Paul's values

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• Faithfulness - to glorify Christ in every opportunity He gives and to be true to the divinely inspired Scriptures.​​

• Love - to serve others sincerely with the love Christ has shown me so I convey grace as well as truth.​

• Unity - to promote unity under Christ's Lordship, in the gospel by the Spirit’s power.

 

These values are worked out in the ethical principles and commitments in Paul's Code of Conduct in Ministry.

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Paul's core beliefs

 

Paul holds to the core historic beliefs of the Christian faith derived from Scripture and summarised in statements like the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed and the Statement of Faith of the World Evangelical Alliance. His own summary of these beliefs follows:

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• God is three in one, Father, Son, and Spirit, eternally existent creator of all, sovereign over all, and ultimate restorer of all things, glorious in truth and holiness, love and faithfulness.

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• Human beings are descended from Adam, created male and female in God’s image and loved by God, but fallen in sin, facing God's wrath and justice, deserving condemnation to death and the punishment of Hell, and hopeless without God's salvation.

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• Holy Scripture comprises the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, God’s self-revelation breathed out and recorded by people in words as the Spirit guided them through which God rules and guides God's people, entirely true and trustworthy and authoritative for our beliefs and behaviour.

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• Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary, the fulfilment of  God's promises to Abraham, fully human and fully God, lived a sinless life, was crucified for our sins, rose from the dead in a glorified body, ascended to His Father's side, where He is enthroned as Lord over all, and will return again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

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• Salvation is God’s gracious gift to human beings of forgiveness of sins, deliverance from death, inclusion among God's people, the empowerment for a transformed life, and participation in God's glorious future on the sole basis of Christ’s atoning death as our substitute, bearing God's wrath in our place, received through faith alone.

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• The Holy Spirit is fully God, sent to regenerate all who trust in Christ and to make a permanent home in their lives, to form them into one people of God, to equip and empower them to do God's work and serve together in for God’s mission in the world, and to produce Christ-like character in them individually and corporately.

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• The Church is the body of Christ, one in the Spirit and called to grow towards Christ-like unity in the faith entrusted to all God's people by Christ's apostles who are its foundation, to continue Jesus’ mission of demonstrating and declaring the good news of God’s rule made present in Jesus Christ, and to be the present manifestation of God's new creation.

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• The end of this age will come about when Jesus Christ returns in glory, when he will judge the living and the dead, defeat all the remaining enemies of God, bring God's people to live in resurrected bodies like his own in the a renewed heavens and earth, and consign those who have rejected him eternally to the second death.

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Paul also finds the five classic solae of the Reformation a powerful summary of the most important theological principles:

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• Solus Christus (Christ alone) - the Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect revelation of God, the only Saviour for sinful human beings and Lord over all.

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• Sola gratia (grace alone) - every good thing we possess is a gift of God's grace and salvation from our sins is all by the grace of God, not through our merit, but because of what Christ achieved in His life, death and resurrection

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• Sola fide (faith alone) - the grace of God in salvation and sanctification becomes effective in our lives through faith in Him not because of our efforts, but simply by humble dependence upon God.

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• Soli Deo gloria (God's glory alone) - all that we say and do should be pleasing to God, motivated by reverence and love for Him, and for His glory alone. 

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• Sola scriptura (Scripture alone) - the Bible has authority over all other sources of knowledge or understanding iand can make us wise for salvation through Christ and guide us in knowing what it means to live for God's glory alone.

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In summary, these solas say that we are saved by Christ alone, because of grace alone, received through faith alone, for God's glory alone, according to the Scriptures alone.

 

These principles underpin Paul's approach to ministry: Christ-centred, gospel-shaped and Bible-based.