Who are we?

We are a community of people from a range of different backgrounds who meet together on a regular basis to enjoy one anothers company, to encourage one another in living our lives for Christ, and above all, to gather together in God’s presence to worship Him. Our hope and prayer is that God would use us to bless and serve the people of our city, and that through us, the unchanging truth about God’s grace, love and power would be made known to the men, women and children of the Northern suburbs of Adelaide. Just as God loves to welcome anyone who comes to Him through Christ, so we love to welcome anyone who is seeking to know more about Jesus Christ.

Why do we open the doors on Sunday?

There are heaps of churches around Adelaide – why don’t we all just get together? We think that is a good question to ask, but to us, it’s comparable to asking why any given family in Adelaide doesn’t join up and move in with their neighbours. We open the doors on Sunday because we share a concern for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, because we want to worship God together as His family, and because we want to hear what He has to say to us through the reading and preaching of His Word, the Bible. Most of all, we open the doors on Sunday because we love the Lord Jesus Christ, and because He has promised that wherever two or three are gathered in His name, He will be there also.

If we were to boil down all our reasons for existing and find the one thing that all of those reasons have in common, it would be this: Para Hills Presbyterian Church exists to glorify God in our local community, through declaring His love and mercy in our words, and reflecting His grace and faithfulness in our actions. Our common love and passion as a community is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the good news about Him. The Bible says and our experience confirms that He is able to set you right with God and give you a new beginning in life.

What do we believe?

If we were forced to label ourselves, we would say without shame that we are an evangelical, reformed Christian Church. Our confession, however, is that we are servants of God and followers of Jesus Christ. Our great desire is to know Jesus Christ on an ever increasing basis, and to encourage and help one another to grow in the grace and joy and knowledge of God.

We believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God, and our understanding of what the Bible teaches is accurately reflected in the Westminster Confession of Faith.

We stand together with all Christians from all times and places in holding fast to the faith expressed in the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed and (although it is lengthy and difficult to read) the Athanasian Creed.

So what's a Presbyterian? Para Hills Church is a Presbyterian Church, which comes from the New Testament Greek word, presbuteros, meaning "elder". The Bible teaches, and it is confirmed in our experience, that any person and all people who are made a part of God's church through faith in Jesus Christ receive the Holy Spirit - God Himself - who, along with many other blessings, gives certain spiritual gifts and abilities that God's people are to use in serving the Lord Jesus and one another. One such gift is the ability to be a pastor & elder.

Pastors and elders are not leaders, but they are called to fulfill a ministry of spiritual oversight among God's people, and inasmuch, to provide an example to others in following the Lord Jesus Christ. Usually, one or two of the elders in a concgregation has been trained in the Bible & theology, and is ordained as a teaching elder (although we usually refer to ministry elders as "elders", and the teaching elder as the pastor or minister). The pastor or minister is usually supported by the church on a fulltime basis to serve the spiritual needs of the congregation, and to be responsible for the worship and preaching ministry on Sundays.