Our Vision
We are a group of churches working together to give every person in Norfolk a welcoming, Christ-honouring, Bible-teaching church in their community
How? By focusing on three core ministry areas:
1. Training and Equipping
We’re not simply a fellowship of people who enjoy each other’s company, but a Partnership of churches who believe it is better, and more effective, to work together for the sake of the gospel.
2. Creating Relationships
We’re about joining together churches who are absolutely clear that the Bible is the unique and supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
3. Church Planting, Revitalisation and Mission
We want to bring together churches of different denominations, whose leaders and members can get to know each other and, wherever helpful, work together.
Aims & Values
Convinced that Christ will build his church, we are passionate about working in partnership to grow local churches through Bible-centred ministry, Uniting in prayer, Courageous evangelism, and Authentic gospel unity
Under God we aim:
- To encourage church leaders by working together
- To recruit and train church leaders
- To encourage and organise evangelistic initiatives
- To encourage gospel growth in existing churches
- To encourage and initiate the strategic planting and revitalising of new churches
- To work together for the preservation and advance of the gospel in our different denominations or affiliations
Meet the Team
Andy Rees
Andy is married to Grace and has the privilege of serving as Pastor the the church family at Surrey Chapel, Norwich. He is excited about the potential of the partnership working together to see more gospel churches, reach more communities in Norfolk reached with the great news about Jesus. In his spare time he loves watching Welsh Rugby, going to gigs, and messing around in the sea with his three daughters.
Bev Dubberley
Ever since becoming convinced at University, that Jesus is who he says he is in the Bible, Bev has been keen to help others investigate Christianity and to help Christians to communicate their faith relevantly. After University, Bev spent many years in the Midlands and then overseas in Israel, South Africa and Turkey, sharing the good news of Jesus with students. 10 years ago, she and her husband Andy, and four children, moved to Norwich and became part of the church family at Surrey Chapel. She serves as the Outreach Worker there. She has loved partnering with like-minded women from churches across Norfolk at the Equip:Women events.
Helen Slipper
Helen came to faith in Jesus in her late teens when a friend explained that acceptance by God did not depend on how good she tried to be but on what He had done for her. “Most importantly I came to understand that Jesus was God himself come to earth to die for me”.
She is married to Robert, who is a Vicar in West Norfolk. As well as supporting him in ministry and helping out with the youth and children’s work at church, Helen is a part time tennis coach in the local community. They have 2 married children and one grandchild, so far!
John Hindley
John was saved by Jesus Christ when he was a university student in Exeter, over 25 years ago. He is married to Felicity and enjoys family life as a husband and father. John is one of the elders of Broadgrace Church in Coltishall, having been part of the team that Christ used to plant this church in 2010. Before that he served as an elder in a church in Bolton and a church plant in Manchester.
Jonathan Armstrong
Jonathan became a Christian in his early teens. He studied English Literature at university and there he met his wife Fiona. It was during his career as a corporate sales manager for a global electronics company he sensed the Lord’s call on his life to train for ministry. In 2012 he completed theological training with WEST (now Union School of Theology). He has been the pastor of Diss Baptist Church for 10 years. He has 4 children.
Matthew Price
Matthew is the Vicar of St Mary Magdalene Church in Gorleston. He became a Christian at university, worked as an intellectual property lawyer in London and spent three years working with a legal aid project in Uganda, before being ordained in the Church England. He has been leading St Mary Magdalene, in the heart of the Magdalen estate in Gorleston since January 2018. Matthew is married to Anna and they have three children. Matthew also serves as the Bishop of Norwich’s Adviser for Urban and Estates Ministry.
Basis of Faith
The basis of the Partnership is that the fundamental truths of Christianity, as revealed in Holy Scripture, should govern the teaching and practice of the church.
NGP unites around our Basis of Faith. This is a statement of key points of the Christian faith that all Steering Committee members and all Partners sign annually.
All NGP Partners affirm the following:
- There is one God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
- God is sovereign in creation, revelation, redemption and final judgement.
- The Bible, as originally given, is the inspired and infallible Word of God. It is the supreme authority and sufficient in all matters of belief and behaviour.
- Since the fall, the whole of humankind is sinful and guilty, so that everyone is subject to God’s wrath and condemnation.
- The Lord Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son, is fully God; he was born of a virgin; his humanity is real and sinless; he died on the cross, was raised bodily from death and is now reigning over heaven and earth.
- Sinful human beings are redeemed from the guilt, penalty and power of sin only through the sacrificial death once and for all time of their representative and substitute, Jesus Christ, the only mediator between them and God.
- Those who believe in Christ are pardoned all their sins and accepted in God’s sight only because of the righteousness of Christ credited to them; this justification is God’s act of undeserved mercy, received solely by trust in him and not by their own efforts.
- The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners, enabling them to turn to God from their sin and to trust in Jesus Christ.
- All those who believe in Christ are baptised with the Holy Spirit, who lives in all those he has regenerated. He makes them increasingly Christlike in character and behaviour and equips them for ministry in the church and witness in the world.
- The one holy universal church is the Body of Christ, to which all true believers belong. It is made visible in local churches and unity is expressed within and between local churches by mutual love, care and encouragement.
- The Lord Jesus Christ will return in person, to judge everyone justly, to execute God’s eternal condemnation on those who have not repented and to receive the redeemed to eternal glory.
A necessary conviction to state in the current context is that we are also convinced of the need to uphold in love and with compassion the teaching of the biblical Scripture regarding gender identity, marriage and human sexual relations, understood to include the following:
- God created us male and female and calls us to live according to our gender identity which accords with our biological sex determined at conception. Our God-given gender identity cannot be changed or reassigned.
- Marriage is ordained by God for the good of mankind and for the glory of God. The only marriage approved by Scripture is that between one man and one woman, lawfully joined together in matrimony.
- Recognising both the blessing and the dangers of our God-given human capacity for sexual relations, the Scripture permits and encourages sexual relations only between two persons, one male and one female, who are married to one another, as defined above.
All other sexual relations are forbidden.
Two other documents help to guide our activities, the UK Gospel Partnerships Doctrinal Basis and the UK Gospel Partnerships Working Basis. Both these documents have been approved by the Steering Committee, and so indicate the position of the NGP on a number of issues not covered by the Basis of Faith and set out the way in which the NGP will conduct our ministry. They also provide a form of unity with the other UK Gospel Partnerships.
