We desire a simple approach to living life as the body of Christ.
We have spent time in the Fundamental Evangelical and Charismatic traditions and recognize the excesses and the beauty found in both. We have been in large churches and home churches and have experienced the challenges and benefits of both expressions of community. We have spent time as church planters, teachers, lay leaders, pastors, and missionaries. We do not write from a place of hurt or mistrust, although we have experienced both across all traditions in equal measure, but from a place of longing for unencumbered intimacy.
Through our experiences we have come to value:
Relationships and Community over Organizations and Hierarchy
Demonstrating Compassion over Experiencing Power
Celebrating all the Gifts over Centering on Teaching
Character over Performance
While there is value in the things on the right, we value the things on the left more.
We believe following a simple set of principles aligns the expression of our community with God’s intentions for the Body of Christ. These Principles are …
- Our highest priority is to continuously draw closer to our loving Father and bring others with us on the journey. (2 Corinthians 5 )
- God is not a formula to be figured out, but rather a living personality inviting us to a relationship.
- Our gifts, talents, and passions have not been given to us to support people in positions of authority but to serve people in need.
- Healthy communities are made up of mostly healthy individuals so each member should be progressing in maturity.
- The most effective way to build community is by doing life together with those who are geographically close to you.
- Community does not truly exist without accountability to each other.
- Love for each other is the distinguishing mark of Christians, not loyalty to a church organization, Christian leader, or denomination. (John 13)
- Meetings (agenda, time constraint, roles) are not the same thing as community and can often work against it.
- Communities are hosted not led.
- The Old Testament priesthood (one man standing before God for the people) has been superseded by the priesthood of all believers.
- Any creation of an organized structure or hierarchy should develop out of a specific need in the community, not preemptively. When the need is resolved, so is the structure. (Acts 6, James 1)
- Healthy communities maintain a proper relationship to the gifts given to the church by Jesus: Apostle, Prophet, Teacher, Pastor, & Evangelist. (Ephesians 4)
Our hope is that this will help fellow communities – whatever their expression – develop mature, unified, and empowered believers who are other-worldly in their love for each other and radical in their kindness to those outside the family.