About Us
WHAT WE ARE ABOUT
We are right at the beginning of our journey. We are excited about our vision of seeing local micro-church communities established in different towns and villages across N.I., while relating to and gathering as a wider, larger community, called Collective. Come and join us on this journey.
IDENTITY
Our lives are often in constant motion. At Collective, we hope to pause, gather, and truly see one another. We meet regularly at the table—a place of nourishment, centred on relationship where space never runs out.
Collective exists to point beyond ourselves, inviting the people of our towns and villages into a living encounter with the person of Jesus through our shared life together—to be a sign and a foretaste of God’s plan for creation.
We are a collective of people from all walks and stages of life. An eclectic gathering of young and old, coming together to explore new ways of joining God’s story in our towns and villages. Our stories, backgrounds, and interests are varied. But we are held together by one common bond:
We believe that God’s grace in Jesus is the key that unlocks all of life.
So wherever you are on your spiritual journey, whether you are committed to following Jesus Christ, are skeptical, or are just mildly curious about Christianity, we welcome you.
Collective is not your typical church. We’re OK with that.
We are less like a corporation and more like a community, less like an institution and more like a family. You won’t find a huge list of programmes at Collective but you will find a gathering of people learning how to love one another and love our neighbourhoods.
Our story is about a people desiring to be centred around Christ. Many of us come from
backgrounds where our involvement in church led us to burn out in the meeting culture or disillusionment with the one day a week culture.
We seek to create real belonging for those looking for deeper spiritual meaning while equipping each other to be full-hearted disciples on mission in God’s world. We purposely keep it simple so that following Jesus stays central in our life together.
We think the world is tired of religious people who claim to believe a list of ideas when those very ideas don’t translate into any kind of personal transformation.
MORE OF OUR IDENTITY...
We see belief as a dynamic lived out within reality, which doesn’t translate well into a few paragraphs on a website. The sad truth is, there are days when our lives express our belief in God, and there are other days when our beliefs are merely empty statements we live in spite of.
Ultimately, you can find our actual beliefs in the lived out expressions of our collective lives.
The statement below is therefore merely that, a statement. It’s something you might say we’re relying on or trusting in.
And it’s something that ultimately we aspire to believe … not just in our hearts and minds, but in the way that we live in this world.
- The way of Jesus is a lifestyle of holistic healing for individuals, families, neighbourhoods and nations. To follow this way is the countercultural road of limitless forgiveness, radical acceptance, nonviolent peacemaking, abundant generosity and sacrificial love.
- Salvation isn’t a contractual relationship of filling in the right theological answers or behaving the correct way, but an ongoing covenantal relationship of integrity with our Source, Creator, God or Ultimate Reality.
- This understanding can move us away from religious systems, meritocracies or worthiness ladders as our pathway to God as we understand that union with God simply ‘is’ because of Jesus. In this way, salvation is about your NOW life, not your afterlife.
- We must never confuse the Kingdom of God with the kingdoms of this world. God’s Kingdom is power under, not power over; invitation, not coercion; service, not consumption.
- As a community of people, committed to be a benefit and blessing to the world, we welcome all persons to participate in the life of our community.
- God doesn’t cause suffering, but redeems it. And calls us to join in the work of renewing, reconciling and redeeming all things.
- The future is open and full of possibilities. We must embrace the awesome role we are invited to play in it.
WE ARE...
Collective is an inclusive Christian community where faith is less about a story to be believed as it is a life to be lived.
What we share is a growing awareness that life is a gift and what we do with it matters!
We are surrendering to love
God is Love. We envision a community where every human being awakens to this love; working in us, among us, through us and even as us. Early followers of Jesus called this “the body of Christ”.
Reality is made of, held together by, and filled with, one, ultimate, loving energy that is present in all that exists. We see this energy uniquely present in the life and person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. We are experimenting with building a community that trusts this energy, this love, this Christ, this reality, to be “all and in all”.
We are transforming in love
Love is our supreme value, which we understand to be a self-giving choice to act responsibly with justice, integrity, courage and forgiveness, believing that the world needs places that equip individuals to serve with compassion, acknowledging our differences while valuing our one-ness.
We want to embody not only a theoretical understanding of that but to consciously practice this truth in our everyday lives.
We are gathering around love
We recognise that human beings have, and always will, seek out transcendent experiences of the Holy, together in community. This helps us remember who we are, recall our origins, and seek help in becoming agents of light, life and love in our neighbourhoods and beyond. We gather together regularly to celebrate, open ourselves to further transformation, and develop and
deepen relationships.
That we may be a beneficial presence in the world
Life includes, but goes beyond our individual persons to the entire biosphere and onward to the Universe itself. Ensuring a healthy future for the entire body of life is our aim. Rather than to “hold out” for a renewed, peaceful world in an afterlife, our hope is to actively build one here and now, one that includes social and ecological justice for all races, ethnicities, abilities, socioeconomic
situations, gender identities and sexual orientations, and fosters peace through Jesus’ radical love of all humanity.
We envision a world where the tangible love, hope and power of Jesus is being expressed by his followers in every place around the world where people call home. In a world torn and ravaged by racial tension, war, genocide, disease, environmental disaster, poverty, hopelessness and conflict we see the Church defiantly standing against these things. Instead we see the people of God embodying the peace of Jesus in these broken places and following his Spirit into the world.