Love-Essex
Values
Love-Essex is the vision of a team of Christians who love Jesus and love their County. The Love-Essex team is dedicated to helping you rediscover the real truth of Jesus Christ. So much of popular understanding of Christ is, unfortunately, urban myth presented by our media and educational institutions. We want to show you the true picture.
We will treat the people of Essex with respect and our goal is to see its reputation redefined. It’s time attitudes changed.
We believe in the inherent value of all human beings regardless of colour, ethnicity, gender, creed or, indeed, county, that God created all humankind in his own image1.
We will present a God who we believe is a God of love and has called us to love those with whom we come into contact without discrimination. Atheist Richard Dawkins challenged this idea, demanding that the principle of “love your neighbour”2 was restricted to patriotic ‘in groups’3. The old Jewish Law made it clear that ‘foreigners’ were to be loved in the same way as their own people4, and Jesus even extended the teaching to include “loving our enemies”5.
We believe that Jesus Christ did not come into this world to create a religious sect of self-righteous elite but to call the honest, humble and open-minded. Jesus himself made it quite clear: “I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners6“.
We are not here to pass judgement on you or condemn you. We believe God sent Jesus into the world not to judge it, but to save it7. Jesus did not judge the world so neither do we. And “the world” certainly includes the county of Essex.
Christianity cannot be ‘forced’ on you. True faith is a deeply personal matter and genuine belief must come “from the heart”8. Any attempt to ‘brainwash’ would therefore be self-defeating. We believe in freedom of conscience and respect your freewill.
You don’t have to wait for a Love-Essex event to discuss these values. Email or give us a call and we can put you in touch with Christians in your area who would love to chat with you, even if you want to challenge or criticise these ideas. We welcome a robust debate!
Contact us today.
1. Genesis 1:27
2. Leviticus 19:8
3. The God Delusion (2006) Richard Dawkins
4. Leviticus 19:34
5. Matthew 5:43-44
6. 1. Mark 2:17 New Living Translation
7. John 3:17
8. Romans 10:9
Christianity.
Isn’t it just weird?
Aren’t Christians just a bunch of dinosaurs hanging on to an outdated worldview? Isn’t it all a superstition disproved by science? Isn’t Jesus just a mythological figure? The fact you have got as far as reading this suggests you are not prepared to accept those popularly held beliefs without checking it out for yourself.
40% of of the British public believe Jesus of Nazareth didn’t even exist*. On the other hand, talk to the professionals and you’ll get an entirely different view. New Testament scholars, historians, classicists and archeologists – even agnostic or secular experts – are almost unanimously agreed that he not only existed but, unlike the fashionable message of films like The DaVinci Code, belief in Jesus as the Son of God and his bodily resurrection was held by the first Christians from the outset.
We believe the Bible is reliable. Surprisingly, it’s not just Christians who believe this. Respected New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman – who identifies as an ‘agnostic leaning towards atheism’ – accepts extensive portions of the NT as historically accurate.
We would respectfully invite you to challenge your view of Christianity and make your personal, objective search. We believe the evidence demands a verdict.
*The survey of more than 4,000 people was commissioned by the Church of England, Hope – which represents churches of all denominations – and the Evangelical Alliance – which represents evangelical Christians in the UK.
I am not ashamed of the good news of Christ
