Our Mission
Helping people find their way back to God, through communities growing in their Love for God and Love for People.
At Kerith we use the image of a peach to describe the culture of the community we are building.
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Welcome to our Kerith Community Church website. If we haven’t met before, my name is Simon Benham and I have the privilege of leading Kerith across our four physical sites as well as everyone that connects with us virtually wherever they are in the world.
Our vision as a church is to help people find their way back to God through communities, growing in their love for God and their love for people. We’re a family and we want to create a safe place for people to explore what it looks like to have a relationship with God and then to grow in that relationship.
We use the picture of a peach to explain the culture we want to have because we believe it’s the culture of Jesus. First of all a peach is soft on the outside, it’s very easy to get in to. There’s no skin or peel or shell to access to get through. Jesus was like that. People felt very comfortable being around Him. The poor, the marginalised, and the broken were welcomed by Him. People could come to Jesus just as they were and we want to do the same. We’re all broken people, we’re all sinners in need of a saviour but we’re also all created in the image of God with unique value and worth. Everybody matters to God and that includes you. And we want to invite you to come and join our community.
But a peach isn’t just soft. At the core is a stone which is solid and if you bite it you’re going to hurt your teeth. Jesus was never afraid to declare truth. He said that He was the only way to know God. That it’s only through Him that we can be saved and have a relationship with God. As a community we want to be unafraid to declare the truth of Jesus. To be clear about who He is and how He’s revealed through the pages of the bible. That it’s only through His death and resurrection that we can be reconciled to God. So please come and join us.
Join us on a Sunday either physically or virtually as we worship together and hear the bible being preached. Find community in a small group on a course or by just hanging out with others. And as you grow in your relationship with God, find your place to serve to help create that space for others to grow. And then finally be a force for transformation in your family, in your neighbourhood, in your job to help others find their way back to God.
Hey thanks for watching this, and if we haven’t met already, I hope we’ll get to meet some time in the near future.
A peach is first of all easy to bite into (and it tastes great!). Similarly we want to be accessible to people from all backgrounds.
We want to provide a safe place where people far from God can explore what it means to have a relationship with Him, and where people who have already chosen to follow Jesus can grow closer to Him and become more effective in serving Him.
But a peach is also very solid at its core. In the same way we want to be very clear about who we are and what we believe, never afraid to declare who Jesus is and what we believe about Him.
You can read much more about this in "The Peach and the Coconut", the book written by our Senior Pastor, Simon Benham. There is also a course on our Growth Track where you can explore what it means to be part of Kerith Community Church.
Join us in the mission and play your part in the adventure…
Come along on a Sunday
The best way to get involved is to be present! Turn up regularly to Sunday meetings, start attending a small group and other site and one church events. And invite your friends and family to join you!
Join in on Community
We know that Sundays can be a tricky time to have a good conversation with people. To explore faith, or to move on with your faith, meet new friends or connect with old ones - small groups are the answer!
Volunteer with us
Once you are used to Kerith then a great way to get to know people better is to sign up to help in on of our Sunday or midweek groups or teams. Take a look at the options on these pages.
Help Transform Society
In each of our locations we want to be a community that if we ceased to exist people around us would notice the difference. Our Revive Projects, national and international partnerships are built out of a heart to see lives transformed. Find out more on these pages.
