, mercy and forgiveness, according to his teaching. We are inspired by his message, life and example through which God’s unconditional love for all people is expressed.
As Christians we believe that Jesus Christ has the power to transform communities and individual people, bringing about positive regeneration. We want to show people we meet how this can happen through the manner in which we form relationships in the community as people who have a strong Christian faith rooted in our own personal experience of life. We will seek to do this in a manner that would not show prejudice, partiality or discrimination. We recognise that Jesus brought about transformation through the impact of his presence, actions and words – we therefore seek to form relationships in the community and follow Jesus’ pattern of ministry (presence, action, word).
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