Dock Resource Kit

Sunday sermon, 14 September 2025

Summary

This week Phil continued our Vision and Values series, looking at the heartbeat that shapes everything we do at SPS. From Acts 2, he unpacked our five values — Presence, Participation, Party, Partnership, and Planting — showing how they ground us in God’s Word, shape our culture, and call us to live with joy, unity, and generosity as we pursue our vision together.

Key Points & Takeways

• Presence — God shows up, and so do we. His presence is our power, our comfort, and our direction. Our presence with one another creates a community where no one is alone.

• Participation — it’s all hands on deck. Church isn’t a spectator sport. Everyone has a role to play, and when each person brings their gifts, the whole body thrives.

• Party — the Spirit of Joy. Joy and hospitality are marks of the gospel. When we celebrate, welcome, and share food, we witness to the goodness of God.

• Partnership — building His Kingdom, not ours. We are better together. Unity multiplies impact, and when the church is united, the world is pointed to Jesus.

• Planting — giving away things that grow. Generosity is at the heart of growth. Life comes through sacrifice, and the kingdom of God expands when we give things away.

Dock Discussion Questions

1. Presence
   Where have you experienced God’s presence recently, and how can we grow as a community that “shows up” for one another?

2. Participation

   What gifts has God given you that you could use more fully in the life of the church? What holds you back from stepping in?

3. Party
   How can we use joy, hospitality, and celebration to make the gospel visible in our homes, workplaces, and community?

4. Partnership

   Who are the people or groups outside of SPS that God might be calling us to partner with, and what might that look like in practice?

5. Planting

   Planting always costs. What would it mean for you to live more open-handedly — with your time, money, or home — so that others might grow

6. Final reflection

   Which of these five values do you sense God calling you to lean into most this term, and what might a first step look like?

Long-form, editted transcript

Vison & Values
How We Get There

Acts 2:42–47
1 Timothy 2:1, Exodus 33, Hebrews 10
1 Corinthians 12, Philippians 4, John 12 & 17 Ecclesiastes 4

Last week we began our new vision series, reminding ourselves of our call to Make Disciples, Transform Communities, Plant Churches. That’s the vision — that’s the what. We particularly focussed on discipleship and the battle for our attention as the thing from which everything else flows. And as ever, you can catch up or watch again online.

But today I want us to move from the what to the how. Not in a strategic planning kind of way, but the underlying values that drive everything we do here at SPS. Vision shows us where we’re going, but values decide how we get there. They carry the vision. They shape the culture. They are the way we live it out together.

To ground us, We’re going to turn to Acts 2. Because when we talk about values, we’re not just making this up. We stand in a long tradition that goes back to the very first church planted in Jerusalem by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Acts 2:42–47
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

This is the picture of the early church: a people of presence, participation, joy, unity, and generosity. Notice — the description is not about doctrine, strategies, or structures, but about their way of life. These values carried the gospel from a small upper room in Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

Here at SPS for many years we’ve talk about five values that begin with P:

Presence.
Participation.
Party.
Partnership.
Planting.

They’re not just aspirations — if you look around they are the things that shape our culture, they’re grounded in Scripture, and lived out as God’s family here in East London.

So today we’re going to look at each one. And as we do, I want to invite you to ask: which of these values do I need to lean into this term? Where is God calling me not just to nod along, but to live differently? Because values are not theory — they are practice. They are how we live the mission God has given us.

Presence

Open Acts, and the first thing you see about the early church is they were a people of presence. God’s presence broke in with power and miracles, and the people devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. In other words, God showed up — and so did they. Presence is the foundation of church.

This value is like a coin with two sides.

First, God’s presence. This is where everything begins. His presence is our power, our comfort, our direction. Everything flows from this. That’s why everything we do is built on prayer and worship. They’re not warm-ups for the “real” work — they are the real deal — prayer and worship are our foundation.

Paul wrote in his first letter to Timothy,
“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people.” This is where the kingdom breaks in, where God’s presence abounds. As Moses prayed in Exodus 33, “If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”

Without God’s presence, we have nothing.
With his presence, we have everything.

But presence also means our presence — showing up, being here, together. Hebrews 10:25 tells us, “Do not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another.”

There is no substitute for turning up.

Your marriage won’t work if you never show up at home. You can’t be a teammate if you never make it to the match. And you can’t be the church if you give up meeting together with God’s people.

If you don’t turn up, you’re not here — and that leaves a big you-shaped hole in this community.

The truth is, we live in a world that is more connected but less present than ever. We can scroll past hundreds of posts and still sit alone in our room. We can have likes on our photo but no one to celebrate with, or no one to sit with us when we’re sad.

People are desperate for presence — desperate for someone who will turn up. And church, at its best, is a community that says: we are here. God is here. You are not alone.

At SPS we’ve seen this again and again. Just recently someone wrote to me after landing in our Harbour of Hope. They weren’t coming with faith, they just knew they couldn’t do life on their own anymore. What they needed wasn’t a programme — they needed presence. God’s presence in worship and prayer. And our presence around them, week after week, coffee after coffee, saying, you belong here. And life has begun to change — they wrote that they were discovering hope again.

Presence is where it all begins.

God’s presence with us, and our presence with him, and with one another.

If you don’t turn up, you’re not here. And if he doesn’t turn up, we’re wasting our time. But when his presence meets our presence — when we all show up together — the kingdom of God breaks in and anything is possible.

So, value one:
Presence — God shows up, and so do we.

Participation

Acts 2 shows us a people of presence — and it also shows us that church was never meant to be a spectator sport — They devoted themselves to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayer. They shared possessions, opened their homes.

Everyone was involved.
Everyone played their part.
It was all hands on deck.

That’s why at SPS we talk about participation.

This isn’t a church where a few people do the work and everyone else watches. We practice what the Bible calls the priesthood of all believers. Every follower of Jesus is filled with the Spirit and called to ministry.

In his first letter to the church in Corinth Paul writes that the church is like a body: many parts, one body. The eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” And the hand can’t say to the foot, “I don’t need you.”

Every part is needed. Every gift matters.

We had a great result in the football this week — England 5, Serbia 0 in the World Cup qualifiers. But imagine if only three of our players had turned up on the pitch and the rest of the squad just sat in the stands. The result would have been very different — we’d never win a game. The church is the same. You can’t be the body of Christ with only a few people playing while everyone else spectates. We are the church. Together.

Participation matters. When you step in to serve — joining a Dock, opening your home, praying with someone, or giving your time and creativity — you step into your calling as part of the body. And when you play your part, the whole body grows stronger.

And the beautiful thing is, when you begin to serve, you often discover gifts you didn’t know you had. You begin to realise God can use you in ways you never expected.

Many of you will know Gonzalo. He connected with us through our livestream and moved here from Paraguay to study, and jumped straight into Alpha. He didn’t really know what he was signing up for, but he wanted to participate — and soon found himself having incredible conversations about life, meaning, and faith in Jesus. Fast forward a year, and last week we prayed for Gonzalo as he returns to Paraguay this month — now connected with the Alpha International team, resourced and full of faith to run Alpha in a country that has never really hosted it before. All because he turned up and took a simple step of participation.

At SPS we’re an “all hands on deck” kind of church. Everyone gets to a part to play. Everyone has a gift to bring. Because we don’t go to church. We are the church. And when we all participate, the body of Christ doesn’t just survive — it thrives.

That’s value two:
Participation — it’s all hands on deck.

Party

Back to Acts 2 we see the early church:

“They ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people.”

In other words — they knew how to party.

Joy was at the heart of the community of Jesus. They broke bread in homes, they celebrated what God was doing, they rejoiced together.

At SPS we say one of our values is party — because church should be full of joy.

Paul writes in Philippians 4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice!” We don’t need an excuse to celebrate, because we are people with good news — always.

So when you think church, think barbecues, cake, music, fun — because there is always something to celebrate when God is at work. And that’s why at SPS you’ll almost always find coffee, food, dancing — we really value this stuff.

And the thing is — parties aren’t just about fun. They are about hospitality. They are about invitation and welcome.

One of the most encouraging moments of my year is always just after our BIG SPS Summer Garden Party, when Alison Jones gathers the thank-yous and quotes from those she’s brought along. If you didn’t know Alison is an amazing inviter — especially caring for those from our local Asian communities, and getting alongside refugees.

She often shares responses like:

• “This is the first time I’ve ever been to a church — and I felt I belonged.”

• “I’m Muslim and Bengali, but no one minded — and the teenagers running the games were brilliant with my son who has autism.”

• “This is what our community needs — a place to meet others and enjoy fun.”

And out of that sense of community, those parties, people have gone on to come into worship on Sundays or to Alpha, to serve at the night shelter, to discover the gym and the no-strings-attached health and wellbeing programmes we run. And lives are changed.

That’s the power of parties.

Because when we party, we witness to the joy of the gospel. When we celebrate, we proclaim that God is good. When we open our tables, we declare that everyone has a place. Church is not meant to be boring and joyless — it is meant to be a foretaste of heaven — the greatest party of all.

So yes — we throw parties. We celebrate. We laugh. We eat. We welcome. Because the kingdom of God is joy in the Holy Spirit.

Presence.
Participation.
Party — the Spirit of Joy.

Partnership

Acts 2 closes with this: “All the believers were together and had everything in common… and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

The early church was marked by radical unity. They didn’t try to build their own little empires. They shared life. They worked together. And the fruit was multiplication.

At SPS we call this value partnership. The truth is, we are better together. We don’t exist to build our own brand or to compete with other churches. We exist to build the Kingdom of God — and that means working with others. Those who are like us, and those who aren’t.

Partnership means choosing unity.

This is what the world needs to see. It’s been a dark week. We must refuse to demonise difference. We reject political violence, toxic nationalism, and the tribalism that tears people apart. Instead, we choose to move in a different Spirit. That is the church’s call — to live out a partnership that points people to the peace and love of Christ.

Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would be one, so that the world may believe.

Partnership isn’t a nice extra — it is absolutely mission-critical.

When the church is divided, the world grieves. When the church unites, the world believes.

Fifteen years ago, a handful of churches in Tower Hamlets launched the GrowTH winter night shelter. No single church could have pulled it off alone. But together we opened doors, cooked meals, and offered beds to dozens of homeless guests. And 15 years later, in just this last 6 month season, 140 men and women were given a safe place to sleep, 6000 meals were cooked, and countless lives were touched with the love of Jesus. That’s the power of partnership.

Recently, we’ve also begun working with other local churches to create a network of Tower Tots groups. Not just one church running a stay-and-play, but all of us sharing resources. Now there are 12 sessions running weekly across the borough, serving hundreds of young families. And because we’re working together, the council has taken note — now they’re inviting us to the table when they discuss family care. That’s the power of partnership.

And it’s not only churches. We want to partner with schools, charities, community groups, and organisations across our city.

Because partnership multiplies impact. Ecclesiastes 4 reminds us that two are better than one — together we can do more, reach further, love deeper.

So at SPS, partnership is one of our core values, because we know we can’t do this alone. We need each other, we’re not building our kingdom, but God’s.

Are you still with me?

Presence — God shows up, and so do we.
Participation — it’s all hands on deck.
Party — the Spirit of Joy.
Partnership — building His Kingdom, not ours.

Planting

And finally planting — it’s right there in our vision: Make Disciples, Transform Communities, Plant Churches.

It’s one of the key pillars of our mission at SPS. But it is also one of our values, because planting is not just about what we do, it’s about how we do it. Planting is about generosity, living with open hands, and giving away things that grow.

That’s what the early church did. Acts 2 says, “They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” They kept releasing resources, multiplying leaders, and sending people out. The gospel spread because they didn’t cling to what they had — they gave it away.

For us, planting looks like raising up leaders, launching new congregations, sending out teams, and forging partnerships. But it also looks like a culture of generosity in the everyday. Because planting is not just something a church does — it’s something disciples do.

When you give your time to serve, you plant seeds of the kingdom. When you give your money, you plant resources that grow into ministry and mission.

And like any planting, this isn’t easy.

Planting always costs.

To plant something, you have to let go of it. You put a seed in the ground and it looks gone. But Jesus said in John 12, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

That’s a kingdom principle: life comes through sacrifice, growth comes through generosity.

We see it here at SPS. Over the years we’ve sent out leaders, launched people we dearly love, given away resources we could easily have kept. Every time it has hurt a little. But every time, God has been faithful — and more fruit has come. That’s the power of planting.

And I know this personally too — in my finances, and in giving my time and energy. Not just now that I’m ordained, but all through my life. I was so blessed with Christian parents who taught me early on that generosity is a part of our worship — giving to God’s church and his people.

One area where Charlotte and I have especially felt called to be open-handed is with our home. From our very first flat, we’ve tried to make space for others — people who needed support, care, or simply a roof over their head. Sometimes for a few weeks, sometimes a few years. Sometimes an individual, sometimes a couple, sometimes a whole family. At times it hasn’t been easy, but again and again we’ve seen God use it to bring healing and hope. Most recently, through fostering and adoption, we literally get to see someone grow before our eyes. Giving away, living generously — it really is the best, the most rewarding thing ever.

And throughout my life, whenever I’ve given — sometimes really sacrificially — I’ve found that God has always provided. More than that, I’ve had the privilege of joining in with what he’s doing and seeing things grow. That’s the power of planting.

So planting is not just part of our vision — it’s one of our values. It’s the way we choose to live: open-handed, generous, always ready to give away what God has given us.

Because the kingdom of God grows when we plant it.

Our values

Presence — God shows up, and so do we.

Participation — it’s all hands on deck.

Party — the Spirit of Joy.

Partnership — building His Kingdom, not ours.

Planting — giving away things that grow.

They’re not just catchy words that start with P. They are the ‘how’ beneath our vision. This is how the church in Acts 2 lived. And this is how we, at St Paul’s Shadwell, are called to live.

Last week we looked at our vision — the what: Make Disciples, Transform Communities, Plant Churches. Today we’ve looked at our values — the how: the culture, the heartbeat, the way we go about it together.

And next week we’ll look at our context — the where: here in the East End, in this cultural moment, and how we’re landing well in this Harbour of Hope.

Vision. Values. Context. This is who we are. This is what we’re about. So as come back into worship, let’s devote ourselves again — like that first church in Acts — to the presence of God, to one another, to joy, to unity, to generosity. Because when we live this way, God still promises to add daily to his church those who are being saved. Amen.